I think it's a fair question. I saw it again last night after not having seen it in probably 10 years or so and while I've always thought it sucked, my viewing last night came with some sort of appreciation for creativity in the vision that Prince had for this project. I tried watching it with more of an open mind and see the point that he was getting at. The main issue I have with the storyline is that he made the Time out to be these evil bad guys while he looked like, pretty much, a bullied saint, trying desperately to save his club (and himself) and ends up saving the day (and his block) with a ballad about having more faith. The song itself "Still Would Stand All Time" is a really good song, but to all of a sudden have a choir pop up from out of the bushes and help him sing it was a bit much. The wardrobe was really colorful and fun. I swear Prince's outfit near the end with the half jumpsuit nearly made him appear naked. I had forgotten all about that Tevin Campbell and Mavis Staples were in the movie too.


*Please also note that when I popped the DVD in last night, I already had about 3 full glasses of red wine and drank two and a half more while watching.

Graffiti Bridge could have been great, but IMO most of the faults come down to bad sequencing and editing.

Have you seen the outtakes? The "Can't Stop This Feeling I Got" video which would have started the movie is absolutely brilliant and could have set a different tone to the movie. Bring that back, trim the fat, cut out Tevin whose part wasn't needed, and sequence the story a bit better and you have a way better film. I enjoy the film as it is and I think a lot of the criticism it gets is exaggerated.

Yes. As a film, it's very bad.

If you watch it as a music video though, it's enjoyable, due to the great music.

Yes!

to put it simple: Yes

Yes, yes it is. It is that bad and even worse as well. The definition of "for fans only" and even that's pushing it. There's definitely a better film in there but you'd be changing almost everything to find it.

For me the worst bit is just the absolute lifelessness of all those soundstage sets. Purple Rain is a fairly bad film that is made into a total classic by the brilliant live scenes and the capturing the moment of it all. GB is missing all of that.

[Edited 5/18/16 6:03am]

Militant said:

Graffiti Bridge could have been great, but IMO most of the faults come down to bad sequencing and editing.

Have you seen the outtakes? The "Can't Stop This Feeling I Got" video which would have started the movie is absolutely brilliant and could have set a different tone to the movie. Bring that back, trim the fat, cut out Tevin whose part wasn't needed, and sequence the story a bit better and you have a way better film. I enjoy the film as it is and I think a lot of the criticism it gets is exaggerated.

No I haven't seen the outtakes. Makes me curious.

I agree with you that Tevin's scene wasn't needed...and I'd add that Mavis Staples scene wasn't needed either.

I think it wasn't that long ago that we had this discussion, but another thing is that Graffiti Bridge is clearly two different movies jammed into one.

Movie 1 : Prince and Aura, the feather and it's meaning, etc

Movie 2 : Purple Rain 2 with The Kid VS The Time

Movie 1 is the movie Prince wanted to make and evolved from earlier concepts like The Dawn.

Movie 2 is the movie Prince was forced to make in order to get funding, and this seems to have happened at the last minute.

Hell, Prince didn't even have a keyboard player in the movie, they used Philip C who was the hairdresser!!! If the movie had *always* been a battle of the bands between The Kid's band and The Time, a la Purple Rain, then it seems pretty obvious that Prince would have given this band a name, explored their personalities (TC Ellis being desperate to rap doesn't count), given them all at least one line or some backstory, etc, etc.

Bringing in The Time and making it a follow up to Purple Rain revolving around a battle between two bands clearly is something that was all jammed in at the last minute.

KaresB said:

Yes. As a film, it's very bad.

If you watch it as a music video though, it's enjoyable, due to the great music.

I enjoy the soundtrack...minus all the Time's songs. I always wondered why "Jerk Out" was never featured in the film as a performance (or was it actually filmed and got cut?). The Time's "Pandemonium" album is one of my favorites. It's odd to me that none of the songs, except for a snippet of Jerk Out in the background, was featured in the movie. Could you imagine them performing "Skillet", "Chocolate" and "Data Bank" in the movie? It would had been so hot.

[Edited 5/18/16 6:16am]

Militant said:

I think it wasn't that long ago that we had this discussion, but another thing is that Graffiti Bridge is clearly two different movies jammed into one.

Movie 1 : Prince and Aura, the feather and it's meaning, etc

Movie 2 : Purple Rain 2 with The Kid VS The Time

Movie 1 is the movie Prince wanted to make and evolved from earlier concepts like The Dawn.

Movie 2 is the movie Prince was forced to make in order to get funding, and this seems to have happened at the last minute.

Hell, Prince didn't even have a keyboard player in the movie, they used Philip C who was the hairdresser!!! If the movie had *always* been a battle of the bands between The Kid's band and The Time, a la Purple Rain, then it seems pretty obvious that Prince would have given this band a name, explored their personalities (TC Ellis being desperate to rap doesn't count), given them all at least one line or some backstory, etc, etc.

Bringing in The Time and making it a follow up to Purple Rain revolving around a battle between two bands clearly is something that was all jammed in at the last minute.

add to that that Prince said he made a film/story for the Time, and that didn't fly

Militant said:

I think it wasn't that long ago that we had this discussion, but another thing is that Graffiti Bridge is clearly two different movies jammed into one.

Movie 1 : Prince and Aura, the feather and it's meaning, etc

Movie 2 : Purple Rain 2 with The Kid VS The Time

Movie 1 is the movie Prince wanted to make and evolved from earlier concepts like The Dawn.

Movie 2 is the movie Prince was forced to make in order to get funding, and this seems to have happened at the last minute.

Hell, Prince didn't even have a keyboard player in the movie, they used Philip C who was the hairdresser!!! If the movie had *always* been a battle of the bands between The Kid's band and The Time, a la Purple Rain, then it seems pretty obvious that Prince would have given this band a name, explored their personalities (TC Ellis being desperate to rap doesn't count), given them all at least one line or some backstory, etc, etc.

Bringing in The Time and making it a follow up to Purple Rain revolving around a battle between two bands clearly is something that was all jammed in at the last minute.

WHAT!!!! Never knew that. Well I tell you one thing, he did one hell of a job on Prince's hair because it was absolutely gorgeous. Don't know who was used to do the rest of the cast's hair, but Jesse's roller set look was on point too. I'm serious.

Well now that you've broken all the facts down, it makes sense.

OldFriends4Sale said:

Militant said:

I think it wasn't that long ago that we had this discussion, but another thing is that Graffiti Bridge is clearly two different movies jammed into one.

Movie 1 : Prince and Aura, the feather and it's meaning, etc

Movie 2 : Purple Rain 2 with The Kid VS The Time

Movie 1 is the movie Prince wanted to make and evolved from earlier concepts like The Dawn.

Movie 2 is the movie Prince was forced to make in order to get funding, and this seems to have happened at the last minute.

Hell, Prince didn't even have a keyboard player in the movie, they used Philip C who was the hairdresser!!! If the movie had *always* been a battle of the bands between The Kid's band and The Time, a la Purple Rain, then it seems pretty obvious that Prince would have given this band a name, explored their personalities (TC Ellis being desperate to rap doesn't count), given them all at least one line or some backstory, etc, etc.

Bringing in The Time and making it a follow up to Purple Rain revolving around a battle between two bands clearly is something that was all jammed in at the last minute.

add to that that Prince said he made a film/story for the Time, and that didn't fly

From what I gathered from interviews on this topic by The Time, it was explained as if it was Prince who changed the original story focusing on The Time to what it is now and not the "powers who be".

Even worse.

missfee said:

Militant said:

I think it wasn't that long ago that we had this discussion, but another thing is that Graffiti Bridge is clearly two different movies jammed into one.

Movie 1 : Prince and Aura, the feather and it's meaning, etc

Movie 2 : Purple Rain 2 with The Kid VS The Time

Movie 1 is the movie Prince wanted to make and evolved from earlier concepts like The Dawn.

Movie 2 is the movie Prince was forced to make in order to get funding, and this seems to have happened at the last minute.

Hell, Prince didn't even have a keyboard player in the movie, they used Philip C who was the hairdresser!!! If the movie had *always* been a battle of the bands between The Kid's band and The Time, a la Purple Rain, then it seems pretty obvious that Prince would have given this band a name, explored their personalities (TC Ellis being desperate to rap doesn't count), given them all at least one line or some backstory, etc, etc.

Bringing in The Time and making it a follow up to Purple Rain revolving around a battle between two bands clearly is something that was all jammed in at the last minute.

WHAT!!!! Never knew that. Well I tell you one thing, he did one hell of a job on Prince's hair because it was absolutely gorgeous. Don't know who was used to do the rest of the cast's hair, but Jesse's roller set look was on point too. I'm serious.

Well now that you've broken all the facts down, it makes sense.

Earl Jones, Jill's uncle was still doing Prince's hair. Philip C. was a set hair dresser for all the other people in the movie. Morris also had his own hair dresser.

joyinrepetition said:

missfee said:

WHAT!!!! Never knew that. Well I tell you one thing, he did one hell of a job on Prince's hair because it was absolutely gorgeous. Don't know who was used to do the rest of the cast's hair, but Jesse's roller set look was on point too. I'm serious.

Well now that you've broken all the facts down, it makes sense.

Earl Jones, Jill's uncle was still doing Prince's hair. Philip C. was a set hair dresser for all the other people in the movie. Morris also had his own hair dresser.

Oh ok, sorry my mistake.

missfee said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

add to that that Prince said he made a film/story for the Time, and that didn't fly

From what I gathered from interviews on this topic by The Time, it was explained as if it was Prince who changed the original story focusing on The Time to what it is now and not the "powers who be".

oh ok, there are so many twists and changes to this film(period)

Madonna was supposed to be in it, when the Lovesexy band was still on board:Sheila E Cat etc

Cat took off Boni left for Australia and Sheila E and Prince part ways because of her 4th album and then her back issues/lung collapsed

Kim Bassinger was next to be in it? I believe

KaresB said:

Yes. As a film, it's very bad.

If you watch it as a music video though, it's enjoyable, due to the great music.

Funny that you say that as I have always watched it as a collection of music videos and less as film.

As a film it has no redeeming qualities but it is a great music video.

ROLLING STONE (1990)

PRINCE TALKS

BY NEAL KARLEN

A COUPLE OF NIGHTS LATER

Originally, Graffiti Bridge was going to be a vehicle for the reborn Time, with Prince staying behind the camera. But Warner Bros. wouldn't go for it, so Prince wrote himself into a new movie. Later, visitors to Paisley Park saw a version of a script that was allegedly obtuse to the point of near gibberish. "That was just a real rough thirty-page treatment I wrote with Kim," Prince says. "Graffiti Bridge is an entirely different movie."

Johnson: Pandemonium

Can you imagine if this film was leaked from the vault now, I think we would have a different opinion of the film.I suspect that any movie that might see the light of day in the future will be favoured regardless of content. Acting aside the music makes it watchable. For me movie 1/10 music 7/10

The low budget feel didnt help. They filmed 98% in a studio that looked as real as a 70's Doctor Who set. Also unlike Purple Rain, the music was not recorded live which makes it look more like a TV special than a feature film.

Plot and acting wise it made Under the Cherry Moon look like Citizen Kane.

When it comes to all of Prince's movies I'm not expecting the next 'Casablanca' here . I enjoy them for what they are, they are meant for Prince fans.

[Edited 5/18/16 6:34am]

http://www.themortonrepor...-part-two/

An Interview with Jimmy Jam of The Original 7ven, Part Two

Jimmy Jam discusses The Time, Prince, and working with Janet and Michael Jackson.

Cat Glover

Prince, Madonna and I were the original lineup for Graffiti Bridge. That movie was strictly written for Prince, Madonna and myself. Period. Exclamation point.
That movie was actually written on the Lovesexy Tour. Everyone in that movie replaced us. Prince actually wrote the movie and most of it was what we experienced on the Lovesexy Tour. Madonna pulled out of the movie and I left Prince; I quit. So, he had to revamp the script.
That's when he got Ingrid Chavez and everyone else. But, Mavis Staples was one person that was originally supposed to be in the movie. She was always part of the movie. Sheila E. was part of the movie. Everyone else was a replacement. I don't mean to say it that way, it sounds kind of harsh and mean, but, I know the original script.
I was in the studio with Madonna and Prince when they were discussing the script. The story was totally different. I remember they were arguing over the script, bragging on each other, talking about each other's shoes and I was laughing. Madonna said to Prince "Cat and I should have a dance battle" and Prince said (speaking in a low raspy voice) "I don't think so. I don't think you want to do that. I don't think you want to dance against Cat." That's just how he said it. I'll never forget it.
That was two powerful people, together, in the same space—and me. I was more like a bystander listening and watching.
But, the whole movie changed.

Yes, the movie was brutal. Couple of great tracks from the album though.

Grifitti Bridge deleted scenes & outtakes

"a different kind of movie. It's not violent. Nobody gets laid." -Prince

OldFriends4Sale said:

"a different kind of movie. It's not violent. Nobody gets laid." -Prince

I love that Monte is the one that gets to come at Prince, haha. That's too funny.