Product Details

• Actors: Michael Blakey, Alan Clark, John Illsley, Mark Knopfler, Chris White
• Format: PAL
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000AOWNA
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,626 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Dire Straits: On the Night" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

105 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I really enjoyed this DVD, but..., January 15, 2005

By 

Albert G. Smith Jr. (Daytona Beach, Fl USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dire Straits: On the Night (DVD)

I really liked this DVD. It took a long time to get it upon its release (almost two months), but it is more than worth the wait.

The production value is very high. There is a nice opening sequence where the band and roadies arrive at the venue, and get ready to put on the show. The DVD uses this sequence to introduce the players, showing them getting off of busses, walking down corridors, and other mundane predatory actions. Knopfler walks out to a very enthusiastic crowd and after a few seconds of thunderous applause launches into the first song. I was very happy (as a guitar player myself) that many of his solos were shown in close-up detail. I like little things like that, seeing how he works to get that sound. I will not go over every song, but just be sure, there is not a single piece of filler here, although there would be a couple of songs that might be considered MIA. I could not imagine seeing B.B. King in concert without his performing "The Thrill is Gone", so seeing Dire Straits and not having them perform the break through "Sultans of Swing", the song that introduced them to the world is a bit strange. Oh well, you can't have everything. There is a good mix of rockers, softer more mellow songs and plenty of opportunity for Knopfler to let the other members of the band show off a bit. Overall, a great performance.

The one weakness that requires me to go with 4 stars rather than 5 is the fact that this is a medium that can offer so much more in terms of sound. That this is not offered in some form of 5.1 is a crime. I love concerts on DVD when you hear the crowds behind you and the music hits from many angles. If I gave this basic two-channel stereo rendering a 5 star rating, it would not be fair to the other DVDs out there that earned their 5s with terrific audio engineering. If this was a 1980s VHS tape, it would be a 5, but for a DVD introduced in the year 2005, two-channel stereo can't be given a perfect score for a concert performance.

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The End of the Straits, April 6, 2005

By 

Smallchief - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dire Straits: On the Night (DVD)

This is the video of the last Dire Straits' tour in the early 1990s. It was not, I read, as wildly successful as their tour of the mid 1980s and after the tour the Straits faded into history.

About one-half of the songs on the DVD are from the Straits last CD, "On Every Street." There is a country sound on many tracks, emphasized by Paul Franklin's steel guitar. I quickly tired of the opening rock numbers, "Calling Elvis," "Walk of Life," and "Heavy Fuel," but the mellow songs that followed made up for it. Mark Knopfler's moody and exquisite songs "Romeo and Juliet" and "Brothers in Arms" are here, as are superb versions of little known tunes such as "Your Latest Trick" "On Every Street" and "You and Your Friend." The bluesy, country solo of Knopfler in "You and Your Friend" is one of his best ever-- and that is saying something. "Money for Nothing" rocks and "Private Investigations" has the great guitar explosions at the end (although PI and "Local Hero" are both better in the other Straits live album "Alchemy").

Dire Straits was a tuneful high-quality group of musicians and Knopfler is a wonder on guitar. There's not a whole lot of flashy showmanship. They stand up Strait and play outstanding music.

Smallchief

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Performance From Knopfler And Company, May 20, 2005

By 

Robert I. Hedges - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dire Straits: On the Night (DVD)

I had the privilege of seeing Dire Straits three times during their "On Every Street" tour, from which this DVD was taken. I have previously seen the VHS and cable broadcast versions of this concert, and while there is more material found elsewhere, the quality of the DVD production is substantially better, although it is a bit of a travesty to see a Dire Straits show without "Sultans of Swing," as others have pointed out.

It pains me to give any Dire Straits production less than five stars, but I gave this DVD four for a couple of reasons, the most obvious being the obviously questionable editing of the set list. My other reason is a bit more related to this particular tour: the band got away from their roots and became a mammoth production with up to nine people onstage in some of the numbers which, for me, tended to obscure the music in some places (I got particularly tired of the excessive pedal steel guitar work on many of the songs.) That's personal preference, of course, and others love the larger orchestrations.

Overall I think this is a good DVD, although it really doesn't capture the energy of Dire Straits in concert as well as some other productions, including the much earlier, and generally superior, "Alchemy," which will hopefully be released on DVD soon.