Inside The Smiths – The DVD

• 25th Jul 2007

Heather Parry went along to the preview screening of the new Smiths documentary featuring the bands rythmn section Joyce and Rourke. This is going to be huge with fans of The Smiths in any case but what did Heather have to say about it?

Inside the Smiths – TV21

For an event billed as a world premiere, TV21 is a tad on the small side. However, it is packed with friends, admirers and hardcore fans of the Smiths, here to see an honest yet lovingly-made account of the band’s history. It’s a shame, then, that the film they’re here to see doesn’t do their devotion any justice.

Produced, it would seem, by a group of GCSE students for their media project, ‘Inside The Smiths’ looks somewhat ropey from the start and inexplicable at times. Anecdotes told by Buzzcock’s Pete Shelley are ruined by being massively over-lit, and the interviews with Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, which make up most of the film, are stripped of their magnitude by being filmed in their living rooms. Yet it isn’t just the form that’s lacking – the content, while humorous and warm in places, it less than thrilling, the most revelatory piece exposing Morrissey as a bit of a cock. The whole production, in fact, is overshadowed by the all-too-apparent absence of the enigmatic singer and his sidekick Johnny, leaving even the most hardened fan feeling a bit short changed. However, the mere mention of the band name is enough to send the DVD straight to number 1 in the charts on pre-orders alone, so for the fans it will prove to be a must-have, if only for the hour of reminiscing it allows.