Purple Rain special edition worth buying?
 

I already own the original DVD but the new version has several music videos on it.


I liked the music more than the movie but $17.99-$19.99 is too much.

I guess it all depends how much of a Prince fan you are.

Isn't the original in in Full Frame Vs. Wide Screen..err... the correct aspect ratio? That alone and the documetaries/videos is enough for me to say yes!

Sam

Absolutely! That first release was awful.

I picked up the two-disc special edition of "Purple Rain" yesterday. I had held off on buying the old one because of it's MAR and the lack of extras. Yes, I realize that this is NOT a very good movie, but as a kid, I loved it immensely, and I did actually enjoy watching it again last night. The widescreen image looks quite good, even the foggy concert scenes (which to me, is the reason to own this movie), the extras are good (despite lack of participation from Prince, Morris Day and Apollonia) and the music videos are the icing on the cake. If you're a Prince fan, this is a no-brainer.

I picked it up. (Along with Under the Cherry Moon and Graffiti Bridge) I may never watch the movies, but I watched all of the videos last night. Fun ta see the many different moods (and hair styles) over the years. Popped in Purple Rain for a bit and the transfer looked fine. 5.1 stereo light came on, but I didn't play enough ta hear how the mix sounded.

The one extra I've watched thus far was the MTV Premiere. Mark Goodman! HA! Looking forward to the commentary as well.

Yeah..I'd say it's worth it.

I just posted a comment in the review section. I watched it last night and if you are a Prince fan this is definitely a must have. The tranfer looks really nice for a 20 yr old movie. The audio is really good....turn it up during the performance scenes....you'll see what I mean ;)

Haven't watched the extras yet but the movie looked and sounded really nice.

The new version blows the old away. At least the audio and video in "Darling Nikki" is now in sync, compared to the first pan and scan DVD.

The music videos, however, look a little soft, but not nearly as bad as "Girls and Boys" or "Mountains" from UNDER THE CHERRY MOON. My VHS tapes from MTV look better.

No.

Here's a little different take on this...

I've been a Prince fan for years, so I've seen Purple Rain more times than I care to count, and Purple Rain was one of the first DVD's I purchased when I bought my first player. I will tell you what I noticed right away when I popped in the new special edition: I don't think we're seeing the OAR here; at least not for the whole duration of the film. First of all, the clarity of the picture shifts from slightly grainy to very clear in different spots. It also seems like certain shots are a little more "close up" then I remember them being. I compared certain scenes in the SE to the original "foolscreen" version, and pretty much confirmed that some clipping may have been done (best way I know how to put it). I haven't made it through the entire SE yet, but I'll give you one example, and anyone who still had the original snapper version can compare this:

The scene where Susan and Brenda are rehearsing in the warehouse with The Time...after Morris says "Let's have some asses wigglin'...I want some perfection!", the music starts back up, and the girls go into their dance again. At that point, if you compare both versions, the bottom part of the screen is definitely cut off. It's almost like they took the fullscreen version and just cut it off at the top and bottom to make us widescreen and anamorphic lovers happy.

As far as the "music videos" go, every video they made for the music from this movie, save for "When Doves Cry" and "Sex Shooter", is just a montage of clips from the movie. Big whoop.

The docs were nice. It was cool to hear about a little history behind the First Avenue club, and to see members of The Revolution nowadays, and their stories about making the film and working with Prince. I've always had a huge crush on Wendy, so seeing and listening to her made it enjoyable, as I've kept up with Wendy & Lisa's music from the beginning of their careers.

(Not to go too far off subject, but there's a video available for download from Prince's site of him and Wendy together again after all these years playing a song from his new album on some talk show. Very cool.)

Now, maybe they (Warner) just didn't feel like putting forth the effort, but I think there should have been deleted scenes. Anyone who's seen the "videos" mentioned previously knows that there's lots of clips from the movie that were filmed, but left out of the release. Most glaring is a short clip of Prince struggling with Jellybean from The Time, then turning around and punching him in the face.

The MTV premier party, all in all, was kind of bone-headed, IMHO. Prince was still pretty elusive at that point in his career, so he made a bee-line for the theater, and that's all you saw of him. The rest of the time it was just the goofball VJ schmoozing with other celebrities, who had nothing to do with the movie (save for Wendy & Lisa again).

Bottom line...nice picture quality (for the most part), decent sound, didn't like the attempt at a widescreen transfer, liked the docs, could have done without the "videos" and MTV party, would have liked to have seen deleted scenes...but still love the movie itself. Verdict: barely worth it.

I'd like to think it is, but I'm wishing that more companies would follow Disney's example for owners of previous versions of movies.

That being said, I will eventually break down and buy all three Prince movies.

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Originally posted by The_Infidel
Here's a little different take on this...

I've been a Prince fan for years, so I've seen Purple Rain more times than I care to count, and Purple Rain was one of the first DVD's I purchased when I bought my first player. I will tell you what I noticed right away when I popped in the new special edition: I don't think we're seeing the OAR here; at least not for the whole duration of the film. First of all, the clarity of the picture shifts from slightly grainy to very clear in different spots. It also seems like certain shots are a little more "close up" then I remember them being. I compared certain scenes in the SE to the original "foolscreen" version, and pretty much confirmed that some clipping may have been done (best way I know how to put it). I haven't made it through the entire SE yet, but I'll give you one example, and anyone who still had the original snapper version can compare this:

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I'll have to check this out when I get the time. But, just doing a drive-by on the new disc, the picture and sound is much better than the last release.

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As far as the "music videos" go, every video they made for the music from this movie, save for "When Doves Cry" and "Sex Shooter", is just a montage of clips from the movie. Big whoop.

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Yes, but there are "completists" out there that might want 'em. In retrospect, even though I love looking at the lovely Apollonia, perhaps the "Sex Shooter" video should've been a montage too ;). Oh, and, was it me or was there a little too much color during When Doves Cry?

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The docs were nice. It was cool to hear about a little history behind the First Avenue club, and to see members of The Revolution nowadays, and their stories about making the film and working with Prince. I've always had a huge crush on Wendy, so seeing and listening to her made it enjoyable, as I've kept up with Wendy & Lisa's music from the beginning of their careers.

(Not to go too far off subject, but there's a video available for download from Prince's site of him and Wendy together again after all these years playing a song from his new album on some talk show. Very cool.)

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I loved the docs. Wish they were longer. [And, yeah, Prince & Wendy doing Reflection was pretty cool. Supposedly, after the show they got together and did some more recording. I HOPE this sees the light of day.]

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Now, maybe they (Warner) just didn't feel like putting forth the effort, but I think there should have been deleted scenes. Anyone who's seen the "videos" mentioned previously knows that there's lots of clips from the movie that were filmed, but left out of the release. Most glaring is a short clip of Prince struggling with Jellybean from The Time, then turning around and punching him in the face.

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Considering his relationship with WB, i'm surprised they put ANY effort forth. But, yeah, i'm disappointed with the missing deleted scenes. Maybe Prince has 'em locked in the vault? :D Oh, and one other thing that disappointed me...no isolated score. Hell, he won an Oscar for it.

Thanks, Infidel, for pointing all this out. I will check out my disc as well, and compare it to the original disc. I think that the concert scenes at the end (particularly "I Would Die 4 U" and "Baby I'm A Star") will be most revealing. I remember that the home video version cropped Brown Mark and Wendy out of the picture for a good part of the performance. Now I'll have to see if they show up on the sides.

Just to clarify a bit...Purple Rain won an Oscar for best "Song Score", not the score (instrumental) itself. This was an award category from, I think, 1969 until Purple Rain won it in 1985 and is no longer awarded. If that was an isolated track, you'd have a lot of silent gaps. I guess if you want the award winning "score" isolated, you just play the CD! :)

I hope so. I just bought it during lunchtime today.

The videos are exactly like they were when shown on MTV. (They were just clips then, and are now, but include scenes not in the movie as mentioned.) I'd like to eventually own all of his videos so I can throw away my video taped versions from BET and MTV.

Could it be some scenes in the foolscreen version were open matte?

I compared many scenes of the old version with the new, and the letterboxing adds no perceptible information to the sides of the screen. So one would assume that the original was open matte.

However, I saw this movie many times in the movie theatre (where I used to work as a kid) and I swear that during the concert scenes, there was more to see of Wendy and Brown Mark on the sides, especially during "Baby I'm A Star." Trouble is, the only way to prove this would be to compare it directly to an original print of the film. (My memory is over twenty years old.)

must... have... this... DVD...

[Prince]YAOWW!!![/Prince]

I'm a very patient man and I've waited for six years since I got my first player to pick this movie up. The movie looks very good and while almost none of the principles appear in the extra material, what's there is worth the extra $8 over the old version (it's on sale at CC).

I have only watched the videos so far, jump in the way back machine for alittle nostalga <--spelling
I have one question, there was no insert , does everybody else have one ? just curious...

Warner = no insert

The bass on this disc kicks @ss!....even if you were a casual fan...a must have!

Is there a boxed set with all three Prince films that were released on Tuesday? I know I remember seeing the trade ad in Video Business where they said there would be a "Prince Collection" but I can't find it anywhere for sale.

Of course, I could just be looking for the wrong search terms.

I picked this up and "Under the Cherry Moon". I have watched all the special features and videos (Except The Time and Apollonia). Good stuff! I kept myself from buying "Graffiti Bridge". I might buy it down the road.

I never saw the widescreen version of "Purple Rain" but just by looking at it, it doesn't look OAR to me. Everything is too close up.

Hey Rogue588 -

Have you checked out your copy of PURPLE RAIN yet? Do you think that WB just matted a previous pan and scan transfer, or that the we're seeing the OAR?