Okay so putting off trying to get ready to resume normal post-Thanksgiving work life and watching the end of Purple Rain for what has to be the millionth time. Observations:

1) There is no more awesome last twenty minutes of a movie budgeted under $20 million than the last 20 minutes of Purple Rain. Prince was a star before the movie but watching the three song set at the end is watching the very moment that someone crosses over from being a star to a superstar. It is just as powerful today as it was 31 years ago.

2) The ending is so good that EVERY rock musical since PR has used the same ending. The triumphant last set. 8 Mile rebooted it. High School Musical cribbed it. Hell Jem and the Holograms just paid homage to it.

3) Watching the Time play "The Bird" and then Prince playing PR, IWD4U, and Baby I'm a Star makes you wonder if the Modernaires were even allowed to come on stage. Did they have a song in their arsenal that could compete? Did they have more than that one song that they played earlier in the movie anyway?

4) It is a little bit of suspension of disbelief that the band never rehearsed PR together, apparently did not know they were going to play it, and then after Prince's somber intro, they all seemed to know it and played the hell out of it. Don't care, it's still great.

5) For that matter, did the band rehearse the three song set before they got on stage that night or were they improving their ass off. They really had to know those three back to back songs were going to kick ass. I would have been giddy as a mother while they were waiting backstage.

6) Did the band coordinate outfits beforehand? Brownmark is wearing the same outfir as Prince minus the iconic purple overcoat.

7) I guess my whole question, concering 4-6 is are there scenes on the cutting room floor of, I don't know, Prince calling the band saying "Okay, we're going to play these three songs that are literally going to bring the house down and make sure everybody dresses Elizabethan okay?"

8) Not related to this particular series of observations but I was so pissed 30 years ago when I was going to have a chance to see the movie at home finally and they gave me a damn Betamax tape instead of VHS. Damn near went blind but I was able to watch some of it but it looked like scrambled Playboy channel.

9) Appolonia 6 really sucked bad. Just no way around it. No nightclub owner would really have much of a struggle trying to chose between the Revolution, the Time and then, apparently on equal footing, the Modernaires and App 6. Billy was as high as everyone in the audience appeared during the last 20 minutes.

10) I have too much time on my hands but watching the end again brings me back to when I was 12 years old and had my whole life ahead of me. Prince was a wunderkind who was, for a moment, bigger than anybody in the world. Watching it then was so cool. Watching now it is cool with 3 decades passed. And the fact that Prince can still bring virtually any house down by playing Purple Rain 30 years later is a testament to the greatness of that song and to the awesomeness of the last 20 minutes of that movie.

11) PS. Magnoli tried to recreate the same exact movie, including the ending, the next year with American Anthem. All I can tell you is that Mitch Gaylord ain't Prince.

but what was "wrong" with his performaces BEFORE purple rain????

You did not play a betamax tape in a VHS player. Forget scrambled picture because the tape wouldn't even fit in the machine, much less play.

So, there's that...

[Edited 11/30/15 11:46am]

luvsexy4all said:

but what was "wrong" with his performaces BEFORE purple rain????

Absolutely nothing. The beauty of the movie is that we're supposed to see the arc of the "inferior" performance like Darling Nikki and Computer Blue and contrast it with the triumphant rise at the end. To the Prince fan there is not a huge leap, Computer Blue and Darling Nikki kicked butt. But you look at the character at his lowest, playing for his life, and he comes up with areguably one of the Top 25 songs of all time. The rise of the underdog with his back against the ropes and defeating the enemy (Morris), that is what has been mimicked over and over. Okay Prince didn't invent it, goes back to Rocky and surely all the way back to the beginning of cinema. But Purple Rain did it very effectively.

djThunderfunk said:

You did not play a betamax tape in a VHS player. Forget scrambled picture because the tape wouldn't even fit in the machine, much less play.

So, there's that...

Really, though, the first troll thread was funny, the second was weak, now, it's played out. Just sayin'.

Okay, so I'm dealing with three accusations here A credibility accusation (maybe it wasn't a Betamax in a VHS, maybe it was a screwed up Betamax...regardless it was scrambled and I was pissed).

Two, I'm accused of trolling. First time since I started going to this site in 2004 that I have been accused of a troll post. Quite frankly that hurts. I know I am an infrequent poster and not Org royalty but this post wasn't meant as a troll post.

As far as being played out and unfunny...well to quote Prince they didn't understand "The Wizard of Oz" at first...took them years but now it's a classic. This was not literary greatness but I thought the post to be at least a little whimsical.

Now if everyone will excuse me, I am going backstage to pace back and forth angrily for several minutes. When I hear applause, I will come back and take a bow.

[Edited 11/30/15 6:26am]

GottaLetitgo said:

djThunderfunk said:

You did not play a betamax tape in a VHS player. Forget scrambled picture because the tape wouldn't even fit in the machine, much less play.

So, there's that...

Really, though, the first troll thread was funny, the second was weak, now, it's played out. Just sayin'.

Okay, so I'm dealing with three accusations here A credibility accusation (maybe it wasn't a Betamax in a VHS, maybe it was a screwed up Betamax...regardless it was scrambled and I was pissed).

Two, I'm accused of trolling. First time since I started going to this site in 2004 that I have been accused of a troll post. Quite frankly that hurts. I know I am an infrequent poster and not Org royalty but this post wasn't meant as a troll post.

As far as being played out and unfunny...well to quote Prince they didn't understand "The Wizard of Oz" at first...took them years but now it's a classic. This was not literary greatness but I thought the post to be at least a little whimsical.

Now if everyone will excuse me, I am going backstage to pace back and forth angrily for several minutes. When I hear applause, I will come back and take a bow.

[Edited 11/30/15 6:26am]

I'll walk back the trolling comment but will stick with the videotape facts. Sorry to offend.

djThunderfunk was right about the Betamax...they do have Betamax to VHS converters on eBay but I'm fairly certain that I just got a bum Betamax.

This is one of those threads that you wonder if people see things like you do. Prince would not have been superstar Prince without the last 20 minutes of PR (my opinion), This is not saying that he wasn't a star, that 1999 wasn't a hit album, that his performance of "The Beautiful Ones" is arguably not just as strong if not stronger than his performancew of IWD4U. But when you watch PR, my argument is what cemented his image for the masses was the last 20 minutes of PR. It is his Michael Jackson Moonwalking at Motown 25 moment. Can this argument be shut down and debated? Sure. But it was the only point I was making. Additionally though there are humorous elements to PR that has been pointed out 4 trillion times that are the product of so-so screenwriting and a budget of $237. The PR/IWD4U/BIAS trifecta is absolutely brilliant but logically and cinematically there are multiple questions that one could ask, many of which I asked to a resounding thud of a response. I used to be funny once. Now I will just have to settle for being good looking.

[Edited 11/30/15 12:41pm]

GottaLetitgo said:

..... There is no more awesome last twenty minutes of a movie budgeted under $20 million than the last 20 minutes of Purple Rain...

Rocky.

That movie had a budget of ONE million and the last 20 minutes (championship fight between Apollo & Rocky) was inspirational.

"Adrian!"

EroticDreamer said:

luv2tha99s said:

EroticDreamer said:

Rocky.

That movie had a budget of ONE million and the last 20 minutes (championship fight between Apollo & Rocky) was inspirational.

"Adrian!"

The finales of Rocky 1 and 2 ARE amazing, but come on, the end of PR is beyond! It IS what cemented the image of P in the masses' minds. There was no internet to introduce him to the suburban white audience. The climax of the movie simultaneously made P a superstar to EVERYONE and became an albatross around his neck (at least in the "commercial" audiences' eyes). [Edited 11/30/15 18:26pm]

Rocky just got a spin-off sequel, Creed.

Ain't nobody gonna make another Purple Rain movie.

I have the bluray and DVD of Purple Rain and it's still on our dvr since May 26 of last year and the last 20 minutes are good but Rocky is still the champ.

[Edited 11/30/15 19:30pm]

GottaLetitgo said:

GottaLetitgo said:

4) It is a little bit of suspension of disbelief that the band never rehearsed PR together, apparently did not know they were going to play it, and then after Prince's somber intro, they all seemed to know it and played the hell out of it. Don't care, it's still great.

It's pretty strongly implied that the Revolution were working on their own material when The Kid wasn't around.