There's a lot of things I don't understand about PR. (though it's been a long time since I saw it last).

Could someone weigh in on these?:

1) Point 1: It's never really made clear WHY Prince's parents are fighting. Like - why? Could someone please tell me?

2) Point 2: It's never really made clear WHY Prince has the rivalry with Morris - we're not told the back story. Umm.... did Prince and Morris grow up neighbours or something, and Morris make off with a girl P was interested in, and he now wants to exact revenge? Or, maybe - did they go to the same school and Morris did better than P in an algebra test, and he now wants to get his own back, LOL...?!! WHY?

Point 3): Some people may get angry, but - it's also not clear to me WHY Apples and P hook up. Like - her I can understand - P on stage, is like, this, Greatest Rocker On Earth. But why does he fall for her???!!! With HIS star talent, he could have any girl he wanted (and Jill in the club is testament to that) - why Apples, exactly??



What I suspect happened was, a bunch of marketing guys got together, and decided to put a movie with all the elements a teenager/young person would like, around this, incredible music young P had made. You want a Band rivalry, it's there. You want hot chicks - they're there. You want even violence - it's there. But that doesn't make a movie. Yall are confusing entertainment with Real Life.

Do you realise the actual songs are real - i.e Take Me With U, Beautiful Ones must have been written about some girl in Prince's Real Life!! WHO???



But why I suspect the public went to see it, back in 84, was.....simply for the songs!!! The greatest music on planet Earth. That's what Purple Rain the movie was - a vehicle for the music!!


So that's my opinion. Take it or leave it. But please be civilised in your reaction. I'm ready to discuss this with anyone who is. Cheers!

1) The parents are fighting because that's how their relationship is. Agreed it's never quite stated why - but you can take a guess, infidelity, money, personal unfulfilment - the usual marital issues.

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2) Morris and Prince are rival band leaders, fighting over the same spots on the local scene "I've got 3 bands, I don't need 4" like Billy says.

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3) She had nice knockers? I don't know, she's a sexy girl, she has that thing, he's a star maker as well as a star. What more do you need?

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Your suspicions about it being a marketing department creation is a bit cynical and from a modern eye. Purple Rain is right at the start of movie soundtracks and tie-ins and music videos being a thing. It's a very influential film from thet POV. Now every friggin' movie has a pop music soundtrack and cross-media promotion, but back then it wasn't quite as saturated as it is now.

domainator2010 said:

The set up is obvious. (JFC Apolonia is fly as hell. what more reason do you need AND she got him that GUItar).

What is perhaps is less convincing in retrospect is that everything is resolved all because Purple Rain (the song) is JUST THAT GOOD......

but know what.....IT WAS AND STILL IS.

emesem said:

Well, I'll put it this way - I watched it again a few weeks after he passed and...let's face it, the performance segments are electrifying and totally mesmerising, but the rest of it is pretty shit and has not aged well.

It's hardly a Charlie Kaufman film with loads of layers.

It's what it is, and what it was - a suitable vehicle for Prince to become a superstar. It did the job.

domainator2010 said:

There's a lot of things I don't understand about PR. (though it's been a long time since I saw it last).

Could someone weigh in on these?:

1) Point 1: It's never really made clear WHY Prince's parents are fighting. Like - why? Could someone please tell me?

2) Point 2: It's never really made clear WHY Prince has the rivalry with Morris - we're not told the back story. Umm.... did Prince and Morris grow up neighbours or something, and Morris make off with a girl P was interested in, and he now wants to exact revenge? Or, maybe - did they go to the same school and Morris did better than P in an algebra test, and he now wants to get his own back, LOL...?!! WHY?

Point 3): Some people may get angry, but - it's also not clear to me WHY Apples and P hook up. Like - her I can understand - P on stage, is like, this, Greatest Rocker On Earth. But why does he fall for her???!!! With HIS star talent, he could have any girl he wanted (and Jill in the club is testament to that) - why Apples, exactly??



What I suspect happened was, a bunch of marketing guys got together, and decided to put a movie with all the elements a teenager/young person would like, around this, incredible music young P had made. You want a Band rivalry, it's there. You want hot chicks - they're there. You want even violence - it's there. But that doesn't make a movie. Yall are confusing entertainment with Real Life.

Do you realise the actual songs are real - i.e Take Me With U, Beautiful Ones must have been written about some girl in Prince's Real Life!! WHO???



But why I suspect the public went to see it, back in 84, was.....simply for the songs!!! The greatest music on planet Earth. That's what Purple Rain the movie was - a vehicle for the music!!


So that's my opinion. Take it or leave it. But please be civilised in your reaction. I'm ready to discuss this with anyone who is. Cheers!

The reason they went to see it was because of Prince's electrifying performances to those songs. This was how Prince managed to get his highest exposure to the general public. Sure, he had a couple of videos playing on MTV, but this movie is what shot him into the stratosphere of stardom. Without this movie he would have never became the superstar that he became.

1. It did, he wants her to stay her azz at home and be the ideal housewife and she wants to go out and live life. A pretty common marital issue.


2. Natural competition, you see it in all these hip hop beefs, seems like it's a normal real thing.


3. She's the pretty new girl in town, different than all the other girls he's been around, and with her own ambitions and willing to go for them. I'm not sure if he was all into making it happen for her though. I pretty much got she was new and shiny.


You need to venture into the relationship thread to find out who all this songs were written for. Wish you luck.

1) The Kid's parents were fighting because The Kid's mother wanted to go out and have fun but The Kid's father seemed to not want to do that anymore and didn't want her to either, which caused conflict and their fighting.

2) Morris and The Kid, both wanted to be the next stars to make it to the big time coming from the The First Avenue, as other groups before them had. Both knew their bands were tight and their music was good and they both knew that BOTH weren't going to make it. Hence the rivalry.

3) Apples was the new piece of as...I mean...hottie in town and The Kid wanted first dibs.

jjam said:

Well, I'll put it this way - I watched it again a few weeks after he passed and...let's face it, the performance segments are electrifying and totally mesmerising, but the rest of it is pretty shit and has not aged well.

It's hardly a Charlie Kaufman film with loads of layers.

It's what it is, and what it was - a suitable vehicle for Prince to become a superstar. It did the job.

it was largely timing, prince was gradually building his fan base, also, people needed an alternative to MJ and P was perfect. The music was great, prince's charisma if not his acting and at least for a kid like me, it was everything i wanted to be, the guy who has talent and gets the girl. However, i'd agree, it's not great cinema, kurt loder called it "a great movie" but I never thought so but it goes to show, things don't have to be great to impact people greatly. Prince hit a chord for many people who grappled with their own identities and sexualities.

also, for some of us, the unhappy homelife was something that not many films would go into at that time, domestic abuse or a dysfunctional family, for those of us who had crazy parents, suddenly we didn't feel so alone and unusual.

fms said:

If anyone has trouble understanding Purple Rain, do NOT attempt Graffiti Bridge.
Just sayin'.

1) Point 1: It's never really made clear WHY Prince's parents are fighting. Like - why? Could someone please tell me?

"Maybe I'm just too demanding
Maybe I'm just like my father, too bold
Maybe you're just like my mother
She's never satisfied (She's never satisfied)"

Dad was very demanding of the mother, bold in his demands, and mom was never satisfied with the life they were living. She wanted the rock and roll life (maybe the life they had when dad was performing) and when dad didn't make it, mom became more and more unsatisfied with the life they had, and dad became more demanding. This created a volatile situation in which they both rubbed each other the wrong way. But towards the end, you discover mom really did love dad, by her reaction to his attempted suicide; and dad loved mom because he couldn't live with the way he had treated her, thus the suicide attempt.

2) Point 2: It's never really made clear WHY Prince has the rivalry with Morris - we're not told the back story.

Morris had ambition, but it was about making money. He wanted to be rich and the music was a means to an end. For The Kid, he was about making music that touched you, moved you, expressed your deepest emotions. They were antithesis of each other. It could actually be said that the both characters were the same character, but it was the two sides fighting for the lime light. Kind of the "Love or Money", which was going to win? The dark or the light?

3) Some people may get angry, but - it's also not clear to me WHY Apples and P hook up.

Apples was the beautiful, new mystery lady that showed up in town. She exemplified the girl that came to town that just wanted to see her name "appear on the big screen" and he just wanted to "hear her scream" (yes, I'm borrowing from a newer song that has nothing to do with Pruple Rain to make a point). Maybe he saw his mother in her, someone who wanted more in life than to just be a housewife, but he thought he could tame her, make it work in a way that didn't work for his dad and mom. They say every boy grows up to marry a woman like his mother and every girl grows up to marry a man like her dad (it's an old saying but applicable). If he could make it work with Apples, then maybe there was hope for his mom and dad. But regardless, I think it's a play on the old storyline, new girl in town, two boys fight over her, she falls for the good guy in the end, while the bad boy tries to take out the good boy or make him appear less in front of the girl.

The story line really isn't that complicated.

Its an 80s flick aimed at the youth of the day. It was low budget and the script was pretty thin. But the music and the on-stage performances raised it above the levels that such standard fare would normally attain. I don't think it was ever made with the intention of being debated and discected 40 years later by a bunch of film scholars.

What I really want to know is why Luke Skywalker never made the connection between Obi Wan Kenobi and Ben Kenobi at the beginning of Star Wars. THAT is a much more important question to be asking.

Rebeljuice said:

hell, many of the girls in the movie were hot, wendy and lisa, even then had a nice homoerotic vibe cutting through and prince's girls jill jones and kim upsher were just as gorgous if not moreso than apples.

recently, with all the bitching about the PR remix, i've been noticing the sound quality of the movie, you can hear a hiss on the dvd and you can hear on the song Purple Rain where an obvious edit was made, I never noticed it when i was a kid, and i know it isn't just my copy, because i've got a couple different copies and they both have it, so i figure prince had added or changed Purple rain and wanted it included in the movie. if that were done today, these people here would be losing their fucking minds over it.

Prince's parrents are poor with social problems this the answer..

Apollonia is 1 hot babe in Purple Rain..

there's the second answer..

Stoooopid questions, imho...

Are you a young person?

[Edited 7/25/17 2:48am]

1 - both were just frustrated people who never felt like they were where they deserved to be, and took it out on each other.

2 - Male ego and bravado

3 - Appolonia was 90% tits and hair. She makes it clear she wants a shot of the Purple Jedi. Why wouldn't he?

rdhull said:

Do you know how cold it gets in Minneapolis? It makes everything crazy and senseless

fms said:

If anyone has trouble understanding Purple Rain, do NOT attempt Graffiti Bridge. Just sayin'.

EmmaMcG said:

Rebeljuice said:

Its an 80s flick aimed at the youth of the day. It was low budget and the script was pretty thin. But the music and the on-stage performances raised it above the levels that such standard fare would normally attain. I don't think it was ever made with the intention of being debated and discected 40 years later by a bunch of film scholars.

What I really want to know is why Luke Skywalker never made the connection between Obi Wan Kenobi and Ben Kenobi at the beginning of Star Wars. THAT is a much more important question to be asking.

Maybe Kenobi is a more common name in the Star Wars universe than we thought. In fact, I'd say there were loads of them. Haven't you ever heard of Jim Kenobi, the intergalactic pornographer? Some of his work got many an alien Hoth under the collar, if you catch my drift. Then there was Dr Silus Kenobi, the only gynaecologist on Alderaan. I think he had a brother who had something to do with computers. Adobe Wan Kenobi was his name. And who can forget the Mexican guy, Obi Juan Kenobi. Or the rapping siamese triplets, Obie-Trice Kenobi. Though Luke does wonder if Ben Kenobi might know this Obi Wan when they hear his name so it's not like it went completely over his head. [Edited 7/25/17 1:59am]

Dont forget that amazing Nabu DJ - Mobi Obi Kenobi.

Do people really have so little imagination?

IMO Prince wasn't "building his fan base"; he was expanding his fan base. Maybe it's just symantics, but to me building suggests that he didn't have a following. He had fans before 1999 and LRC. Anyway, I didn't go see PR because of his MTV videos, or the music, I went to see PR because I was obsessed with Prince.

That's me on the left.....Only in my imagination LOL