Purple Rain Blu-ray offers decent video and audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
A young man (Prince) with a talent for music has begun a career with much promise. He meets an aspiring singer, Apollonia, and finds that talent alone isn't all that he needs. A complicated tale of his repeating his father's self destructive behavior, losing Apollonia to another singer (Morris Day), and his coming to grips with his own connection to other people ensues.
After The Chapelle Show's "True Hollywood Stories with Charlie Murphy" sketch, I can't look
at Prince without seeing Dave Chapelle in a blouse, dry humping a basketball and dunking magically
over Eddie Murphy's brother. It doesn't help that The Artist is known to take himself so seriously. I
mean, who goes by an unpronounceable symbol? Still, there was a time when Prince was
undeniably pop royalty, a performer who combined the showmanship of Little Richard and James
Brown with the guitar prowess of Hendrix and the ambiguous androgyny of David Bowie. Purple
Rain was Prince's musical blitzkrieg, a cross-cultural takeover that launched him to
international
stardom and, like Seattle and grunge in the 90s, put the unlikely state of Minnesota on the map for
the electric funk of its "Minneapolis Sound." While Prince has become somewhat of a pop oddity in
the intervening years, Purple Rain captures him in his glittering prime, preening and
thrusting on stage like a svelte, sex-crazed tomcat out on his nightly prowl.
"I want you."
Like 8 Mile, a film it undoubtedly influenced, Purple Rain is a largely
autobiographical story that takes just enough liberties to effectively separate fact from fiction.
Prince plays The Kid, a Minnesotan rocker who channels the violence of his home life into
emotionally charged songs for The Revolution, his funk-rock fusion band. There's some minor
infighting amongst the group, a standoff with rival band The Time, and The Kid has an on-again-
off-again relationship with Apollonia (Apolloinia Kotero), a fellow singer with aspirations. The plot
is basically a thin and perfunctory series of events that serves to tie together performances at
Minneapolis' famous First Avenue nightclub.
Expectedly, the film is at its best when The Kid is doing his thing onstage. He's a bundle of sexual
energy with no outlet but the wild flailing of his limbs, some fancy footwork, and enough hip
pumps to impregnate a small village. And the clothes! Check out that blouse! The bedazzled
purple jacket! The flamenco boots with four-inch heels! With his pirate locks and fem, military
duds, Prince looks like a glam Captain Crunch or a sexy colonel from some glittery space future.
The funk too is just fantastic. "Let's Go Crazy" erupts with big beats and scuffed-up guitar,
"Purple Rain" is all tears and lofted lighters, and let's not forget the scandalous lyrics of "Darling
Nikki," which prompted Tipper Gore to found the Parents Music Resource Center. The Kid's guitar
solos are noodling, masturbatory displays, and the film culminates with Prince's hands running up
and down the neck before the head of his guitar literally—I mean literally—spurts water
all over the crowd. And cut!
Unfortunately, the non-music sections of the film are not nearly as entertaining. The acting is
fairly terrible across the board, as the cast is comprised of musicians who are basically playing
hyperbolized versions of themselves. Former Mod Squad member Clarence Williams III
plays The Kid's father, and though he's the only real professional actor of the lot, his performance
is perhaps the most over-the-top, as he storms around the house and beats down his wife and
son. There are a few laughs—courtesy of The Time's Morris Day and Jerome Benton—and plenty
of emoting, mostly from Prince, who, when not thrashing about the stage, generally looks either
self-satisfied or in need of a hug.
All the same, no matter what you think about Prince—or his music—Purple Rain does
have a kind of camp charm and infectious energy. It's hard not to grin when The Kid tools around
town on a big purple motorcycle that looks like a reject from the Batman television series. The
costumes are flat-out ridiculous and every pan of the audience during the club scenes reveals a
score of New Wave-wannabes, their faces painted with neon stripes, sulking with their cigarettes
and nodding in time to the beat. As a film, Purple Rain really isn't that great, but it is a
sometimes fascinating cultural document that captures the sexy, sweaty essence of 1980s
excess.
Purple Rain's 1080p, VC-1 encoded transfer is full of hits and misses. The source print is
nearly immaculate, with only a few spots and speckles throughout the film. Colors are generally
bold, with big washes of blues, yellows, reds, and—of course—purples soaking the stage during
Prince's literally off-the-wall performances. The overall look is far better than the dull presentation of
the DVD, but it's far from Warner's best restoration jobs. While certain sections of the film look
sharp, many scenes have an almost gauzy softness and the image in general lacks any real HD pop.
Black levels are inconsistent, sometimes looking great, occasionally crushing detail—the strands of
Prince's hair get easily lost—and other times looking grayish and washed out. Grain levels are
similarly helter skelter, with outdoor scenes, like the motorcycle sequence, appearing almost grain-
free, while darker interiors and night shots show rampant patches of analog noise. The film looks
good, don't get me wrong, but it lacks the crispness and depth of other restored catalog titles.
For a rock 'n roll film, Purple Rain's TrueHD 5.1 surround track lacks some serious punch.
Like the image quality, the audio is never bad, but it does show the limitations and age of
its source materials. Bass sounds undefined and overpowering, the mid-range rhythm section feels
occasionally flat, and the high-end screeches and squalls of Prince's face-melting guitar solos are
rendered thin with compression. Rear channels are used almost entirely for ambience—I can't recall
a single discrete effect—and most of the music is blasted from the front speakers. Though the lack
of directionality in the music is perhaps accurate for a rock concert—where the speakers are all
facing outward—I could live with a rounder sound at the expense of realism. Dialogue, on the other
hand, is mostly clear and discernable, though occasionally a line will get lost in the din of the First
Avenue club. Overall, this is a clean but dynamically flat track that never rocks the house quite like
you imagine it could.
Commentary by Director Albert Magnoli, Producer Bob Cavallo, and Director of Photography
Don Thorin
Only diehard Prince fans need listen to this dull and silence-filled track. There's simply way too
much uninteresting technical chatter, and the director references his student films one too many
times. The other two participants, while occasionally eking out some little anecdotes, lapse
frequently into "I thought he was brilliant in this scene" style comments.
First Avenue: The Road to Pop Royalty (SD, 12:24)
An inside look at the First Avenue nightclub that gave birth to Prince, Soul Asylum, The
Replacements, Hüsker Dü, and others. This feature includes interviews with manager Steve
McClellen, members of The Time and Revolution, and various other musicians, journalists and
DJs.
Purple Rain: Backstage Pass (SD, 29:45)
Though sadly devoid of Prince's regal presence, this making-of special is an otherwise all-
encompassing look at the production of Purple Rain, from the film's origin to its
successful opening box office weekend. Producer Robert Cavallo discusses how Prince wanted a
story based on his career, saying, "I want to star in a major movie, I want my name above the
title, and I want it to be at a major studio." That's a rather tall order, but part of the thrust of this
featurette is how Prince was and is insanely hardworking. Director Albert Magnoli even claims
that Prince gave him 100 fully produced songs for possible inclusion in the movie. The dissection
of the music is the feature's most interesting segment, with former members of The Revolution
reminiscing about the creation of hit songs like "Purple Rain" and "When Doves Cry." Along with
members of the cast and crew, we also get to see our old pal Kurt Loder of MTV News, who says
"I think Purple Rain set a standard for pop movies, and we're still waiting to see it
matched."
Riffs, Ruffles and a Revolution: The Impact and Influence of Purple Rain (SD,
10:01)
Examining Purple Rain's influence on pop culture, music, and fashion, this brief feature
covers the Purple Rain tour, Prince's costuming, and the genesis of the "Minneapolis
Sound." Many of the same interviewees are included, but there's also a brief cameo by Macy
Grey, who says that she learned to play guitar after being impressed by Prince's guitarist
Wendy.
Music Videos
The disc includes standard definition videos for Prince's "Let's Go Crazy," "Take Me With You,"
"When Doves Cry," "I Would Die 4 You / Baby I'm a Star," and "Purple Rain," The Time's "Jungle
Love" and "The Bird," and "Sex Shooter" by Apollonia 6.
Trailers (SD, 4:46)
Included are trailers for Purple Rain, Under the Cherry Moon, and Graffiti
Bridge.
MTV Premiere Party (SD, 27:52)
The teased hair! The tightly coiled strings of pearls! Pegged jeans! While MTV's Premiere Party
doesn't offer much in terms of behind-the-scenes insight, it is a walking, talking time capsule of
the mid-1980s. Eddie Murphy shows up in a cheetah-print suit jacket with no shirt on and a
black leather handkerchief tied around his neck. Pee Wee Herman rolls up to the red carpet in a
tiny toy car. Weird Al fidgets wildly at a table with John Cougar Mellencamp and exclaims, "We all
knew Prince was a great actor, but who knew he could sing!" Perhaps most
oddly of all, Little Richard shows up to give Prince a Bible ("God loves you Prince!") and then has
the hubris to say, "Prince is the me of this generation." What was wrong with
the '80s?
If you grew up in the early 80s, or you're a Prince fan from way back in the day, you've probably
seen Purple Rain and already have an opinion of it one way or another. For those who were
either too young or too old to catch Prince's sweaty zeitgeist, the film is a pretty good indication of
what was happening pop culture-wise during the Reagan years. With a decent, but never stunning
AV lineup and a bounty of extra features, I'd say Purple Rain is a must-own for Prince fans,
but a solid rental for everyone else.
