Purple Rain Review- By Michael J, Carlisle

Title: Purple Rain
Year: 1984
Director: Albert Magnoli
Country: US
Language: English

A year before Purple Rain hit the airwaves, Michael Jackson's Thriller was dominating radio and television. Selling over 22 million copies worldwide, becoming the sixth best-selling soundtrack album of all time, Prince's magnum opus manage to distract the public from MJ and turn the purple one into an 80's megastar. The film...wasn't as big of a critical success (it was nominated for two razzies) but did manage to bring in quite a bit of money at the box office. 

A young musician (Prince), tormented by an abusive situation at home, must contend with a rival singer, a burgeoning romance, and his own dissatisfied band, as his star begins to rise.

Praised for it’s innovative shooting of concert footage and clever editing of montages, while simultaneously criticized for it’s amateurish acting and ham-fisted story line, Purple Rain is a mixed bag that comes off as a poor man's Saturday Night Fever. This film is slightly different from typical musicals of the time however; often, as in Flashdance, the music is more of the background to the story.With Purple Rain, the performance/music aspect is at the forefront and everything else (acting, writing, story) takes a backseat. 

The costumes, hairstyles, make-up and styles are all relics of the decade. While their time may have passed, they remain indelible in defining this period of music for everyone. The disco era was dead but the dread of synthetic beats and amyl nitrate culture still lingered. A combination of funk and rock, Prince's music in this film really was revolutionary. 

Even with the thin script, Prince manages to give us moments of electricity which bounce off the screen. Despite being a poor actor, there is no doubt that Prince is incredibly charismatic and his energy definitely translates to audiences during the musical numbers. Despite not being a "great" film, it's still a "great" snapshot of American music in the early 80's.