Dire Straits: Sultans of Swing

• Cat.no: 058 726 2
• Cert: E
• Running time: 90 minutes
• Year: 1999
• Pressing: 1999
• Region(s): 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (UK PAL)
• Chapters: 18 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Stereo)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Swedish. (interview only)
• Fullscreen: 4:3
• 16:9-enhanced: No
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 5
• Price: £17.99
• Extras : Scene index, Booklet, Mark Knopfler Interview

Dire Straits: Sultans of Swingis the ‘Best Of’ compilation for the band who have turned out great hits overthe years during the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s. There are 18 chapters whichcover the opening and closing credits, plus the 16-strong track listing whichis as follows :

1. Sultans of Swing
2. Lady Writer
3. Romeo and Juliet
4. Tunnel of Love
5. Private Investigations
6. Twisting by the Pool
7. Love over Gold
8. So far Away
9. Money for Nothing
10. Brothers in Arms
11. Walk of Life
12. Calling Elvis
13. Heavy Fuel
14. On Every Street
15. Your Latest Trick
16. Local Hero / Wild Theme

There’s no denying this is a great compilation as I remember in the mid-80’s,the only promo video compilation available was four tracks (So far Away,Money for Nothing, Walk of Life and Brothers in Arms) fora tenner on video, while eight pounds more gets you four times as many trackson a DVD.

The Brothers in Arms album is one of the biggest-selling items of alltime and given the public uptake of CDs not long before the release, it wasestimated that one in ten households had a copy. With the similar popularityof music television station, MTV, defining moments of the 80’s included thecomputer animation for the Money for Nothing promo, which also includedvocals from ex-Police frontman, Sting.

I do have some reservations though, but they don’t just apply to this videocompilation, but many more that are released by other bands. Each video ispreceeded by a title stating the name of the track, which is fair enough, butI’d then expect for the song to begin from the start after this and play all theway to the end, in full, complete and unabridged. How annoying then, that moreoften than not the song will begin while the title is flashing away and thatsome songs fade out before their time – one particular case being with one ofmy all-time favourites Brothers in Arms, a brilliantly-animatedpiece of work.

Another query I have is why this particular version of Local Hero / WildTheme has been used and what’s so “wild” about it ? It’s a superbinstrumental which builds up well, before breaking out with an energetic guitaranthem on Knopfler. Hence, why is the version used here just the build up ?As the track plays you keep waiting for the second part, but just as you’renearly there, it ends! I don’t know why the audience are cheering loudly, as theperfect finale would be to hear the track in full. I’m also sure a proper videowas shot for Your Latest Trick, as opposed to the live version used here.

Mark Knopfler hit back at critics who
complained at his wooden performance.

The picture quality is first-rate with no artifacts to be found even whendealing with different types of animation as with the aforementioned Moneyfor Nothing and Brothers in Arms, or on soft-focus promos such asSo Far Away. All the songs are presented in 4:3 and I wasn’t able todetermine the average bitrate as the information was not present on the disc.

The sound comes in Dolby Digital 2.0 and, reservations aside about the treatmentof some of the songs, there are no complaints about the sonic presentation.