A greatest hits collection from Dire Straits, one of the most successful bands of the 80s, having sold over 95 million albums worldwide, is what this package is all about. This 3 disc set features classics over the years that fans have come to like. Disc One and Disc Two (Live) are audio CDs while Disc Three is a DVD that contain 16 music videos.

One look and you know that this is a great collection of Dire Straits' music and videos. There are 13 videos presented here with three live "videos" taken from the "On Every Street" tour. The total running time is right at 90 minutes, and much of the material is rare, so it is wonderful to see all these on one DVD.

As for Disc One - the audio CDs you have songs like Sultans of Swing, Lady Writer, Romeo and Juliet, Tunnel of Love, Twisting by the Pool, So Far Away, Money for Nothing,  Brothers in Arms, Walk of Life, Calling Elvis and many more including live versions of Your Latest Trick, Local Hero / Wild Theme.

The second disc is the Live set and includes 7 songs like Calling Elvis, Walk of Life Romeo and Juliet, Sultans of Swing, Brothers in Arms and Money for Nothing.

The DVD which we would like to talk about has 16 videos starting with the best of all Sultans of Swing, a song by the band from the very early days of their career and so you can expect the music video to be a bit hazy. Mark looks so young in this video that it is almost startling. We then have Lady Writer a good video although with poor production values from the late 1970s. For those who may not know, Romeo and Juliet is the first Dire Strait's video that tells the story largely through actors performing the song as a narrative. Some interesting hairstyles are featured and worth a watch. Tunnel of Love on the other hand is once again a great early video, albeit featuring some very bad early 1980s clothes and hair. On Private Investigations  you get to see that Mark Knopfler is infact left handed. This one is well done, and is genuinely creepy, as per the song's subject matter. A real twisty song, Twisting by the Pool from the EP of the same name, it is a comparatively rare track, and is up-tempo fun. It features film shot from the time of Straits album "Alchemy. Love Over Gold maybe a bit boring and may put you off with its lackadaisical melody, surely not one of my favorite Dire Straits' songs.

Now here’s everyone favorite track so to speak, So Far Away, what with its very conventional and captivating video featuring a lot of studio footage from the band would be a top favorite. The up-tempo song is also heady and a dance favorite and so is the next Money For Nothing, one of the most influential videos in history, introducing computer generated characters to videos. The song is one of the biggest hits ever by Dire Straits. Knopfler certainly doesn't have the greatest voice however you have to admit the man does know his way around a guitar and this song proves it. You can certainly argue this point but I believe Money for Nothing is close to the greatest rock song of all time; I love the unique melody and lyrics, humorous point of view, unusual video animation. Many videos on the disc are not all that noteworthy however Money for Nothing just about makes the DVD worth the price all by itself.

From there on the tempo takes a break as we move on to Brothers in Arms an impeccably crafted and suitably somber video. It is incredibly well conceptualized and executed, particularly the "machine gun to guitar" edit introducing Mark's solo. It is the best Dire Straits video, hands down. In terms of both the sound and video transfer, Brothers in Arms tops. Another moment of glory is in Walk of Life illustrating the lighthearted side of the band with sports bloopers. Calling Elvis is an interesting video of a relatively weak single from the early 1990s that really didn’t hit it off very big.

The last video here is Heavy Fuel shot through the eyes of a roadie. It is very amusing and well done, and shows some interesting behind the scenes footage that fans will love. The last three videos are from early 1990s concert footage, and consist of On Every Street, Your Latest Trick, and Local Hero-Wild Theme.

This is a great package and as a bonus features an audio interview with Mark Knopfler that is very interesting, however a visual interview would’ve added more excitement. A serious letdown.

Pity that songs like Portobello belle, Where do you think you're going, Down to the Waterline and Telegraph Road, are not included. If no video for these songs was available, a video from a live show would make this DVD perfect.

That aside, I love Dire Straits, and I love this compilation of some of their best-known songs. It's a good mix. The individual albums are better in a way, but this one has all the popular songs, with their very excellent videos. This DVD is fine for true fans of the group that might wish to simply have everything from them in one go. Run this through a good sound system with a 5.1 speaker system and it is stunning.

Overall a beautiful memory of this group that really, with full merit, is part of the history of rock.

Media Format: ‎ PAL

Run time: ‎ 1 hour and 21 minutes

Release date: ‎ 2 July 1999

Subtitles: ‎ English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Dutch

Studio: ‎ Universal

Rating: *****

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira