Am I supposed to take Purple Rain (the movie) seriously?

Boomboom

Saw Purple Rain for the first time last summer. People were ecstatic, very much an audience participation movie. I remember a big laugh when the blonde girl looks at the slip of paper and said "Apollonia??" Saw it again last night, that didn't get a laugh. Oddly, it was pretty much the same mood, the giddiness of a rock concert. Not somber at all, which was really surprising. Amazing moment when Prince and Apollonia first have sex: woman behind me screaming "HUSBANDS! BOYFRIENDS! LESBIAN PARTNERS! WATCH THIS. WATCH THIS. TAKE NOTES." But it was mostly the same innocent excitement and cheering as the screening I saw last year, both capacity crowds in huge auditoriums. I don't know what I was expecting, though. People were happy. It was fun.

Even worse than I remembered. Siskel and Ebert both including it on their year-end lists in 1984 is a true WTF moment. Like, this is basically Rick Springfield's Hard To Hold with better music.

I like the Day-Benton teamwork, a couple of concert sequences, the rest is garbage.

saw it a few weeks ago at the ICA in london. slightly too snarky crowd maybe, but lots of LOLs all the way through. maybe without that, i might have been more forgiving. but it hasnt aged well. some great scenes with morris and jerome (why didnt they get to do more movies?). interesting for how closely the revolution in the movie seem resemble the real dynamics of the band. but i found the performances to not be as good as remembered - by prince that is. the time and other groups seem to be fine. but prince's performances on the PR tour video are much better. in the film, they look a bit over-acted in a way the songs dont really need (though computer blue is great). also confused at the weird grasp of sense of time/continuity on the montage for the very first song (lets go crazy). best moment though is hearing fathers song (the computer blue bridge) on the piano. amazing.

saw it in a sold out screening in Manchester in one of the biggest screens last week. people went nuts; standing, cheering, singing, crying, the whole bit, a very youthful stylish crowd. the only time i can recall being drunk in a cinema thanks to the 'purple cocktails' on sale. biggest crowd lols were for his Dad's 'don't get married' speech, and at the bizzare leg moves from Apollonia during the start of the sex scene. it seemed creaky but better lit and shot than i remember.

and yeah the piano bits were great.

there were lots of whoops and cheers too. but mainly just lots of 'LOL!'

in the cast/crew interviews on the DVD, the director actually gets teary about the 'dont get married' scene. apparently princes dad gave him the same speech.

Morris Day has charisma as an actor, I'll admit, but his whole "Who's on First" bit with Jerome was agonizing.

Is it worth pointing out that the plot makes no sense? Like, his character is this struggling musician who lives at home but he still exerts this Prince-like control over his band where its a big deal if he does or doesn't consider performing one of Wendy and Lisa's songs?

It's weird you almost have to watch it as several phases of the characters life palimpsested into one

in the cast/crew interviews on the DVD, the director actually gets teary

Like, his character is this struggling musician who lives at home but he still exerts this Prince-like control over his band where its a big deal if he does or doesn't consider performing one of Wendy and Lisa's songs?

Is it hard to believe that Prince was like this even when he lived at home?

it hasnt aged well.

nnnnnnnnnno, no perceptive viewers thought the non-musical shit was good in '84

there are certain movies that i just hold to a lower standard. this, dirty dancing, point break...patrick swayze's whole filmography, basically.

Dirty Dancing is a better movie than PR, but, you know, Prince.

i love this movie, of course it isn't good, but it's great

its basically like prince's spin on all those terrible youth/teen pics of the 50s etc

OK, so I re-watched it for the first time in many years and I have to say …
It still sucks. Even worse than I remember. The plot doesn’t make a bit of sense, the story’s self-pitying and pretentious — not to mention misogynistic — and the acting sucks all around. Yeah, I know the musical sequences are good BUT IT’S PRINCE, after all.

Even worse than I remembered. Siskel and Ebert both including it on their year-end lists in 1984 is a true WTF moment. Like, this is basically Rick Springfield's Hard To Hold with better music.

― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Tuesday, May 17, 2016 9:17 PM (6 days ago)

so wrong. intentionally or not, it's one of the funniest, weirdest, most fucked-up movies ever made. plus prince. can't imagine any sensible person not loving it.

Really, you can't? Had I seen it when I was 15 or 16, I probably would have enjoyed it. But I was 20 or 21. I thought it was pretty embarrassing as a film, although I loved the music. Now that I’m much older it seems lamer than ever. I mean, take the fanboy glasses off and watch it as a film, not as a 90-minute music video. It’s awful. And there’s nothing even remotely weird or “fucked up” about it. It’s just bad.

yeah, it's one of the funniest movies ever made, except for a couple thousand made by good comedians.

I watched it a couple years back fully expecting to hate it. I'd hated it when I last saw it, back in the 80s, as a teen. But no. I loved it. Each image and line is perfect (and, yes, perfectly terrible). People are often at their funniest when they're trying to be something else.

I'm assuming the people itt saying Purple Rain is awful haven't watched Under the Cherry Moon (etc).

Yeah, I'm not getting where this is so bad/funny/fucked up/whatever that its good. It's basically a severely underwritten melodrama that has some fantastic songs in it.

Pretty sure Magnoli thinks its a great work

Well, he would, wouldn't he

I'm assuming the people itt saying Purple Rain is awful haven't watched Under the Cherry Moon (etc)

which both pale in comparison to Graffiti Bridge, it should be noted

(in terms of failing-as-films)

contenderizer's description applies more readily to under the cherry moon. still there's a charming haphazardness to purple rain imo

i saw under the cherry moon on 35 mm a few weeks ago and imo it's baffling and wonderful

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CgvhDBXU4AESgV7.jpg

typically stupid simpsons joke. it's not funny, and what's more, SotT is his /best/ movie.

that seems to be what the joke is saying?

the subtext is that the film is so marginal/obscure that even prince hasn't seen it

which is dumb

i'm being literal-minded, maybe, but that simpsons joke is made up of 100% low-grade recycled humor so we're even.

depends on what the meaning of "it" is

i think you mean "that"

http://rinf.com/alt-news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/bill-clinton-05.jpg

its a bad film in every way. nothing is explained. conflicts arrive without any context for them. resolutions happen without actually being resolved. its never clear if the kid is failing or if he is packing them in at first avenue. tbh i cant remember all the problems i thought of when i saw it, but there were many. it has next to no redeeming features, except some performances. and even those, arent what he was capable of. they are reduced to having to fit the terrible narrative.

the beautiful ones is among the greatest music performances ever committed to film, worth the price of admission alone, fuiud

^^^^^

was so gratified to see that someone had written a standalone piece about that, i think it was in rolling stone. as a raw expression of sexual longing it really has few peers.

that's not quite right, it's not just raw, it's massively performative, which is maybe part of what makes it so great, that it's this almost ludicrously demonstrative and detailed set of codes/moves telling the story of the most basic pop drama - wanting, not having. and prince just melts your face with it.