5/5 Great collector's item
  by Trinity21 (Columbus, OH USA)
The Smiths are part of rock n roll history and this excellent collection of music videos proves it. I bought this DVD to replace my video tape version. This is a must for any Smiths or Morrisey fan!

5/5 well its pretty much all we've got for smiths videos..so..ok
  by Stalwart Kreinblaster (Xanadu)
The smiths were the greatest band of the 80's - for some reason there aren't too many live videos of the smiths or smiths videos for that matter.. Luckily there exists a smidgen of smiths history compiled here as the complete picture - well obviously a handful of top of the pops videos and derek Jarman's artsy medley are not a complete picture - but what else have we got?
This is it folks - a slice of pure music history... and frankley mr. shankley morrissey and the smiths do go down in musical history..

5/5 More of a Postcard
  by Wobu Zhidao II
"The Complete Picture" is a collection of 12 music videos by the Smiths. Well, you could say 14 videos, if you split the "Queen is Dead" film into three parts. Some are mimed performances from British music show "Top of the Pops", others are "trendy" promos. All of them are very 1980s. As a fan of the Smiths, I decided to check "The Complete Picture" out. I quite enjoyed it, actually.

Even when the band is miming on Top of the Pops, it still seems like they're having fun, like they're still in control. They have a presence, even there. It's odd, but interesting. The music holds it all together, I think. As for the proper promos, I do think they reflect what the Smiths were all about, (Britain, outsiders, etc) even if it is sometimes in an exaggerated way. "Ask" features a very shy young man and the girl he loves. "This Charming Man" is full of flowers. "Girlfriend in a Coma" features footage from old films, the way the album covers featured old images. "Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before" has lots of bicycles, shots of Strangeways and Whalley Range (both locations mentioned in Smiths songs) plus a couple of other places.

I can't say I'm an expert on Smiths/Morrissey music videos, but I do know enough to tell you that this is a little short from the complete picture. There's another version of "The Boy With The Thorn in His Side About" where Morrissey sings in a room full of candles that isn't here, for instance. I'm sure there's a few others.

Still, I think it's at least worth a look for Smiths fans. I hope the record companies paint a more complete picture on DVD soon. Just don't paint a vulgar picture!

4/5 Smiths: The Incomplete Picture
  by epsteinsmutha (At the bottom of Juan Epstein's excuse note)
For those of us who didn't have access to TotP back in the 1980s, it's nice to see these performances similar to those given by the Pogues and New Order on other DVDs. I bought this, trying to get some of my favorite videos from childhood on DVD, but the reliance on the TotP performances has resulted in a criminal offense to this Smiths fan: THE VIDEO FOR "SHEILA TAKE A BOW" IS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN.

Granted, it was a straight (Can we use that adjective in relation to Moz? Sorry, cheap joke.) performance clip that kept switching hues from green to blue to purple, but if this is supposed to be "The Complete Picture," why isn't it included?

I have a special place in my heart for that video as it was the second video I ever saw on MTV (first was Modern English's "I Melt With You") and it's MIA status prevents me from going all the way to five with this DVD.

Signed,
epsteinsmutha

4/5 I've got everything now......
  by Alexandra (Ontario, canada)
I was only 8 years old when the first smiths cd was released. My only recollection of the smiths is the "how soon is now" video being played on the CHUM 30 countdown. But I was too young to understand it and I only vaguely recall the grainy blue colors and the smoke stacks. I am happy with this collection of videos, except i wish they had of included the other video for "the boy with the thorn in his side", as an alternate take. The video i've seen for that song, on mtv.com, starts off with a shot of a soundboard then goes to the band in a room. That is the only thing that disappointed me about the collection. Yes, as many of you have said in your reviews, it is cheesy, but that was the 80's(remember the flock of seagulls video? yikes)I love the smiths and only wish i had been a little older in the 80's to have experienced what it was like when they first came onto the music scene.