Purple Rain: 20th Anniversary Special Edition (DVD)

Never would I have thought that I would be so lucky as to be able to give my opinion on one of, if not the best rock movie of all time, the Academy Award winning film Purple Rain. I like to think of myself as a massive Prince fan considering I own all his albums and then some, and seeing his semi-autobiographical first film brought back to life and restored on a 20th Anniversary special edition is absolutely a blessing as are all the special features, even though Prince doesn't make an appearance or weigh in with his opinion.

First off the movie looks and sounds great as a testament to the 80s and a perfect way to watch the best musician of all-time, original and unique all wrapped up into one amazing artist.

It has become customary to poke fun at Prince's recent name controversy and the thought that his music went away when in fact with the release of his newest album hitting the top of the charts that is all far from true, and certainly a good reason for Warner Bros. to release this special edition while at the same time releasing Graffiti Bridge and Under the Cherry Moon at the same time, and for the first time on DVD.

The most pleasant surprise on this special edition is that it isn't just a bunch of old features thrown together and called special. The first disc includes a full-length feature commentary with director Albert Magnoli, producer Robert Cavalio and cinematographer Donald E. Thorin. At first I didn't think there would really be much of interest that these three could bring to the table, but after listening to them describe on set exploits and some of the difficulties and movie magic used to bring Purple Rain to life I was pleasantly surprised.

The second disc holds the bulk of the goodies including three all new featurettes featuring comments from old Revolution band members such as Wendy, Lisa and Prince's old promoter Alan Leeds. Also weighing in are Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, two names known for their taste in music from their former role with The Time up to bringing Janet Jackson into the spotlight.

The behind-the-scenes featurette "Purple Rain: Backstage Pass" is a great look at the making of the film and at what it meant to everyone involved, and if you ever had a doubt as to how much movies may mean to filmmakers, director Albert Magnoli actually begins to cry while describing one of the emotional scenes in the film between The Kid (Prince) and his father played by Clarence Williams III.

The other two features explore the impact Purple Rain had, not only on Prince's fans, but on society at large. Then there is a cool featurette going over the history of First Avenue, the nightclub that gave Prince his start, and is the stage on which all the musical performances in the film take place.

The MTV Premiere Party feature is cool for a mintue, but it is so dated that once you see people such as a young Eddie Murphy and Pee Wee Herman make their arrival at the premiere the interest really runs out.

Fortunately enough the goodies don't stop there as there are eight music videos on the disc including two from The Time, one from Apollonia and five from Prince including Purple Rain, Take Me With You, I Would Die 4 U/Baby I'm a Star and When Doves Cry.

Throughout the commentary and special featurettes you will learn more about the creation of such songs as When Doves Cry and the whole meaning behind Purple Rain, which makes you enjoy the film that much more.

To sum up the entire experience I think Kurt Loder says it best on the "Purple Rain: Backstage Pass" featurette, "There's nobody else like Prince. There's nobody that writes songs like that, there's no performer like that, there aren't many originals. He's an original, there's nobody like him."