A young musician, 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.
Watching this 4K version of director Albert Magnoli’s “Purple Rain” marks my second or third time viewing the film. The movie is perhaps most famous for its soundtrack from its leading man, Prince, who was awarded an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Unfortunately, it did not play particularly well for me this time around.
While the music is fantastic, the story and the acting are flat. The story centers around a band leader known as the Kid (Prince). He lives with his mother (Olga Karlatos) and abusive father (Clarence Williams III), focusing on his music rather than his turbulent home life. Performing at Minneapolis’s First Avenue Club, the Kid meets Apollonia (Apollonia Kotero) and enters into a romance. As the romance heats up, the Kid fights to keep his slot as one of First Avenue’s performers when the club’s manager, Billy (Billy Sparks), looks to bring in a new act thanks to the conniving leader, Morris (Morris Day), of the rival band The Time.
The movie’s focus is almost entirely on the music. Narratively speaking, things come to a screeching halt to allow Prince and his band, The Revolution, to perform. Magnoli uses the score (one of the film’s saving graces) to take the viewer on the movie’s emotional journey, which isn’t entirely satisfying. The gimmick of the actors, more or less playing versions of themselves, doesn’t work. There are moments when things click, but mostly, the performances are poor.
The technical presentation of the movie is much stronger. The film, for the most part, looks fantastic. My only complaint is a couple of moments where the image looks odd. For example, look at the lampshade as the camera pans across the room in an early scene. The sound features a remastered DTS-HD 5.1 surround mix and the film’s original stereo soundtrack. I watched most of the movie with the 5.1 mix. It’s strong with lots of bass. The stereo mix is also good but somewhat lacking in the bass department. The dialogue on both tracks is clear and easy to decipher.
Extras on this 4K release are light. There’s a brief featurette on the First Avenue Club, eight music videos, and a commentary from Albert Magnoli, Robert Cavallo (producer), and Donald E. Thorin (Director of Photography). The featurette and music videos appear to be from prior releases of the film. They are all pretty rough-looking, and the music videos don’t even feature lossless sound. Fans of the movie with the right technical equipment will want to upgrade to this disc, though they might be disappointed by the lack of extras.
Now available on 4K Ultra HD™ Disc and Digital
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