The sudden death of the enigmatic celebrity, the
electrifying performer, the virtuoso musician Prince made me jump immediately
to a movie I’d never seen before. Purple
Rain was Prince’s first movie. He starred in it and of course wrote all the
music that his character, The Kid (a somewhat autobiographical version of
himself), performs. He won an Oscar for Best Original Musical – the last time
that Oscar category was even awarded. Purple
Rain has never a bright reputation. It’s no work of cinematic gold and is
only remembered today because it stars Prince and his music. By most accounts,
it is the best of Prince’s four films so I can only imagine just how bad Under the Cherry Moon must be.
The movie is really not much of a story. The Kid performs
regularly at a club called First Avenue. Morris, his rival, leads a musical
group called The Time. His love interest is a new girl on the block named
Apollonia. She’s a performer being pulled in two directions by The Kid and
Morris. The Kid comes from a broken home with an abusive father (played by
Clarence Williams III), featured in so crummy scenes that a mirrored later when
The Kid strikes Apollonia out of nowhere. This is the most facile way of
depicting the ways the sins of the father are repeated in the son. Almost none
of it rings true and it almost all comes across as ridiculous.
Director Albert Magnoli, previously a film editor, doesn’t
provide much in the way of solid dramatic direction, although the opening montage
set to the tune of “Let’s Go Crazy” is electric even as you might snigger from
the lofty position of the year 2016 because of the hairstyles and the glam rock
makeup that adorns the audience members. Remember Prince was heavily influenced
by David Bowie and the glam rock movement in general.
It hardly bears mentioning that the acting is mostly
atrocious. Apollonia Kotero received a Razzie nomination for Worst New Star for
her turgid performance. Prince hardly delivers the goods either, but I don’t
want to pile on to what is obviously not good acting. Truly, the highlights of Purple Rain come in the musical
soundtrack as well as the performances.
The Purple Rain
soundtrack is one of the all-time great rock albums. And every song plays out almost
in its entirety in the movie, mostly in the form of The Kid’s live
performances. Prince was an amazing live performer (a fact I’ve been enjoying
over this last week since he died) and you can see it in this movie. He’s sexy,
daring, charismatic. I also really like the story touch that his bandmates
Wendy and Lisa (Prince’s real bandmates as part of The Revolution at the time)
have desires to perform their own songs and not just what he’s written. He
keeps laughing them off as they become ever more disgruntled until he finally
agrees, turned around by the recognition that his father had become a bitter
old drunk and washed up musician, to do it on stage. And the song they’ve
written turns out to be the title track. For all Prince’s apparent ego, it’s a
beautiful touch that the great song in the movie is the one written not by the
star. His emotional apex comes as the result of music that someone else wrote
(we’re speaking about characters here. Prince actually wrote “Purple Rain”).
Still, there’s a rather uncomfortable ending note that
suggests domestic violence and slapping your girlfriend around can all be
resolved by a great musical performance and a pseudo apology and explanation
buried inside some lyrics. Prince was a brilliant musician and performer. I’m
sorry I missed him live and didn’t pay enough attention while he was still with
us. I’m not, however, sorry I never came around to the movie Purple Rain. Nice effort. Great music.
Let’s leave this one as a footnote in the Oscar history books.
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