Review of Purple Rain (1984) by Robby A — 24 Apr 2009

It's a funny thing when a star vehicle works so hard to make the star so unlikable. Aside from his unique style (he wears three white scarves in one scene) and ability to write great pop tunes, Prince's alter ego here as The Kid is an outright jerk who believes the best way to flirt with a girl is to steal a piece of her jewellery, tell her to get nekkid and jump into a lake, and then take her back to his place so they can get it on while his parents flirt drunkenly in the next room (not before playing her a demo tape of a woman crying but reversed backwards).

But the best part, which I had totally forgotten about, is that when Prince has achieved stardom at the end - first by unveiling himself emotionally with 'Purple Rain', doing a hairdressing shimmy move during 'I Would Die 4 U' and then bragging about it all with 'Baby I'm A Star' - he gets an idea, signalled by a cute smile, gets up on some speakers and shoots "purple rain" out of his guitar, a clear symbol of pop star ejaculation.

But I guess when the guitar is treated so phallically in a movie like this, such an end is inevitable really.