Purple Rain - 40th Anniversary 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

At the height of his success while his hit album 1999 remained a best-selling sensation, Prince made his big-screen acting debut in Purple Rain. Proving his immense popularity at the time, this led to another smash album and two chart-topping singles while the musical drama grew into a box-office hit, a feat that only he accomplished and has never been repeated again. And while none of this has anything to do with the quality of the film, it nonetheless is an interesting side note worth mentioning. It also explains the reasons behind a major Hollywood studio investing money on a production that, on the surface, is clearly meant to showcase the talents of its star.

It was a risk betting a good amount of money on an untested 25-year-old actor, an original album to coincide with the movie's release, and two of Prince's musical side-projects, The Time and Apollonia 6. Amazingly, the venture paid off and gave us one of the most popular movies of the 1980s, which continues to be watched and celebrated to this day. But again, this has little to do with quality and my personal reasons for enjoying the film forty years later.

Supposedly semi-biographical, the script by television writer William Blinn and director Albert Magnoli is a surprisingly smart tale about the pursuit of fame and success, the self-destructive scars often resulting from those pursuits and learning to override one's ego. Rumored to have modeled the character after himself, Prince stars as "The Kid," a talented musician with a rock group frequently performing at the famous First Avenue nightclub. The music and the club scene is his escape from his troubled and abusive home, much of which seeps into his songs. Part of what makes this particular plot stand out from others that have repeated the formula is the level of depth given to the "Father." He's not simply an abusive drunk but a failed musician who takes out his disappointment on his family, serving as some kind of warning for the kid. With Apollonia entering the picture, he also discovers the damage his ego can have on others, especially those closest to him. It's a much smarter film than it initially leads us to believe, though the directing, editing and acting is admittedly shoddy. Still, it remains quite entertaining, featuring some of the best songs I grew up listening to on a daily basis. (Movie Rating: 4/5)

For another take on the film, check out our review of the 2007 Blu-ray HERE.

Vital Disc Stats: The Ultra HD Blu-ray
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Purple Rain on Ultra HD Blu-ray as a single-disc package with a Digital Copy code. As of this writing, owners are only granted access to the 1080p HDX video version with legacy Dolby Digital stereo audio, but this might change when the UHD package officially streets. The dual-layered UHD66 disc is housed inside a black eco-elite keepcase with a glossy slipcover. At startup, the disc goes straight to a static menu screen with the usual options along the bottom and music playing in the background.

The musical drama walks onto the 4K Ultra HD stage and puts on the performance of a lifetime, rocking an impressive HEVC H.265 encode that was struck from a new 8K scan of the original 35mm camera negatives. In spite of a few soft and blurry moments scattered throughout, which are easily forgiven due to the photographic style of the period and given the condition of the source, this nonetheless is hands down the very best the film has ever looked in any format. The native 4K transfer boasts discrete, sharp definition in the clothing, from the stitching and quality of the fabrics, and in many of the daylight exterior shots of the city, exposing various architectural details of the buildings and streets. With many sequences taking place at night, inside The Kid's home and the smoke-filled, poorly-lit interiors of the nightclub, we can still distinctly make out the background information, the furnishings and the faces in the crowd. 

The HDR10 presentation also showcases a spot-on contrast and brightness balance, delivering intensely vibrant, squeaky-clean whites throughout and crisp, radiant specular highlights, from the beaming hot stage lights of the nightclub to the metallic sheen of Morris Day's Cadillac Sedan. Meanwhile, black levels are true and inky with dark midnight shadows that maintain excellent visibility of the finer details, providing the 1.85:1 image with a beautiful cinematic quality. Most impressive of all is the kaleidoscope of bold neon colors bathing nearly every scene, supplying ecstatically flamboyant primaries and richly-saturated secondary hues with the dramatic pinks, warm yellows and browns, and the deep royal purples stealing the show. The faces of the cast are highly revealing with healthy, reddish-peach complexions. Awash in a noticeable layer of natural grain, which alternates in thickness depending on the scene, the new 4K video is beautifully film-like and the definitive version for fans to enjoy at home. (HDR10 Video Rating: 94/100 or 4.5/5)

The 80s classic rocks home theaters with a phenomenal, showstopping DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack that blows previous audio versions off the stage. Like the video, the sound design was also restored and remastered from the original Dolby Stereo of the 35mm magnetic film elements. 

From the opening moments, the new lossless mix delivers an extraordinarily wide stereo presence, layering the visuals with a variety of background activity that feels natural as the noise of a bustling city and the roaring cheers of the crowd smoothly convincingly move between the three front channels and the off-screen space. Imaging delivers a precise, distinctly detailed mid-range that fills the room with warm, room-penetrating acoustics and striking separation in the music of the many song selections and Michel Colombier's score. Although maintaining a strong front-heavy presentation for much of the runtime, the high-rez track also comes with many atmospheric effects that flawlessly employ the surrounds to generate a satisfyingly immersive soundfield and excellent directionality, putting viewers right in the middle of each performance. A surprisingly robust and palpable low-end provides a commanding, room-shaking sense of presence and dimension to the soundstage with a couple of moments that hit into the ultra-low depths at shockingly high decibels. With outstanding, intelligible dialogue reproduction from beginning to end, this lossless soundtrack is sure to rock anyone's house. (Audio Rating: 90/100 or 4.5/5)

Commemorating the film's 40th Anniversary, Warner Bros. has sadly chosen to celebrate this single-disc UHD edition with many of the same bonuses as previous Blu-ray releases while eliminating others. Although the individual featurettes themselves are excellent choices in their own right, it would have been nice to see new, updated content to honor Prince's legacy.

• Audio Commentary with director Albert Magnoli, producer Robert Cavallo and cinematographer Donald Thorin
• First Avenue: The Road to Pop Royalty (1080i/60, 12 min) 
• Music Videos (1080i/60) houses a collection of eight classic songs
• "When Doves Cry" 
• "Let's Go Crazy" 
• "I Would Die 4 U" 
• "Take Me With U"
• "Purple Rain" 
• "Jungle Love"
• "The Bird"
• "Sex Shooter"

The musical legend and fashionably unique artist Prince made his film debut with Purple Rain, a musical romantic drama dearly beloved as a snapshot of a phenomenal moment in pop culture history littered with one classic song after another. The 80s pop classic still holds up after five decades with its blistering combination of live performances, music video aesthetics and autobiography. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment commemorates the film's 40th Anniversary on Ultra HD with a gorgeous 4K HDR10 presentation and an awesome DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, delivering a remarkable upgrade over previous home video releases and making it the best the film has ever looked on any format. Although porting over the same supplemental material as before, the UHD package is nonetheless a Highly Recommended addition to the 4K music library.

All disc reviews at High-Def Digest are completed using the best consumer HD home theater products currently on the market. More about the gear used for this review. 

Order Your Copy of Purple Rain on 4K UltraHD Blu-ray