Dire Strait’s arguably most popular album, ‘Making Movies’ was released 17th October 1980, and reached #4 on the UK’s album charts. Its most well-known song “Romeo and Juliet” reached #8 on the UK Singles Chart, while “Tunnel of Love” featured in 1982 ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’. It’s a lengthy album, 7 songs totalling to 38 minutes, but is well worth listening to.
The record is described as a thoughtful combination of Mark Knopfler’s lyrical script, vocal performances and the band’s rock and roll soundtrack. A breathtaking new communication between the star and band, such that both are able to shine like never before.
They went for a broader scope in music, to be a big arena-rock style, due in part to their producer, and because their second album ‘Communique’ had been criticised for being too similar to their first album. Their songs were ‘bigger bolder, and more tuneful than anything they’d ever done before and, to an extent, after’. As their aid in music making, Bittan, said they, “took time to capture the emotion and paint the picture... They were not very straightforward songs. The subtleties of emotion that he [Mark Knopfler] was trying to capture was something real special”.
Their music uses bars of carousel waltz, and used a more muscular feel to the drumming, moving away from their primary albums’ laid-back minimalist blues-rock feel, as well as an increased thought in guitar performance and technique to add colour and emotional cascade to their pieces.
Although I’d love to discuss and interpret every song on the album, I’ll focus primarily on “Romeo and Juliet” and “Skateaway”, for their success in appreciation as well as their minimalist music videos.
One of the things I find most compelling about the song “Skateaway” is the way the ‘roller girl’ is characterised. She appears mysterious and rebellious, ‘stealing down a wrong way street’. The depiction of her outfit seems almost mystical ‘wheels on her feet’ in contrast to the cars with their ‘usual dances’ (which is a beautiful imagery accompanied by childlike innocence of toy cars in the music video), she’s ‘taking chances’ everyone around her, as per the lyrics, seems to love the sight of this vibrant girl breaking through the crowd, uninterested in the world around her.
The listener is invited to see themselves in her, once the ‘lonely’ drably dressed one, freed by revolution. Her outfit and makeup are eye-catching and beautiful, a determination to express joy rather than conform, embodying the ideals of the album.
Further, the set design in the video is starkly minimalist, in contrast to the complex thoughts often presented in Knopfler’s lyricism, seen in that most of what the ‘roller girl’ interacts with are objects on a bright white set, drawing the viewer’s attention directly to the point, almost subverting the consideration and analysis Knopfler so probes for.
The album is named after a removed song as well as a line in “Skateaway”, ‘She’s making movies on location / She don’t know what it means’, capturing perfectly this ideal girl, uninterested in the intelligence or meaning behind what she creates, more concerned in the ‘song’ she hears, capturing a beauty in simple enjoyment of emotion through sharing an art; in a way, she could be considered a facet of Knopfler’s own identity and hopes. This final set, the interior area where the ‘roller girl’ performs is closed, with dramatic shaping and lighting, while her costume is altered, too, to represent this shift into the dramatic. However, she still appears playful, with her skates and headphones, unaltered at heart by the changing environment she is placed within.
Finally, “Romeo and Juliet”, considered by some the ultimate song on the album, is also one of the most defining songs in Knopfler’s career.
Knopfler’s interpretation of the classic story of Romeo and Juliet is intriguing, especially when placed with the music video’s visual interpretation of his lyricism. ‘Lovestruck Romeo’ is still depicted initially as this supposed romantic hero, but in an almost satirical emphatic positioning, touching the hyperbole of ‘everybody’ with the love song ‘he made’. The movement of Romeo to be a singer allows Dire Straits to perform his identity all the more, and relates his character back, perhaps, to Knopfler himself.
He appears foolish and ridiculous, stating only “You and me, babe, how about it?”, with such informality so opposing the classical language used by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet’s initial performance. Juliet’s response that he nearly gave her a ‘heart attack’ mocks modern love, and an acceptance of nothing more than lacklustre effort. This is mimicked in the simplistic set design and Juliet’s gaudy makeup as well as Romeo’s lilting strut.
Romeo’s death is taken differently in this video, in comparison to classical performances of the text, whereby he throws himself off of the simplistic set, in front of a barely caring Juliet (who’s only tears are shed singularly, in dramatic close ups.) While there is an argument to be made for Juliet’s characterisation as more villainous than traditionally in this, Romeo also appears remarkably naïve and perhaps stupid. This is further exemplified in the ending of the song, where the beginning few lines of the song are repeated, with ‘lovestruck Romeo’ calling to any and all girls by a ‘convenient streetlight’, with no particular romantic call, rather a modern desperation for love.
There is a repeated theme in the video, whereby people gather to watch a video of Juliet looking beautiful, and all rise to leave in lilting step when Romeo’s character appears. Romeo claims ‘Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start’ and lists everything doomed about their relationship. This, however, can be seen to be satirising how easily people give up in relationships, particularly in context that Shakespeare’s own Romeo and Juliet’s tragic ending was brought about by a pointedly frivolous disagreement between their two families.
There is, though, the argument to be made that Juliet is presented as the villainous one in this performance, whereby Romeo pleads her why he was ‘just another one of your deals’, further the videos that play all seem to be illicit films of Juliet, behaving improperly with men. There is a lyrical theme of Romeo pleading that they had ‘everything’, promised by Juliet, but she has become uncaring, exemplified in the final reiteration of this movie watching scene, in which Juliet herself is the one to leave, looking back at Romeo, left behind alone.