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From: martin@ism780.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Purple Rain - (nf)
Message-ID: <379@ism780.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-Aug-84 00:09:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: ism780.379
Posted: Wed Aug 22 00:09:04 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Aug-84 06:51:37 EDT
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#R:bbncca:-90700:ism780:18000016:000:2284
ism780!martin    Aug 20 08:50:00 1984

>***** ism780:net.movies / bbncca!sdyer /  9:01 am  Aug 18, 1984
>I guess the most amazing thing about this movie is the number of good
>reviews it has garnered.

I was amazed too, amazed that I enjoyed the film so much.

>By most any standards--acting, dialogue, pacing, fair treatment
>of woman, it stinks.

Admittedly it wasn't Shakespeare, but then, I wasn't expecting Shakespeare.
And who says women, or any other group, have to be treated fairly in the
movies?  How can you make a movie about a kid who doesn't treat women
fairly, if you can't show him being mean to women?

>This is an inarticulate little movie about people who are
>inarticulate, except through their music.  Not that this last
>point is deliberately realized.

The point is that Prince articulates through music, and through music, he
articulates very well, at least for my money.  Why do you consider
communicating through music to be less valuable than communicating through
spoken dialogue?

>The love interest is bizarre; you simply can't see what "The Kid" (Prince)
>and Apollonia see in each other, other than being Beautiful People.

Isn't love strange?

>Prince treats her like scum, and she laps it up.  In fact, all
>the women in this movie are either crawling after their men, or
>being beaten up, or both.

Why do people do that?  But did you see that during the first half of the
movie, the kid's music was based on fear and anger?  During the second half,
when he accepted the idea of trusting the people around him, his music was
based on trust and love.

>The theme about the Kid recapitulating the actions of his father
>is presented in such a ham-fisted way that it is laughable.

Maybe you've never been through a problem like that, but don't worry, you
will.  When it happens, perhaps you will remember this film.

>Face it, take Prince's music out of this movie, and you've got a
>dog.

Of course.  Take the Jedi Knights out of Star Wars, and what have you got?

>In fact, the music scenes are pretty good, if you like concert
>footage.  You wonder why they bothered with the third-rate story.

They bothered with it because they thought they had something to say.

>See it in Dolby Stereo or not at all.

Don't you mean *hear* it in Dolby Stereo?


			martin smith, INTERACTIVE Systems