Synopsis

Dire Straits perform "Brothers In Arms" in a stark, monochrome landscape shaped by war. The band appears in fluid, hand-drawn imagery, while scenes of soldiers, aircraft, landscapes, and battlefield movement evoke the First World War. The animation gives the performance a dreamlike, elegiac quality, gradually connecting the musicians with the combatants and the song's anti-war message. Rather than following a conventional narrative, the video builds an atmosphere of loss, brotherhood, and resignation through its shifting sketches and stark visual contrasts.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video uses rotoscoping, tracing live-action footage frame by frame to create its distinctive animated appearance.

• Its black-and-white, pencil-and-ink style was notably different from the computer-generated look of Dire Straits' earlier "Money For Nothing" video.

• The wartime imagery reflects the song's anti-war perspective. Mark Knopfler wrote "Brothers In Arms" in 1982, during the Falklands War.

• The video was produced by Simon Fields through Limelight Films, with cinematography by Francis Kenny.

• "Brothers In Arms" won the Grammy Award for Best Music Video at the 29th Annual Grammy Awards on February 24, 1987.

• The video's animated treatment helped establish the song as a visual counterpart to its mournful guitar work, emphasizing memory and atmosphere rather than presenting a literal battlefield story.