iReview | Prince’s GRAFFITI BRIDGE

Available on DVD.

The enduring legacy of one of pop music’s most prolific talents is revisited in Prince’s GRAFFITI BRIDGE, the proper sequel to Purple Rain, available on DVD.

The music video long-form follow-up to hit music maker Prince’s Purple Rain arrived in the form of 1990’s Graffiti Bridge. It was accompanied by the release of the conceptual album of the same name that reunited the pop artist with Morris Day and The Time and set the groundwork for the next era of the Minneapolis maestro’s musicology. The film and album introduced his new band, The New Power Generation, featuring Mavis Staples and Tevin Campbell, and brought a then-unknown Ingrid Chavez (of Madonna's "Justify My Love" scandal) into the spotlight.

The 90-minute musical orgy is written and directed by Prince, available on DVD, is not unlike pop-musicals of the era; Graffiti Bridge is in essence a music video with intermittent dialogue. It revisits the character of "The Kid," an autobiographical alter ego of Prince that was at the center of 1984's Purple Rain. Six years later, the artist has taken the reins of this project, having spent time on Tim Burton's Batman set and taken pointers from Burton to continue the previous film's storyline. Graffiti Bridge picks up the story several years after audiences went crazy…

“The Kid” is at the center of a gang war of sorts. The club he co-owns with Morris Day’s character, the Glam Slam, is in the crosshairs as Morris makes a move to corner the market on the music scene and club culture in the Seven Corners area of town. The Kid isn’t exactly wrought with concern, even as Morris makes every effort to terrorize and intimidate him out of his half of the club. The Kid would rather spend his days and nights feeding his muse and performing live sets for the throngs of fans that come to see him and his band perform, even as a mysterious angel comes into his life.

The angel, Aura, played by Ingrid Chavez, wants to interject herself into the warring factions and bring The Kid and Morris together while the two compete in musical duels and lavish stage acts in a soundtrack for a new generation. The music, of course, is the centerpiece of the film and is rooted in proving the evolution between 1984 and Prince’s current musicology. The album itself is filled with exciting pop gems, most of which feel largely cinematic and therefore sat idly on the radio market, but transcend on the screen, except for the film’s title track, which feels forced.

The look and feel, the pop-comic absurdity of the caricatures that inhabit this world, are all a (pardon the pun) sign of the times and are logical to the thematic expression and tone of Prince’s vision. The misogyny of it all wouldn’t hold a candle to today’s standards, but we’re talking about the height of the Club MTV era, and the short-skirted thigh shots are just part and parcel of the zeitgeist. It’s not that Graffiti Bridge is constructed solely to appeal to the Prince fan, but that it’s a film made by Prince, for Prince. It’s an extension of his vision and is designed to enhance the music in every way.

A Bridge Too Far

It may not have been the box office success that Prince might have expected, and the music was drowned out by a season of oversaturated musical contemporaries, all with major releases attached to multi-layered promotions. The behemoth of Madonna’s Truth or Dare documentary and greatest hits package, The Immaculate Collection, was a brutal act to go up against. Prince’s Graffiti Bridge muse Ingrid Chavez played into the controversy that emerged from the release of Madonna’s “Justify My Love” single; the track was co-written by Chavez and Lenny Kravitz, who brought it to Madonna.

The Material Girl initially didn’t give Chavez credit on the track, which she coveted for her The Immaculate Collection package, and Chavez took Kravitz to court over the song, which was promised as a debut single to promote Chavez and would have coincided with her participation in Graffiti Bridge. Since then, Chavez has been reinstated as a co-songwriter on “Justify My Love” and re-recorded her version to coincide with the single’s 30th anniversary release. Prince had expressed great excitement over Chavez, his newest muse, but her promise never materialized.

It’s not a reflection of Graffiti Bridge and its relevance as examined in the talent that is Prince, but it wouldn’t be long after its release that the artist would soon face his most trying times, including an era of much animosity between himself and his record label. It would systematically derail his career over the next two decades, but it is unlikely that it tarnished his popularity. Emerging as an oddity, Graffiti Bridge is and will be considered, over time, a cult classic. With the release of the film on DVD, it exists as an essential addition, completing a collection — the DVD includes edited music videos and the original film trailer.

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Prince’s GRAFFITI BRIDGE | is available on DVD. The package costs $8.44 on Amazon.

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