I love Purple Rain and UTCM as much as the next Prince fan, but what was going through his head when he made Graffiti Bridge?

The movie is painful. It probably doesn't help that much of the music is under par. Here are a few things that baffled me:

1. Prince's entire dialogue could probably fit onto one A4 page.

2. Ingrid Chavez's character can't make up her mind whether or not
she's an angel or an easy lay.

3. Every Time song in the film sucks and whilst Morris's humour
worked well in Purple Rain, it just doesn't translate on Graffiti
Bridge.

4. What was the point in Tevin Campbell's performance? Did he even
fit into the "story" anywhere?
[Edited 8/2/08 11:40am]

I guess he was thinking in something much simple than you explained and deep at the time, get a better world without violence

zucris said:

Your reply is much more violent than this thread.

Graffiti Bridge makes me feel violent too.

feB said:

but I didn´t ... just I said what the movie meant to me
"... Kid won, do u believe?, and with a ballad, damn..."

MattyJam said:

I guess zucris answered your question. In 1990, after the movie was smashed by critics and audience, Prince said that nobody understood him and that in 10 years people would re-evaluate the movie.

Did that happen?

Well he wasn't thinking at all, obviously!

Sophianestesia said:

I've still not seen this little gem. I hear such good things about it; I must rent it out...or even purchase it if I'm feeling naughty with the cash.

Well i say this in all the threads about this movie, i loved it and prince was gorgeous and sexy in this and his music was fantastic, so stop slagging it off.

It was okay. I liked the idea of the musical duel. And Ingrid was smokin'. But aside from that, it was bleh.

The first twenty seconds of the movie was cool in a theater..... then it all went straight to hell. The angel too. I remember that when I came out of the theater, there was an angry man demanding his money back for the ticket because the movie was no good. That is the first and only movie that I had ever seen that happen.

It's sort of the musical version of Plan 9 from outer space.

sandraparke said:

wow.... ass kisser.

I like graffitti bridge, you should speak for yourself.

The part where Ingrid is killed by an out-of-control Jeep is one of the most unintentionally funny things I've seen on film.

I think Prince was becoming a fan of the opera & musicals right before GB was written and he was probably thinking he could create a masterpiece as good as Andrew Lloyd Webber could. Purple Rain was a concert film and GB was a musical. When they sang in Purple Rain, there was a purpose for it. Just randomly breaking out in song didn't translate well for the sequel to Purple Rain, IMHO. Not to mention the set to GB looks like something in an off Broadway play.

he just seeemed intent on making graffiti bridge and i bet he thought that the success of batman would buy him credibility back.

i also think he wanted to get a film business going at paisley park or prn.

i was going thru some old clippings from the batman era that i found in a folder and you can tell that P was probably starting to get some mojo back after Lovesexy failed here in the US.
there was so much talk about Batman being so huge and that Paisley Park had 4 movie projects including Graffiti Bridge and a movie based on the life of Robert Johnson.

Graffiti Bridge was so terrible, i was moritified that i brought my friends to it!

but the trailer actually looked good!

scrambledeggsaresoboring said:

I almost said this in my post! I still think the trailer looks good. Too bad it has all that other crap in it.

JuliePurplehead said:

so funny!
i remember when the trailer premiered on the E! network and i got chills!

i wonder if in the middle of production, Prince ever asked himself something like:
should i stop because this is just so horrible?
or just keep going because there is too much money to lose?

he HAD to know it would suck ...
im SURE that JIMMY JAM and TERRY LEWIS knew it would suck!
you gotta figure someone had a clue and said something to Prince...

Prince jumped the shark with that one.

MattyJam said:

He was thinking that I would like it! And I did!!

I'll say what I always say with concerns to Graffiti Bridge, it was a mess because it a whole mish-mash of leftover ideas and projects that went off the boil. The end production smacks of amateurism and desperation to get the project out.

Graffiti Bridge as the follow-up to SOTT was put on hiatus through the Black album cancellation, the quick recording, promo and tour for Lovesexy and then Batman. I can't think of any other Prince project that was hung onto for so long.

The movie is an amalgation of the original GB script idea, the battle of the bands idea from 1986's 'The Dawn', and a tacked on Purple Rain sequel idea that seems to be a last minute addition in order to get funding for the project. The music reflects this as it also contains tracks spanning The Revolution era right upto the movie's eventual green light.

In one sense, the length of time Prince held onto the Graffiti Bridge ideas shows how much he believed in them and wanted to get that project out. But if you wanted to psychoanalyse that, you might ask WHY did he hang onto that idea for so long when other, arguably much better, projects were swept aside with relative ease (for example, Camille, The Flesh, etc).

You could say he believed in the message of the movie, or you could say it was a tying up of loose ends from the mid-80s onwards.

Regardless of if you like the movie or not (or even WHY you like it ) - Whatever Prince was hoping to achieve with the movie, it didn't work on the level he might've hoped. I think that was down to a desperation in getting the project out there, finally, and settling for second best on a lot of fronts.

Prince, a great musician is. A great film director, editor, script writer, and casting director he is not.

NouveauDance said:

But he directed UTCM and in spite of a few flaws I think he pulled it off. Okay, maybe not commercially or critically, but more than twenty years later, a lot of fans hold that movie in high regard and it's certainly aged a lot more gracefully than Graffiti Bridge and even Purple Rain. It is genuinely (and intentionally) amusing in parts and the characters are likeable. It's beautifully shot, mostly well-acted and of course the amazing soundtrack helps.

Compare that to the shoddy set designs, cringeful acting and almost non-existant script of Graffiti Bridge... I just find it hard to believe that Prince didn't, at some point in the making of this movie, feel it was all a little beneath him.
[Edited 8/3/08 1:52am]

We are giving a lot of praise to UTCM here, but remember.... it did recieve the golden turkey award.

Mozorro said:

He jumped Apollonia in Purple Rain.

zucris said:

oops! sorry, I totally misunderstood your reply...I thought u said "get a better world without violence" meaning that the thread itself was too violent because is turning graffiti bridge down (which i understand because of the movie ). you know, i'm not english

Graffiti Bridge

We are the New Power Generation
Can’t Stop this Feeling We got
Undercover in the Latest Fashion
Cuz’ We love God A Lot
There’s Joy in Repetition
We’re just Junkies 4 the sound
Wer’e the New Power Generation
And We go Round and Round
When the Thieves are in the Temple
We can funk with their blanks
Singing we’ll Release it
And Tick Tick Bang
Have you maintained your Love Machine?
We pose this Question of U
Do you side with the Thieves?
Or back up Melody Cool?
A passage may Shake and crumble
Like dominoes down the line
NPG’s
Graffiti Bridge
Still Would Stand All Time.
T

scrambledeggsaresoboring said:

Yeah,I think the sucess of his 'Batman' album convinced Prince that movie-making was the way to go.In 1989,he and his then-manager Albert Magnoli announced *FOUR* movie projects that they would start working on,as part of their newly formed film company (Paisley Park Films).The movies were...

***"Graffiti Bridge"---sequel to Purple Rain
***"The Dawn"---described as a "Street oriented sequel to Graffiti Bridge
***"The Dark Side Of The Moon"---a documentary on Prince
***"The Robert Johnson Story"---a biopic in which Prince portrays the legendary blues artist.

Obviously,the failure of 'Graffit Bridge' prevented the other three movies from being made.Am I the only one who thinks that 'The Robert Johnson Story' might have been interesting?

feB said:

I use to have problems about "misunderstanding" I´m argentine and my english is too bad, but I like this site

Dayclear said:

that doesn't mean it's a good movie