The Movie: It's not a movie, it's a live concert DVD. Actually, it's not really a concert, as this concert was planned and rehearsed exclusively for this DVD and it's accompanying live album with the same title. I'm a big fan of Sting, and I think he's absolutely brilliant in concert, so hey, how could I not get this thing? There is, however, an interesting (and unintentional) twist to this performance -- it was originally scheduled for, and was performed on September 11, 2001.

There are two main parts to this DVD -- a documentary about the preparations for the performance, and the performance itself. The whole thing took place at Sting's "house" (more like a villa) in Tuscany. The band is a combination of guys he's been on tour with for the last two years, and some new blood. The premise is that there's gonna be a concert for a few friends (including us) in Sting's backyard.

An added factor -- Sting wanted to rework and rearrange all the songs... and he purposely wanted it to be rushed. All the preparations, rehearsals, etc. happened in only 2 weeks. Sting wanted that energy in the arrangements that can only come from the pressure of a looming deadline. Pretty hefty considering that the guy he wanted to play upright bass for the event is completely new and didn't know the songs!

And the arrangements are great... many of the songs are completely different! Especially interesting since a lot of them are songs he's been playing every night (mostly the same way) for the last 15-20 years. "Fragile" became very complex and multilayered, while "When We Dance" was stripped down. Arrangements of "All This Time", "Don't Stand So Close To Me", and "Brand New Day" were completely different from the versions we're used to. And some classics like "Roxanne" are different from the original versions, but similar to versions Sting has played in his live concerts... including ending with "Every Breath You Take" which was pretty much identical to the way he performed it on his last tour, down to the way he introduced the band members.

And I'm always glad when Sting plays "Seven Days", one of my favorite songs, one which was never a hit, and yet, he plays it at every concert, so it must be one of his favorites too. And yet, this song doesn't appear on the CD of this performance (which I don't own... yet).

If you watch the documentary part, you get to see various aspects of the arranging process as they revamp the songs, the opinions of some of the other musicians, and some rehearsal footage, including dress rehearsal footage shot on September 10... including songs that didn't make it into the final performance because...

September 11 arrived, and news of the World Trade Center attack reached Italy as they were eating lunch... and everything changed. Sting had doubts about doing the performance at all, but the other musicians convinced him that the show must go on... however, the set list was changed quite a bit, and many of the songs that Sting thought would be inappropriate for the occasion were cut.

As Sting mentioned a few times during the show, it was supposed to be a time of joyful rejoicing, but due to the events of that morning, rejoicing didn't seem too appropriate. The final set list ended up being:

• Fragile
• A Thousand Years
• Perfect Love... Gone Wrong
• All This Time
• Seven Days
• The Hounds Of Winter
• Don't Stand So Close To Me
• When We Dance
• Dienda (as a tribute to Kenny Kirkland, long time keyboardist for Sting)
• Roxanne
• If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
• Brand New Day
• Fields Of Gold
• Shape Of My Heart
• If I Ever Lose My Faith In You
• Every Breath You Take

Some of the "missing" songs, however, appear in a "Bonus Track" section, including "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", "Englishman In New York", and "Fill Her Up"; presumably shot during the previous night's dress rehearsal.

The DVD: Although the content of this DVD was shot mostly (or entirely?) on video... I was pleasantly surprised that it was all in an anamorphic widescreen format -- the "Brand New Day" tour DVD (which was shot at the concert I was at!!) was a standard 4:3 format, which is why I was surprised this was done in widescreen.

The documentary was shot mostly with handheld video cameras, and as such, looks pretty much how you'd expect it to look, from an image quality standpoint. The concert section was kind of a mixed bag. Overall I think it looked worse than the Brand New Day concert DVD. Partly because it looked like they had two really good cameras to get most of the main shots (and they look really great), but some the cameras they used for closeup on the musicians were quite noticeably worse in quality, ranging from just OK to one that straight up looked like the lens hadn't been cleaned in years.

The sound mix is pretty good though, but not as great as his Brand New Day concert DVD, and if you are a fan of Sting, it's hard to not like what is seen here -- a great live performance of fresh arrangements of new songs and old favorites by an incredibly talented musician who surrounds himself with other incredibly talented musicians... and an inside look into his creative process, and also his home.