I mean, for a low-key sequel to Purple Rain, it had some funny moments - Morris Day and his sidekick are hilarious in this, Prince looked divine and Aura was a fox. Plus the fashions were pretty cool - weird but cool.

The soundtrack is one of my favourite Prince albums so maybe I'm a bit biased.

I just love the overall look of the movie - someone commented it is similiar to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" video.

I like it too, but I will admit that it doesn't make a lot of sense.

There's three main problems with it.

1). It wasn't intended to be a sequel to Purple Rain originally. This was a last minute change that I believe was done purely in order to get the funding for it. It's forced and it feels jarring. The Kid as a character doesn't resemble the character from Purple Rain very much. The tone of the film doesn't match Purple Rain - PR was a gritty rock opera dealing with domestic abuse and struggle shot on location, whereas GB is a dreamlike fantasy story shot on built sets. The music in Purple Rain is consistent with the tone of the story and the cinematography - in GB, some of it matches (IMO, New Power Generation and Elephants and Flowers work well) and some of it doesn't really match (Tick, Tick Bang for me doesn't really work in context of the story).

Imagine if you remove all of the "Purple Rain" elements. Prince's character isn't The Kid, the storyline isn't a sequel, Morris and Jerome and The Time aren't in it and therefore you don't have to force in another "Battle of the Bands" storyline. I think you've then got room to tell a unique story.

I believe that originally Prince was going to do another battle of the bands story in "The Dawn" which was intended to be a different movie.


2) The editing is just wrong. Seriously, watch the outtakes, add them back in, make a tighter, more cohesive edit. Some of the scenes need to be shorter, there's stuff that doesn't need to be there at all, other scenes should have been left it. Was Tevin really necessary? "The Latest Fashion" ought to have been left in instead, as one example.

3) Lack of a strong title song. Let's be honest, "Graffiti Bridge" the song just isn't a good enough title track. A movie needs a fantastic title track. And it doesn't have to be a ballad! It could be uptempo.


Despite all this - I do still like it, it's wonderfully of it's time and Prince looks fucking great, and there's some amazing songs. I think a great director could have salvaged this. Hell, they probably still could, if given access to all the original footage. I don't think anybody would bankroll a 21st century re-edit of a movie that was a box office flop, but it's a nice dream to have. Too bad we don't have the outtakes in perfect quality, or we could do a fan re-edit ourselves.

I fully realize that it's an awful mess, but I do enjoy it. I watched it for the first time in 20+ years, a few months ago, and became a little obsessed with it for a minute.

Also, the soundtrack is fantastic. I don't care what the people say. The title track came on shuffle the other day, and while it is cheesy as hell with all of the "ah-ah-ah's," it does have an an interesting arrangement, and packs an emotional punch towards the end. It's probably the vocal performances.

[Edited 8/16/15 7:39am]

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

I mean, for a low-key sequel to Purple Rain, it had some funny moments - Morris Day and his sidekick are hilarious in this, Prince looked divine and Aura was a fox. Plus the fashions were pretty cool - weird but cool.

The soundtrack is one of my favourite Prince albums so maybe I'm a bit biased.

I just love the overall look of the movie - someone commented it is similiar to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" video.

There are a few people who like Graffiti Bridge. There are people who don't like the movie but can stomach watching it once in a while because there's only so many Prince movies and videos out there. There are also people who were brave enough to watch it all the way at least once, generally when it came out.

I am not one of them. I tried -- I think I saw about 70 % of it, less if you count all the minutes I kept my eyes closed or rolled my eyes long enough to miss entire scenes.

It's one of those movies that, instead of having a "Making of..." feature, should be rereleased with a "What the hell happened during the making of..." segment. If I remember correctly. Prince himself does not like the end result. Did I read somewhere that he cried when he completed editing?

Aerogram said:

Did I read somewhere that he cried when he completed editing?

I believe that anecdote was shared by Susannah about Under The Cherry Moon, not GB.

There's a few good music videos in the movie.. Elephants & Flowers is one of my fave..

Otherwise the dialogue and the plot is nonsense, about an angel and ownership.. ???

Oh god no, I love it.

I've lost count of the times I've seen it!

I agree that if some of the outakes were left in it would of made more sense, though. I really wish they'd left in 'The Latest Fashion' scene for the battle of the bands part. It looks more like an actual battle to me.

I also loved some of the ideas for scenes that were in the original screenplay that Oldfriends4Sale posted here a few months ago. Especially the one where the Angel character leads him outside to play the piano and the ballet dancers with chords written on them start dancing. What a creative idea.

[Edited 8/16/15 8:09am]

Militant said:

Aerogram said:

Did I read somewhere that he cried when he completed editing?

I believe that anecdote was shared by Susannah about Under The Cherry Moon, not GB.

That makes sense as well.

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

As the movie plays out, it's exactly like Purple Rain, most likely forced by WB.

First, Purple Rain opens with Let's Go Crazy---GB opens with New Power Generation

Both rockers.

Then as in PR, The Time comes in and does Jungle Love---GB, The Time comes in as performs Release It. See the pattern here. Not going to go through scene for scene, but I'll point out the other similarities.

Jill plays the spurned "always in my hair" girlfriend

Morris and Jerome try to steal Apollonia with a demo tape---GB they try to steal Aura at the Bridge

Prince humps his way through Darling Nikki in PR---GB, Prince horny pony dances in Tick, Tick, Bang.

In PR, Prince reflects with When Doves Cry---GB, Prince looks for love to come quick with Thieves in The Temple

Take Me With U---? Of U. Different styles songs, but both involve riding on the bike.

The Beautifuls Ones---Joy In Repetition. Both songs Prince bares his soul to get the girl

Purple Rain(the song)---Still Would Stand All Time. The redemption song that puts Prince over the top.

So as you can see, GB is an exact copy of Purple Rain, well as close as they could get it. Like I said, probably pressure from WB and for Prince it was just easier for him to fashion the movie around PR which was already successful.

[Edited 8/16/15 8:38am]

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

I mean, for a low-key sequel to Purple Rain, it had some funny moments - Morris Day and his sidekick are hilarious in this, Prince looked divine and Aura was a fox. Plus the fashions were pretty cool - weird but cool.

The soundtrack is one of my favourite Prince albums so maybe I'm a bit biased.

I just love the overall look of the movie - someone commented it is similiar to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" video.

heavens no..

Yes?

yes

I'd never say it was a well written, directed nor acted movie but Prince looked like this in it...

Frankly, I the movie!

I find it awfully depressing and claustrophobic to watch, even with prince's prettygirl haircut. All the energy and grit of Purple Rain absolutely sucked out of it. The trailer is decent though!

I like your post there Militant, makes a lot of sense

[Edited 8/16/15 9:51am]

jaawwnn said:

I find it awfully depressing and claustrophobic to watch, even with prince's prettygirl haircut. All the energy and grit of Purple Rain absolutely sucked out of it. The trailer is decent though!

I like your post there Militant, makes a lot of sense

[Edited 8/16/15 9:51am]

With all that facial hair? Prettygirl nothing.

I tried. Lord knows I tried.
I was embarrased the first time I saw it. The last time which was last year, I was numb.
I just couldn't like or appreciate it...

i like it, but i never expected it to be a casablanca or gone with the wind

if you take it more as a compilation of music videos with a connecting story (like 3 chains o gold) its far more enjoyable. i think people try to take this stuff too seriously, and you obviously cant take a movie like this that way

thedance said:

Militant said:

I like it too, but I will admit that it doesn't make a lot of sense.

There's three main problems with it.

1). It wasn't intended to be a sequel to Purple Rain originally. This was a last minute change that I believe was done purely in order to get the funding for it. It's forced and it feels jarring. The Kid as a character doesn't resemble the character from Purple Rain very much. The tone of the film doesn't match Purple Rain - PR was a gritty rock opera dealing with domestic abuse and struggle shot on location, whereas GB is a dreamlike fantasy story shot on built sets. The music in Purple Rain is consistent with the tone of the story and the cinematography - in GB, some of it matches (IMO, New Power Generation and Elephants and Flowers work well) and some of it doesn't really match (Tick, Tick Bang for me doesn't really work in context of the story).

Imagine if you remove all of the "Purple Rain" elements. Prince's character isn't The Kid, the storyline isn't a sequel, Morris and Jerome and The Time aren't in it and therefore you don't have to force in another "Battle of the Bands" storyline. I think you've then got room to tell a unique story.

I believe that originally Prince was going to do another battle of the bands story in "The Dawn" which was intended to be a different movie.


2) The editing is just wrong. Seriously, watch the outtakes, add them back in, make a tighter, more cohesive edit. Some of the scenes need to be shorter, there's stuff that doesn't need to be there at all, other scenes should have been left it. Was Tevin really necessary? "The Latest Fashion" ought to have been left in instead, as one example.

3) Lack of a strong title song. Let's be honest, "Graffiti Bridge" the song just isn't a good enough title track. A movie needs a fantastic title track. And it doesn't have to be a ballad! It could be uptempo.


Despite all this - I do still like it, it's wonderfully of it's time and Prince looks fucking great, and there's some amazing songs. I think a great director could have salvaged this. Hell, they probably still could, if given access to all the original footage. I don't think anybody would bankroll a 21st century re-edit of a movie that was a box office flop, but it's a nice dream to have. Too bad we don't have the outtakes in perfect quality, or we could do a fan re-edit ourselves.

There's a LOT more wrong with it than that.

4. The sets

5. The script

6. The acting

7. Ingred Chavez

8. Uneven musical performances, which was the strongest part of Purple Rain.

The is one seriously bad movie. I can't imagine anyone liking it.

Finally braved up to watch it last year... couldn't make it to the end.

YES

I myself like crabs. I like lice. I like bedbugs. lol

Militant said:

I like it too, but I will admit that it doesn't make a lot of sense.

There's three main problems with it.

1). It wasn't intended to be a sequel to Purple Rain originally. This was a last minute change that I believe was done purely in order to get the funding for it. It's forced and it feels jarring. The Kid as a character doesn't resemble the character from Purple Rain very much. The tone of the film doesn't match Purple Rain - PR was a gritty rock opera dealing with domestic abuse and struggle shot on location, whereas GB is a dreamlike fantasy story shot on built sets. The music in Purple Rain is consistent with the tone of the story and the cinematography - in GB, some of it matches (IMO, New Power Generation and Elephants and Flowers work well) and some of it doesn't really match (Tick, Tick Bang for me doesn't really work in context of the story).

Imagine if you remove all of the "Purple Rain" elements. Prince's character isn't The Kid, the storyline isn't a sequel, Morris and Jerome and The Time aren't in it and therefore you don't have to force in another "Battle of the Bands" storyline. I think you've then got room to tell a unique story.

I believe that originally Prince was going to do another battle of the bands story in "The Dawn" which was intended to be a different movie.


2) The editing is just wrong. Seriously, watch the outtakes, add them back in, make a tighter, more cohesive edit. Some of the scenes need to be shorter, there's stuff that doesn't need to be there at all, other scenes should have been left it. Was Tevin really necessary? "The Latest Fashion" ought to have been left in instead, as one example.

3) Lack of a strong title song. Let's be honest, "Graffiti Bridge" the song just isn't a good enough title track. A movie needs a fantastic title track. And it doesn't have to be a ballad! It could be uptempo.


Despite all this - I do still like it, it's wonderfully of it's time and Prince looks fucking great, and there's some amazing songs. I think a great director could have salvaged this. Hell, they probably still could, if given access to all the original footage. I don't think anybody would bankroll a 21st century re-edit of a movie that was a box office flop, but it's a nice dream to have. Too bad we don't have the outtakes in perfect quality, or we could do a fan re-edit ourselves.

I'm with U on all your points, except I don't like it

I actually enjoy Hard Life a MisDirected Film by Prince

The movie sucks,but I will say this....

The "Elephants and Flowers" performance is excellent.....best scene of the entire film!

savagedreams said:

i like it, but i never expected it to be a casablanca or gone with the wind

if you take it more as a compilation of music videos with a connecting story (like 3 chains o gold) its far more enjoyable. i think people try to take this stuff too seriously, and you obviously cant take a movie like this that way