It was the lighting. Seriously. The lighting. If you look carefully at the musical performances and the street scenes at night you get sense of a darkly attractive underground world and that visual palette synergized with the sonic landscape of the songs to form a complete sensory experience that was magnificent!

I'm a guy EDIT: sorry, bad choice of words: I'm not sexually attracted to Prince, so I'm totally immune to his preening and sexual antics during his stage performances, the plot was incomprehensible, the characters reactions to things were bizarre and inconsistent (Appolonia's reaction after he just tricked her into diving into that gross lake and then not letting her on the motorcycle a few times made NO sense and never will. Are women truely turned on by being mistreated like that or did I miss a meeting?), there was nobody to actually 'like' in the movie and overall the production was amaturish.

So it was the lighting.
[This message was edited Tue Feb 18 14:23:01 PST 2003 by Jestyr]

Jestyr said:

Anji said:

But Anji, you can't SERIOUSLY put PR & GB in the SAME category now, can you? PR was a real movie, not the best shit in the world but an actual film. GB was a long, fake, ridiculous music video...


.
[This message was edited Wed Feb 19 6:02:42 PST 2003 by CalhounSq]

CalhounSq said:

To make it even worse, I like Under The Cherry Moon better then GB and PR. Sorry...

ChocolateInvasion said:

Well, I don't like UTCM better than PR but GB makes UTCM look like friggin' Goodfellas...

Robert Firsching, All Movie

Guide said:

Okay, I get it!

CalhounSq said:

Okay! I hold my hands up, Cal. When Jill cried at the end of Purple Rain, I was moved.

Anji said:

speaking of that, why in the hell was she crying?

Now I myself felt like crying when Aura was hit by the car...seriously

lovebizzare said:[quote]

Anji said:

she was crying cuz Prince's performance of Purple Rain was moving, made me cry too. (first time i saw it)

HalluRain said:

WOW! You're good

LadyCabDriver said:[quote]

lovebizzare said:

I was actually joking about that part. I wasn't moved at all but I did find it very painful to watch.

It's the epitome of how Pop Culture works.

I think it was a better movie than Graffiti Bridge. I do not dislike GB. I've said it before but Graffiti Bridge to me was like stringing together music videos of Prince, The Time, George Clinton, Mavis Staples and Tevin Campbell. Chop the "movie" up and you could have several videos to air on MTV, VH1, and BET (at that time). A pseudo-gospel, spiritual whatever. While I like songs from Graffiti Bridge themselves they don't work for the movie as the music does for Purple Rain.

And I guess I just don't get what's so great about Under The Cherry Moon. Prince as a prissy gigolo piano player wooing and seducing a snobbish, repressed white girl who wants her daddy's money and approval but her freedom and life's experiences too. Jerome playing Prince's flunky instead of Morris' flunky. Prince, the martyr, dies. Boo hoo. The rich,evil white man wins another one over on another nigger. While I own the movie it's not something I consciously desire to pop in the VCR and watch. It's stuffed on a shelf with other movies.
There's some funny scenes in it like him standing outside that house and hollering about stuffing some pillows...etc.
And he strikes that thrust pose. Crass, very crass. It's as if Prince is playing out all the stereotypes that white people expected of Negroes. The biggest taboo of yester-year being sexing up their women.
He's not, however, an actor. He's a talented inventive musician and his character in Purple Rain was a better vehicle for his music, performances, and musicianship.

Just my opinion and

Anji said:

its the life that fuled the music cause as artists what u go thru is gonna ultimately show in ur performance...maybe he coulda done it the beatles/led zepplin way and just made a concert film but i belive he saw more than that... he wanted 2 show those outside of minneapolis where it all started from and what was goin on in the uptown he wrote about...i mean just take a look at the fashions the people at 1st avenue were wearin 2 the way they were rockin 2 the music in each performance... there was a real sub-culture goin on up there like the leaher wearin outlaws of the 50's the mod kids of london 2 the flower children of the 60's and all the afroed out soul brothas and sistas of the 70's 2 the hip-hop generation of the 80's and 90's (and b4 yall cry that the crowd was just extras tha wasnt scripted cause those were actual live performances u saw)

a gr8 Movie in a gr8 era "4" that style of Music...

I loved it and I still do. It was different.

I actually bought the movie on DVD yesterday. Having not seen it for over a decade, I have to say my opinion of it has dramatically changed. It absolutely rocks and I love it!

Please excuse this entire thread.

Anji said:

you're forgiven.I've resisted buying it on DVD, I just know there'll be a SE next year.

Or there better fucking better be!

guy, I loved that film and didn't give much about prince's music back then... the film is genius for being so structured, dramatically stacked, colorful, and interesting with non actors and a low ass production budget... it is completely "a"ffective to an audience and has the creative touches and peculiarities of being fantastic about depressing and mundane elements...

yellow gel those windows!

Anji said:

the lighting was a big part of what is so clever about the film, but most people don't even know that this stuff is processed in their head emotionally while they watch a film.

Jestyr said:

I was 10...
no one in the world was cooler than Prince in that movie... it was rated R too... that was cool... it was dark! and the music was amazing!!

you may have been to old to appreciate it.. when people grow up they over analyze...

it captured a moment.. to bad you couldnt share it with us.. it was DAMN GOOD!!!

Clarence Williams III is one of the finest actors out there and was when he portrayed the Kid's father in Purple Rain. If you didnt recognize this, you didnt watch the film.

The reason that Purple Rain worked back then is that it appealed on a very visceral level. Great music, solid good vs evil plot, nice looking babes and cool looking guys - this formula has always worked through history.

The reason that it still works today as a classic on cable and video is that it has not been surpassed in the rock film genre. THe music is timeless as are the performances. While the actors are not seasoned pros (with the exception of Clarence Williams), the sentiment was relayed effectively and it is simply still fun to watch.

It is not rocket science. Purple Rain rocks.