Purple Rain

How well I remember all the excitement surrounding 1984's PURPLE RAIN, a filmed companion to Prince's same named multi-platinum album.  The music video for "Let's Go Crazy", all over MTV at the time, was comprised with a generous amount of clips from the film, enough to whet a fifteen year old's curiosity.  "Whet" is an understatement.  By that time I was a huge fan of the Purple One, already quoting the dirty lines from "Let's Pretend We're Married" and  "Darling Nikki" with my friends as we snickered.  When the movie played on HBO, let's just say I watched it more than once.   And my emerging critical eye was forgiving each time. 

Yes, Prince in his first motion picture does not exactly ignite the screen with his acting.  But his music? Those concert sequences? That's why you sit through director Albert Magnoli's film.  Prince is also a striking figure visually, with an eccentric and luxurious wardrobe that makes you wonder how his character, "The Kid", a struggling musician who still lives with his parents, can afford it.  The screenplay by Magnoli and William Blinn does not invite such inquiries.  Nor does it seem interested in subverting the cliches of a band trying to make it big or a hero with a shitty home life.  

The Revolution play themselves, backing up the Kid at the First Avenue nightclub in Minneapolis.  They are electric onstage most nights, but there is plenty of backstage angst.  The Kid won't acknowledge a song contribution by Wendy and Lisa, and the club owner, Billy (Billy Sparks) is considering finding a replacement act as The Revolution just ain't packing 'em in like they used to.  And there's rival band The Time, led by the flamboyant Morris Day and his assistant Jerome.  The aforementioned all play themselves, or at least versions of themselves. 

Non-professional actors, and other than Day, are all not so hot.  The Kid's motorcycle (which even gets a BATMAN type rescue scene) may deliver the best performance.   I somehow forgot to mention Appollonia, new in town and looking for her break.  She of course will get caught between the Kid and Morris, leading to some not bad romantic tension.   Clarence Williams III plays The Kid's abusive father (and former musician).  He does have one good scene, offering the advice of many bad husbands before him - "Don't get married."

The film is relentlessly serious, and when it does attempt humor it pulls jokes you may have heard in PINK PANTHER movies and from Abbott and Costello routines.   There is also a fair amount of can't miss it misogyny, which caused some heads to explode even in '84.  The woman in the dumpster scene is your prototype.

Despite the barbs, I really dig PURPLE RAIN.  The film has a nice dark gritty feel.  The location shooting is right on.  Magnoli also achieves a certain grooviness, naturally aided by Prince's still amazing music.  The finale, a trio of live tunes. is positively megawatt.