Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 25, 2025

Prince wasn't quite "Prince" yet when Purple Rain (the film) was released in July of 1984, though by that time the film's soundtrack had already been released and was well on its way to climbing to the vaunted Number 1 position on Billboard's Hot LPs (remember those?) chart. While Prince didn't exactly achieve big screen superstardom in terms of having a flourishing career as an actor, Purple Rain certainly helped propel his music into the stratosphere, and this soundtrack album has perhaps its own deserved reputation aside and apart from how anyone may actually respond to the film. This is a glossily produced effort that offers washes of sound and some intricate layering, and the Atmos offering on this disc is a really interesting experience for those wanting to kind of analyze the "interior" of some of Prince's baroque 'n' roll arrangements. The album sparked several of the biggest hits of Prince's entire career, including When Doves Cry and Let's Go Crazy, both of which made Number 1 on Billboard's singles chart. The album's title tune didn't quite get that far, peaking at Number 2, but also charting were I Would Die 4 U (Number 8, though my personal favorite off the album) and Take Me With You (Number 25).

The album's track list can be viewed in several of the screenshots of the disc menu I've uploaded to accompany this review. See the Video section below for how the disc has been authored.

Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This is another audio Blu-ray with a partially animated menu but not much to really require having your monitor on when it comes right down to it. The disc boots to the Main Menu I show in screenshot 10. Pressing Play then segues to a 1.78:1 frame of the main key art, though there's slight panning and the smoke is animated (you can see examples in screenshots 1 and 8). If you choose Tracks from the Main Menu, you can parse through the songs (see how the titles change to yellow), but once a song is selected, things revert back to the slightly animated image.

Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Purple Rain features a new Dolby Atmos rendering in addition to an LPCM 2.0 option. There's absolutely no doubt audiophiles should opt for the Atmos track as it's noticeably louder and has a decidedly stronger midrange and especially low end. Somewhat hilariously, then, the actual opening of this album is kind of restrained from a surround standpoint. Prince's "public address system" announcement may waft out of the Atmos speakers, but the wash of synths still struck me as a bit front heavy, with the rear channels reserved for "spill". While things probably improve marginally once the actual tune kicks in, I'd argue some of the first really immersive moments come as Let's Go Crazy gives way to Take Me With U, when suddenly there are richocheting toms panning around the soundstage and wonderful bright quasi-glockenspiel synth tones dotting the side and rear channels as well. There are moments of clear discrete channelization, if at times fleeting, as in a rear placement of that kind of almost sitar sound at the beginning of The Beautiful Ones. Conversely, there's some clear front placement of toms at the beginning of Darling Nikki. More of that same sitar-ish drone like quality is spread around the channels in When Doves Cry, maybe just comically sounding a bit like a housefly. When Doves Cry offers some really great separation though, with the opening guitar solidly in front and then the drums entering from the side and rear. Prince's lead vocals tend to be front and center a lot of the time, but tunes like I Would Die For U have some really nice spaciousness, with both lead and backups surrounding the listener.

While you can't use the colored buttons on your remote to toggle between the two codecs, you can navigate on the menu or use the audio button on your remote to change. While changing from Atmos to LPCM 2.0 worked fine for me, I encountered a freezing disc when I attempted to change back from LPCM 2.0 to Atmos using the Audio Menu on the disc. Changing codecs did not start the song over (at least when changing codecs worked for me).

Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements on the disc. The DigiPack encloses an insert booklet with lyrics and credits. Stills are on the front and rear covers, and the interior has cobalt blue pages with, well, purple raindrops.

Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Several years ago my youngest son embarked on a rap "career" of sorts, and ended up having one of his songs added to a Spotify playlist, which in turn actually provided some unexpected income for him. However, in Dad Joke territory, after having listened to my progeny's shocking and provocative oeuvre, I told him I should have taken the black "parental advisory" label on his album literally. In that regard, this album by Prince may have surprisingly contributed to the Tipper Gore spurred effort to label supposedly "objectionable" material so that parental units might know before listening that any given album may have so-called "adult" content. It's quite probable that those who were around when Tipper was getting exercised about tunes like Darling Nikki are getting into AARP territory now, so no warning label should be necessary. Much as my own "desert(ed) island" discs would probably not feature stalwarts like Beethoven and/or Mozart on the classical side of things, I have to admit Prince probably wouldn't make my personal cut, either, on the rock side of the equation, but Purple Rain is a solid album with some impeccable production finesse. The Atmos version is nicely spacious and provides some really fun immersive moments. Highly recommended.