In Rockman's recent fascinating threads Some Kinda Stones Connections he posts a review that refers to Martin Scorsese's recent Bob Dylan documentary in glowing terms and the reviewer declares that the forthcoming Scorsese documentary on The Rolling Stones should be "equally enthralling."


I am looking forward to the Stones doc, of course! And I liked the Dylan doc very much. Still, these are two quite different projects -- Dylan's was in the borning stage years back before Scorsese was involved and Dylan had a strong input from the beginning of how this piece of film might develop. I know that I am not alone in feeling that Scorsese was very lucky to end up with the Dylan project, where so much of the importance came from the film editors involved and the initial thinking out from Bob's end.

And the editing is also extremely vital in "Shine a Light" But one can't compare apples to apricots and I believe the Dylan doc is far more of a quality biography than the Stones doc will be. I'm expecting a lot of great musical footage but no major surprising insights or revelations.

And since I believe in artists keeping some mystique that's fine with me.

So what are your thoughts?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2007-10-15 00:33 by stonesrule.

... yes?

Sorry sssoul...I was a little slow in expressing my initial thoughts. I thought I had that "Let's Work" ethic really down this morning but it slipped away.

Pretty much agree with what youre saying

Well, theyre both very different in that one is a documentary and one is pretty much just a concert film. I dont really expect much more than that in Shine A Light.

They also differ in that they cover each artist at very different stages in their career

The Stones film will be enjoyable in its own right, but unlike NDH it covers a period when their cultural impact is decades past its peak.

I really hope we'll some day get a lengthy (ie several hours worth) quality official up to date biography on the Stones - with all of the band members' (past and present) involvement before it's too late. This won't be it, however.

I agree to your first post, Stonesrule;
..and probably most here do as well; even from the beginning of that project - most iorr-posts dealt with wishes for including as much as possible of the Beacon concerts.
If Martin really had the chance of using uncirculated, classic footage for his movie, it would be a shame to only see glimpses of it - in between interviews and Beacon songs. ANd I can't see how Martin could give us such an insight in Rolling Stones, based on the interviews backstage at Beacon.
I'm expecting a good movie...but not something in the streets of No Direction Home



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-10-15 00:53 by Erik_Snow.

They will probably be very different documentaries since The Stones and Dylan are very different artists.

"Lyin' awake in a cold, cold sweat. Am I overdrawn, am I going in debt?
It gets worse, the older that you get. No escape from the state of confusion I'm in.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-10-15 01:02 by FrankM.

sorry for rushing you earlier, stonesrule :E

i was really glad to hear Shine a Light will be a concert film rather than a "career-spanning documentary".
i'd love another great "career-spanning documentary" about the Stones someday,
but not one that tries to be both that and a concert film at the same time.
now if they'd just leave all the numbers in Shine a Light intact, that would be beautiful.
(last we heard two of them were chopped up with other footage, which sounds like a drag -
i don't know anyone who likes it when concert films interfere with the music.)
meanwhile, that review making anticipatory comparisons with NDH (or anything else) was just column-filler, no?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-10-15 01:23 by with sssoul.

I'm seeing an awful lot of "column-filler" as the Internet seems to have taken over for the Encyclopedia Brittanica and actual reading of books. Quite annoying.

yeah it can be annoying! especially when stuff whose only purpose is to serve as column-filler
gets reproduced all over the place as if it were meaningful - i mean like that "contactmusic" type junk ...
oh well - i'm off to read a book. have a good one :E

with sssoul Wrote:
> i'd love another great "career-spanning
> documentary" about the Stones someday,
> but not one that tries to be both that and a
> concert film at the same time.

agreed

I was just thinking that - it seems like it would be tough to reconcile making it both a concert movie and a documentary at the same time. I think you also have to consider that your audience isn't completely going to be Stones fans, so people are only going to sit for so long in a theater before they start looking at their watches. I personally wouldn't have a problem if it were 3 hours, but then you get pacing issues, and I think that's what Scorsese will be considering the most: giving his film good pacing and excitement, while at the same time giving an accurate depiction of what it's like to go to a Stones concert.

It'd be nice if he could do both, but I just don't see any place for any historic material unless it's at the very beginning. It seems, though, that the film should just focus on the night of the show, and not anything else. I think that has some creative merit too - just go in, watch them do their stuff, and have a good time. Scorsese's smart, I don't think he'd try to make it anything much MORE than that.

I guess we'll see come April. Man that's a long time to wait.

I loved how The Last Waltz was mixed up with scenes of the Band reflecting on their past. And the performance scenes later shot in a studio (in Burbank, I think?) with the Staple Singers and possibly others were a terrific way to add variety to the film. (It wasn't until last week thatI finally discovered the studio recording of The Band's The Weight recorded by the Staple Singers.)

Scorsese will give us something special, and yes, we have a long time to wait to see what that something special will be.

Can't say enough good things about The Band. One of the true jewels of "classic rock".

Been to many concerts, all the greats etc., but some of the music I have enjoyed most was from artists like The Band. Classy. No self-hype Great sound instrumentally and vocally.

In depth biography of the Stones is rather tricky as Mick is extremely slippery, and Keith is not very complicated