So ... I just watched the movie 3 chains of gold last night again ...

Let me quote someone from the forum who said it better than me in 2010:

databank said:

3 Chains O'Gold film: WTF???!!!... Watched it again after 15 years the other day. . This film is nonsense!

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So 1st and 4most: why the butchering edits on most songs? Why not putting them entirely since the videos were shot anyway?! And why no videos 4 "Arrogance", "The Flow", "And God Created Woman", "3 Chains O' Gold" (despite the orchestral version) and "The sacrifice Of Victor"? if that goddamn album and film was supposed 2 tell a story what's the point in skipping the end of the story if u're gonna tell it anyway?

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And what the hell's that story about anyway? 1st, 7 dudes (who?) kill Mayte's father (why?). Then Mayte goes to MPLS (why?) and sees on the news that Prince is kind of encouraging a violent riot (why?), so she goes there and gives him her precious gold chains (why?). Then Prince puts his whole own band in jail (why?), fails to fuck a woman because he thinks of Mayte (why: they just met?) and then frees his band 4 a photoshoot (!!!).

.

Then he meets Mayte again and they fall in love and as she worries about the 7 dudes, he tells her that she can relax because "the max is in control" (what the fuck is "the max" anyway?) and they have wonderful times together but suddenly, as she makes an horrible nightmare, he decides to leave her (why?) and he takes a train to Japan (how on earth do u reach Japan by train if u're in the USA?!), where he claims he's such a "continental" hotshot to the crowd and possibly fucks Carmen (but as she's been edited out, we don't know), but in the end he decides to get back to Mayte because he can't put her outta his mind, and suddenly we skip 2 songs and jump to "7", which is slaughtered by interviews of the bandmembers about Mayte (why? and who cares what they think anyway?) and Prince kills both the seven dudes and his past selves (why?) and then the good guys won and we skip one more song and jump to this instrumental version of "3 Chains O'Gold" with Mayte reading her infamous letter about Prince's namechange and he signs a contract with Japanese executives (why?), which is so absurd because this is all about the name change, which happened in 1993 while this film/albums' concept goes back to late 1991, at a time when Prince wasn't thinking of changing his name or leaving Warner Bros, meaning that Prince suddenly changed the plot to make it fit with recent events in his life and that makes the story even more impossible to understand and spoils whatever original ending was there in the 1st place. And in the end they bury Mayte's precious chains of gold (why?) and we have a written message about Prince's spiritual revolution which has nothing to do with Mayte anymore, and that's it, story's over.

.

Damn, u can say whatever u want about Graffiti Bridge, but this film is a masterpiece in comparison to that absurd piece of crap that was released on video!!! I'll add that the story in the video slightly differs from the story that's told by the album's unreleased segues, making the whole thing even more confusing.

.

Does someone understand something that i don't in the middle of that whole narrative mess???

I thought that I would have some sort of renewed appreciation for the movie, but it's still as awful as a decade ago! I'm afraid to watch Graffiti Bridge now (haven't seen it in years, was thinking of re-wachting it).

Heidi said:

I honestly wouldn't have it any other way. I love how convoluted the album era is. I gave up trying to make sense of it long ago. Matt Thorne's Prince book tries to piece together the plot -- he had to listen to boots of the tour, read the comic book, watch the film, etc etc and it still barely made sense. I just enjoy it for what it is

Heidi said:

So ... I just watched the movie 3 chains of gold last night again ...

Let me quote someone from the forum who said it better than me in 2010:

databank said:

3 Chains O'Gold film: WTF???!!!... Watched it again after 15 years the other day. . This film is nonsense!

.

So 1st and 4most: why the butchering edits on most songs? Why not putting them entirely since the videos were shot anyway?! And why no videos 4 "Arrogance", "The Flow", "And God Created Woman", "3 Chains O' Gold" (despite the orchestral version) and "The sacrifice Of Victor"? if that goddamn album and film was supposed 2 tell a story what's the point in skipping the end of the story if u're gonna tell it anyway?

.

And what the hell's that story about anyway? 1st, 7 dudes (who?) kill Mayte's father (why?). Then Mayte goes to MPLS (why?) and sees on the news that Prince is kind of encouraging a violent riot (why?), so she goes there and gives him her precious gold chains (why?). Then Prince puts his whole own band in jail (why?), fails to fuck a woman because he thinks of Mayte (why: they just met?) and then frees his band 4 a photoshoot (!!!).

.

Then he meets Mayte again and they fall in love and as she worries about the 7 dudes, he tells her that she can relax because "the max is in control" (what the fuck is "the max" anyway?) and they have wonderful times together but suddenly, as she makes an horrible nightmare, he decides to leave her (why?) and he takes a train to Japan (how on earth do u reach Japan by train if u're in the USA?!), where he claims he's such a "continental" hotshot to the crowd and possibly fucks Carmen (but as she's been edited out, we don't know), but in the end he decides to get back to Mayte because he can't put her outta his mind, and suddenly we skip 2 songs and jump to "7", which is slaughtered by interviews of the bandmembers about Mayte (why? and who cares what they think anyway?) and Prince kills both the seven dudes and his past selves (why?) and then the good guys won and we skip one more song and jump to this instrumental version of "3 Chains O'Gold" with Mayte reading her infamous letter about Prince's namechange and he signs a contract with Japanese executives (why?), which is so absurd because this is all about the name change, which happened in 1993 while this film/albums' concept goes back to late 1991, at a time when Prince wasn't thinking of changing his name or leaving Warner Bros, meaning that Prince suddenly changed the plot to make it fit with recent events in his life and that makes the story even more impossible to understand and spoils whatever original ending was there in the 1st place. And in the end they bury Mayte's precious chains of gold (why?) and we have a written message about Prince's spiritual revolution which has nothing to do with Mayte anymore, and that's it, story's over.

.

Damn, u can say whatever u want about Graffiti Bridge, but this film is a masterpiece in comparison to that absurd piece of crap that was released on video!!! I'll add that the story in the video slightly differs from the story that's told by the album's unreleased segues, making the whole thing even more confusing.

.

Does someone understand something that i don't in the middle of that whole narrative mess???

I thought that I would have some sort of renewed appreciation for the movie, but it's still as awful as a decade ago! I'm afraid to watch Graffiti Bridge now (haven't seen it in years, was thinking of re-wachting it).

I remember this major WTF moment when I watched it for the first time after 15 years and wrote this review. Fall 2010. How time flies...

The Love Symbol album is one of my favorite albums, so I really enjoy the movie. Yeah, the 'story' is a little wacky, but very Prince-ish...I'll admit, you really have to be a Prince fan to fully appreciate this movie

brandongotpaper said:

Heidi said:

So ... I just watched the movie 3 chains of gold last night again ...

Let me quote someone from the forum who said it better than me in 2010:

I thought that I would have some sort of renewed appreciation for the movie, but it's still as awful as a decade ago! I'm afraid to watch Graffiti Bridge now (haven't seen it in years, was thinking of re-wachting it).

How can I see this ?

Use your eyes.

Nice cinematography though, got that nice, glossy 90's look.

Prince was better telling a story in 4:30 minutes, not an hour, or two hours. These video collections, like Diamonds and Pearls, or 3 Chains O' Gold are just vehicles to put some videos together. It's not unusual. Other artists have done the same thing, loosely tying songs together via flimsy storyline. Little bit of acting here and there (mostly bad), some special effects, a lot of emoting, and some clevre editing - voila! We got ourselves a 1 hour hunk o' sumfin'. Beyonce does it. Styx did it. There's a long list.

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I mean, it's not a surprise that Prince's two best movies weren't directed by him. Purple Rain & Sign O The Times. (No, he didn't direct SOTT; Albert Magnoli ghost directed it.) UTCM gets an honorable mention because it's really not too bad. GB is another thing entirely.

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And can I just say, all that damn whispering my Mayte in 3 Chains irritated the shit out of me. Speak up, woman!

Watched it for the first time about a week or 2 ago. It was...interesting lol

Lol! Good memories. But as a 13 year old at the time, I thought...omg this is like a porn or something!

I think it's more along form music video... not really a story. More like a suggestion of a story, a way to thread together various video projects and concert footage.