My Life as a Rolling Stone

So much great older footage and concerts. A lot of insight into their thinking. Remember, in the last 500 years of man's existence, no one has lived a greater life than Mick Jagger. Think about it. Not many people are considered gods in there lifetime. Mick is...

Elyrex, you want a different documentary, that's not a fair review in my opinion.

This is not a documentary of the rolling stones, it's a documentary within a documentary of the individual members opinion on the stones. Yeah, mentioning Taylor and Wyman in more detail might have been interesting, but what is here is great, and the personalities really come across. There's also critiscm that Richards and Ronnie are cartoon characters that add nothing. Really? They are who they are and they come across as genuine. If you don't like them fair enough, bit they are who they are. I read Richard 's biography and I didn't think he came across as likeable but so what. People are just people and that is what makes it interesting. Me, I really liked this, I didn't find it sanitised, I found it honest and interesting with some excellent footage.

The history and band dynamic of The Rolling Stones. Focusing individually on the four remaining (at time of production) members, we get to learn about their past, how they managed to stay together for 60 years and what makes them one of the greatest rock bands of all time.

A very interesting and educational documentary, and surprisingly so. I have watched scores of documentaries on the Stones and figured that this one could not possibly add to that knowledge. In addition, Mick Taylor, Brian Jones and Bill Wyman don't get any individual attention while Ronnie Wood, who joined after the Stones had peaked, gets an entire episode. It seemed pretty basic in its set up - just interview and cover the four current members - making me think this would be a dull, conventional, linear documentary.

How wrong I was. While each episode does concentrate on a single Stone it is not to the exclusion of other members or of other aspects of the Stones' history. The individual is a spine to build an aspect of the Stones' story around while giving details of their life and talents. The scene sequence is more thematic than linear, making for an interesting, entertaining journey.

Despite my misgivings, the Ronnie Wood episode is very interesting and shows the dynamic he brought to the band. It almost made me think that the Stones were better off for replacing Mick Taylor with him. Almost.

The producers should still have included more details of Brian Jones, Mick Taylor and Bill Wyman somehow, maybe in an episode covering former members. They're as key to the history of the Stones as the four current members. I don't think Bill Wyman even gets a single mention.

Some (but not all) of the criticisms of this 4-part documentary are valid. But at the same time, there is only so much that can be covered in four one-hour segments of each of the members of the band that were with it the longest.

Overall, this is well worth watching for any Stones fan. I think some people were expecting the members to fit their marketing stereotypes, and were disappointed that they did not.

Surprisingly, I found the segment on Charlie Watts to be the most interesting.

So, for Stones fans, ignore the bad ratings here and watch this. You'll likely learn stuff you never knew about one of the, if not the, best rock and roll bands of all time.

It was, ok. As another reviewer stated, it was sanitised and pretty incomplete.

The Watts part was by far the most inserting (probably because Charlie was an actual human being).

Micks was mildly interesting.

Keith is a flippant caricature of a line animation of himself - ie, ludicrous.

And Ronnie is pretty weak facsimile of that version of "Keef" and in my opinion has added little if nothing to the band beyond being someone for Keith to hang out with.

Fortunately, a lot of the music still sounds as alive and brilliant as it ever did, and as a circus act - they're fairly entertaining.

Overall, Id suggest that 25X5 and Crossfire Hurricane are both better documentaries on this tired, but once brilliant band.