The concert footage is awe-inspiring, both in shot composition and lighting, and somehow Thorin makes Prince’s goofiest dramatic moments look polished and glossy. Cinematographer Donald Thorin, lenser of " An Officer and a Gentleman" and " Midnight Run," earned his paycheck on the musical numbers alone. Until this viewing, I’d completely forgotten how well "Purple Rain" is shot. It demands to be experienced in all its awesomely ridiculous glory on the biggest screen, with the biggest speakers and the biggest crowd. "Purple Rain" is not a living room kind of movie. It had been 30 years since I’d seen it on the big screen, and while there weren’t too many people in the audience, the ones who showed up came to see some asses wiggling, hear some birds squawking and to grind along with "Darling Nikki." Accompanied by my fellow critic colleagues, Kenji Fujishima and Monica Castillo, I made an active participant fool of myself. I didn’t come around on Prince’s musical genius until two years later.Ī few weeks ago, I took in an entertaining midnight screening of "Purple Rain" at the IFC Center in NYC. In fact, my Mom loved "Purple Rain" and its star, which was more than I could say back in 1984. Mom didn’t even bother to cover my bro’s eyes, this despite her practically pulling my eyes out of their sockets during a showing of " Shampoo" 9 years prior. Dig if you will the picture of 14-year old yours truly crawling under his seat while visions of bare breasts and animalistic sex (one such scene takes place in a barn!) flashed across the screen of the State Theater. My 8-year old brother convinced my Mom to not only buy him a copy of the "Purple Rain" soundtrack, but to take us to see the movie as well. In fact, "Purple Rain" doesn’t even carry the advisory sticker it spawned on its cover. Despite coming from a very R-rated feature, there isn’t a profanity stronger than "hell" on the entire soundtrack. The "Purple Rain" album ended one side with the 9 minute titular track, and the other with the song partially responsible for the "Parental Advisory Explicit Lyrics" stickers that adorn countless CDs today. Said song score became a smash-hit soundtrack popular enough to battle Bruce Springsteen’s "Born in the USA" for chart domination. Despite its initial critical drubbing, "Purple Rain" won the Oscar for Best Original Song Score, an award His Purple Badness snatched from the grasp of Kris Kristofferson AND the Muppets.
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