Purple Rain

Lore & Background

In the film, the Kid (Prince), a rising musician, grapples with his turbulent personal life as he competes with rival local musician Morris (Day). Development began in 1982, stemming from Prince's desire to star in a film: his manager, Robert Cavallo, commissioned Blinn to adapt plot points written by Prince into a screenplay. Magnoli was hired as director and changed several elements of Blinn's initial screenplay. Casting was extensive, with studio executives attempting to replace Prince as the film's lead. Principal photography began in October 1983 and lasted until that December, with filming primarily taking place across Minneapolis. Production faced delays or schedule alterations due to a feud between Day and Prince.

In Their Own Story

The rain starts at 11:47 p.m. on a Tuesday in Minneapolis, and the Kid is still on stage. The crowd has thinned to a few hundred, the kind who stay because they understand that what he is doing now—this slow, aching thing with the guitar, the way his voice cracks on the high notes—is not performance. It is confession. The drummer, D. Stewart, lays down a pattern so gentle it could be a heartbeat. Wendy's keys shimmer underneath like light through water. He closes his eyes and the solo begins, and somewhere in the back row a woman in a purple coat presses her hand to her mouth and weeps without shame. The rain thickens against the club's windows. The song does not end. It simply dissolves into the sound of the storm, and the Kid lets it.

Reader's Guide

Purple Rain was theatrically released in the United States on July 27, 1984, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It grossed $70.3 million worldwide and received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for Prince's score and its soundtrack but criticism for its depiction of its female characters. The film won for Best Original Score at the 57th Academy Awards and its songs 'When Doves Cry', 'Let's Go Crazy', and 'Purple Rain' went platinum in the United States. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'.

Did You Know?

• The film marks Prince's feature film debut.
• The song 'When Doves Cry' was written and fully produced by Prince in one day at the request of director Albert Magnoli.
• Almost every character in the movie, excluding Prince and his onscreen parents, is named after the actor who plays them.
• Apollonia Kotero had no background in singing and was doubled by Lisa Coleman in her vocals on 'Take Me With U'.
• The First Avenue nightclub was paid $100,000 for usage during filming and was closed for 25 days.