Duran Duran - Greatest (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Soundtrack	Outstanding
How does it compare to similar films?	Not applicable

Advantages:	Marvelous videos
Disadvantages:	Not any interviews with the band apart from DVD ROM

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I thought it was time I reviewed Duran Durans greatest on DVD.
This is a two disk set and also a region 0 that means it can play on any DVD player.

The packaging on this is very nice and quite simple, white box and when you open it up bars of colour on the inlay covers. The disks have no fancy pictures on but are nice silver disks with Greatest I or II on them.
As you put either of the disks on the menu has GREATEST and you can navigate through the letters on each disk that bring you into the menu of songs or features for that letter on each disks. Very clever.
All of the songs are the original music videos unless I state otherwise.

I shall take you through what is on it :

Disk 1

The letter R contains:

Planet Earth. This is one of their first videos on one of the earliest videos that was released and shown on top of the pops in 1981. This comes from their first album Duran Duran This video is made very well and has some very good effects from this era and also you see them in the New Romantic stage of their career.
This is one of my favourite songs on these disks.

Girls on film. This is the long uncensored version that for obvious reasons when you watch it could not be put on the TV before the watershed, you will understand when watching it. This first goes slightly into setting up of the stage before you see the girls arriving. Cameras ready everyone !!
This is also from their first album.
Also quite a long video from the band on this one as lots of nice ladies to see !

The Chauffeur. This is the most underrated song of the bands. The video is a joy to watch as I had never seen it before, this also contains some semi nudity. It is shot in black and white, the video does not have to heavily rely on exotic places and settings just a Chauffeur, car, hotel and parking bay. This song is one of my all time favourites. It is a slowish song with great lyrics to this. This is taken from the album Rio.

Hungry like the wolf. Everybody must have heard of this one. The video is shot in Bangkok. It is not a brilliant video but the song makes up for it on this one. This is also from the Rio album

The letter A contains :

Special features.
This has covers from some of the albums and singles that you can click onto which tell you the history of that particular album or track and will take you straight into the video/s of the albums or the track. There are some hidden features on this such as an alternate version of Planet Earth.
This is very handy to navigate and find out information on the band.

The letter T contains :

Save a prayer. One of their slowest and most well know songs. This video was quite simple for them to shoot, it was mostly set on a beach, nothing else really. Not the best video on this set but yet again the song makes up for it. This is also taken from the Rio album

Rio. Well what can I say about this one, everybody has heard it and this has an excellent video. The boys have set this one on a beach, a boat, and a sailing boat. There are some great mixtures of colour in this marvellous song. This is probably in my opinion the best made video on the DVD set.
This obviously comes from the Rio album.

Is there something I should know ?.This video is mainly shot on set and wasn't that expensive to make, there are lots of sets with a huge set of stairs and very large rooms. Not much of a mix of colours but the band wanted this to be slightly different than the other videos they had done. I did remember this from Top of the pops and liked it a lot at the time.
This comes from their first album also.

Union of the snake. Not a very well know one this is set in a desert with somebody dressed up as a big snake running around in the desert that features the boys camping out with a fire etc. This also features a big palace which is rather unexpected which brings this video out to be a remembered one.

Letter S contains :

New moon on Monday. This is set on a stage in France also on bikes, bars and some of the city. Quite a mix of locations on this one and a very good video. This was such a well remembered video that a recent poll of fans voted this one their best Duran Duran video ever. Don't know if I agree with that though. It's very good but not the best in my opinion.

The Reflex. This is quite simply shot at some of the bands gigs singing this song. Another quite easy video from them to do. All they had to do was to put a few of the different gigs recordings together. The song is a very fast paced one with good lyrics.
This is from the album Seven and the ragged tiger.

Wild Boys. This video has a mad max thunderdome style to it as simon is captured and put on a huge sail of a windmill that dips into the water. There are made up creatures in this and very creative sets.
During the windmill scene it was not meant to dip underwater and did get stuck with Simon on holding his breath !
Very very well made video here. One of the best on the two disks.
This comes from the Arena album.

A View to a Kill. This was the opening music titles from the last Roger Moore James Bond film A View to a Kill. This was set on the Eifell tower in Paris and as well as the boys acting as spies in the video also included clips from the film on the tower itself. This was a great video at the time as Duran Duran had built a huge fan base and getting this Bond song cemented their place in Bond history.
This is another of my favourites and one that I remember very well.

Disk II

The letter R contains :

Notorious. This video is very energetic, set on black and white and colour scenes, different stages, outside locations and a hugely entertaining video. There is a lot of instrument playing in this one and lots of ladies dancing !
This is also one of my favourite videos of the group.
This comes from their 1986 album Notorious.

Skin Trade. Flashes of mixed black and white and colour, the band and ladies in close up, musical instruments, this makes this very colourful and interesting to watch.
This comes from the Notorious album.

I don't want your love. Settings of a courtroom and tabloid papers is all this video needed, sounds boring but it's great fun to watch especially if you haven't heard it before. Another video with mixtures of black and white and colour.
This comes from the Big Thing album.

The letter A contains :

Special features :

This includes album and single covers that you can go into to find out the history of these albums and songs, also you have the opportunity to play certain ones from each album and single tracks.
I have found this very interesting and was certainly worthwhile putting these features on the disk. Even features Medazzaland on there, one of the hardest albums to find.

The letter T contains :

All she wants is. Very colourful video with great lyrics, fast and slow paced video angles, has lyrics appear on the screen also. Another great one to watch and very interesting compairing this to some of the other videos here.
Different clothes style on this one, I'll let you find out for yourselfs if you buy this.
This comes from the Big Thing album.

Serious. Good lyrics in this song and mostly black and white featuring a huge Gorrilla, lots of sets, close ups again. Also shots inside a circus. There's only so much I can explain on this one. Quite a good video but not one of their best. This song should have a lot more praise than it did at the time.

Burning the ground. This has clips from all of their songs combined in a slow and fast mixture and has a great tune to it, although rather mixed it is hugely enjoyable. This was not featured on any albums but the boys wanted to create something different that included all aspects of their earlier and later work on this just to see if it would work.
It is the most interesting video on here.

The letter S includes :

Ordinary World. I love this one, it's a very medium paced song with a great video featuring a wedding and how things all went wrong and how to try and make things better.
This has the most memorable lyrics of probably the whole of the videos on here and some great instrumental contribution.

Come undone (uncensored version)
Lots of fish feature in this video and underwater aquariums, great mixtures of all the animals and people on this one. Also back to the New Romantic fashion.
Great song if you can remember this one, slowish paced and a good one if you want a slow dance.
This comes from their second titled Duran Duran album commenly know as the wedding album.

Electric Barbarella. This is a hugely entertaining video featuring a lady plastic model that comes to life for the boys. Great pop video with lots of entertainment value. I love the bit when the model starts dancing !!
This is another of my favourite videos on here.
This comes from the Medazzaland album.

The letter T contains :

DVD Rom featurettes
Weblink to the official Duran Duran website
30 minute audio Q and A session with Nick Rhodes and Simon LeBonn in 1999
Photo gallery that takes you through the bands career
Lyrics to all the videos and songs on the DVD
Screen saver to create your own wallpaper.

This has DTS surround sound which is perfect for it, is on for 3 hours and 15 minutes.

All in all I have loved watching these videos and had great pleasure writing about this marvellous two disk set that no Duran Duran fan should be without.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have had watching these two disks !