Search - Dire Straits :: Sultans of Swing

Doesn't do justice to the DVD format

Albert G. Smith Jr. | Daytona Beach, Fl USA | 01/10/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First off, I never had MTV back in the 1980s, so I never saw most of these dated videos. I was a big Dire Straits fan as soon as the first album hit, and continue to purchase every Mark Knopfler CD to this day, so I was interested in seeing this DVD, if only for a historical perspective. To be honest, this is the last DVD that I purchased from this group / artist from Amazon. I bought the Mark Knopfler DVD "Night in London" and the Dire Straits DVD "On the Night", as soon as they became available back in mid-November and as of yet have not seen them due to those DVD not being in stock. I bought this DVD as a fill-in until I get (what I hope is) the superior Mark Knopfler DVD.



Just to get the negative things out of the way, first this is a two-channel stereo DVD. I wouldn't care, except the cover has a sticker that says 5.1. It is not 5.1, but only your basic left and right front speaker stereo. Next is the cover's track listing with numbers that do not match the actual track numbering. This makes direct access a bit confusing, since everything is one-off for some reason. Last is the interview with Knopfler, which I was looking forward to after reading about it here. It is only audio, not video, so you don't get to see him or have any way of knowing how old it is (which hair line he is sporting in it).



Overall the music is pleasing. In two-channel stereo, the sound quality is equal to the CDs from these songs. The video transfer is average quality, about what you'd see with a VHS tape.



I won't go over every track, but I was a bit frustrated by a couple of short songs. They left the whole terminal solo out of "Sultans of Swing", which I was looking forward to watching as a guitar player myself. "Love over Gold" also ends abruptly compared to the actual track on the CD. There were a couple of songs that were clearly cut and pasted from stock footage to make a video for songs that never had a video.



All of that said, there were some nice videos that really worked well with the songs. "Brothers in Arms" is a nice looking video that replicates pencil sketching, but in motion. The mood really compliments the song. There were some humorous tracks also, such as "Heavy Fuel" which has actor Randy Quaid (the Vacation series' Cousin Eddy) as a roady that keeps getting in the way during a sound check.



This DVD is fine for true fans of the group that might wish to simply have everything from them, but it is not first class in terms of the things that make DVDs great. If you want to see how good a video can be of Mark Knopfler, in terms of both the sound and video transfer, then check out the rendition of "Brothers in Arms" on the DVD, "Music for Montserrat". Run this through a good sound system with all 6 speakers to support the 5.1 sound and it is stunning. Maybe this DVD has caused me to be hypercritical for the reduce quality of the Dire Straights DVD that I am reviewing.

"

Already released under a different name

Neil B. Sorens | Oakland, CA | 03/21/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I have a VHS entitled "Dire Straits - The Videos", released by Warner Reprise Videos in 1992.



This DVD appears to be the exact same collection of videos released under the guise of a new product. That would explain the lack of features that one would normally associate with a DVD -- it's a direct port of the VHS.



There are still 3 good reasons to get this DVD: 1)It's better quality and will last longer than VHS, 2) The VHS is probably very hard to get a hold of, and 3) It's Dire Straits.



A five-star collection of videos, but it loses a couple stars for trying to trick us and for the stripped-down features and presentation (when compared to other DVDs in the genre)."

GREAT BAND...GREAT DVD!!!

mistymerlot | Alabama | 07/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this dvd for my husband, who is a huge fan of Dire Straits. I also like the band. The way they put together clips from live concerts, along with music videos (when music videos were actually interesting) was very well done. A great trip down memory lane for any "baby boomer"!"