Review: Prince's "Purple Rain" Shines Brighter Than Ever at 40
Our first "Movie of the Week" column kicks off with a musical classic
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Purple Rain, the first film starring Prince, the soundtrack album of which is one of the most celebrated and highest-selling records of all time, turns 40 this week, originally releasing to American theaters on July 27th, 1984. To mark the occasion, Warner Bros. recently issued a new 4K Blu-ray of the film, and I took the opportunity to finally avail myself of a movie I’d long been interested in, but never seen for myself. Prince was an artist I’d long respected from afar, enjoying individual songs and some of his more popular albums (like Purple Rain), without doing a deep-dive on his discography. Seeing the film Purple Rain for the first time coincided with a major Prince kick I’ve been on lately; when I drove out from Iowa to Colorado earlier this month, I started listening to his 80s discography in order, and after mainlining Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, and Purple Rain all in one go, I knew I had a new obsession, one that certainly hasn’t abated since.
Oh, and the movie is one of my new all-time favorites. Just as it did on the album, Purple Rain the movie completely blew me away.
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