Purple Rain (1984) Review

Leonard Maltin's review missed the main point of this movie. The movie is not primarily about a young musician who"struggles to gain acceptance for his own brand of ... rock music". Instead, themovie is about a man who hasacquired his not only some of his father'smusical interest and talent, but also his father's emotional instabilityandoccasional abusiveness towards others, especiallywomen. Maltin iscorrect that Prince's character is sexist and unappealing, but that'scrucial to the movie.By playing his character as emotionally unstable,insensitive, and occasionally cruel,Prince de-glamourizes the cool,rebellious rock star image, showing that fame and talent are neither aguaranteed road to happiness nor a good excuse for being cruel to yourgirlfriend.This movie, rather than being a "soppy story"wrappedaround concert footage, is instead genuinely literary. Theconcert footage is not an excuse for a movie;some of the concert footageis integral to the story. The title song, "Purple Rain", is usedvery effectively in the movie as a point of conflict between Prince and two of his female bandmates.
This movie, like Quadrophenia, would make agood subject for an English literature class targeted towards aimlesslyrebellious under-achievers (rather than the 4.0 GPA high school studentsthat most English literature classes are designed for).
[This review isbased on the VHS version of the movie.]

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Product Description:
Take a richly-human story of survival and triumph, a now soundtrack by the hottest bands around and the startling presence and musicality of rock superstar Prince - the man who lived the music - and you've got what may be in Rolling Stone's words "the smartest, most spiritually ambitious rock-'n'-roll movie ever made."Winner of Grammy and Academy Awards for it's pulsating song score, Purple Rain marks the electrifying movie debut of Prince as The Kid, a Minneapolis club musician as alienated as he is talented. The Kid struggles with a tumultuous home life and his own smoldering anger while taking refuge in his steamy love for sexy Apollonia Kotero. Prince and The Revolution scorch with "Let's Go Crazy," "I Would Die 4 U," "When Doves Cry" and the title song. And "Purple Rain showers us with unexpected pleasures," Stephan Schaefer wrote in US. "Musically it is a triumphant firestorm."

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