Purple Rain (1984)

Prince's untimely death this last week at age 57 prompted this rerelease of his signature movie and original soundtrack Purple Rain.  A thinly veiled biopic, it is the story of an androgynous performer called "The Kid" who is paying his dues at a club in Minneapolis while seeking to be understood and find his place in the world.



At the same time, he finds competition from a new girl in town Apollonia as well as his chief rival Morris E. Day and his band The Time.  The Kid is smitten by the lovely Apollonia but he has commitment issues based on his poor relation with his explosive and abusive father.  It's all about the father in the biopic.

He struggles with finding just the right song.  No one really understand him or his music, not even the band.  When Lisa and Wendy try to get him to play a song they wrote, he dismisses it out of hand.  But when he sees the light, he turns their song into the iconic power ballad Purple Rain.  The movie ends with the awesome back to back  I Would Die 4 U/ Baby I'm a Star.  A strong musical finish, like Dirty Dancing.

A very 80s movie, with perhaps the best soundtrack of all time.  Some of the cinematography reminded me of another 1984 movie The Terminator (the cars, the alleys).  Costuming was great as well.  The acting is a bit thin, but the soundtrack makes this a classic.

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