'Streets Of Fire' And 'Purple Rain'—Elemental Rock And Roll Cinema At Rodan

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 11, 2014 6:15PM

A new rock and roll themed movie series curated by Scott Lucas kicks off at Rodan tonight and it begins with a double feature including one of the most instantly recognizable and one of the most under-appreciated films in the genre. The former is Prince's Purple Rain and while it is still certainly almost painfully of its time, the simple story of the rock star dreams of Prince's character is so universal it never ages. As something that visually appears to be a relic of a certain time it's made particularly remarkable by its classic soundtrack—an artifact of a moment of time that opened up to reveal some of Prince's most focused musical brilliance.

The other half of tonight's double feature is Walter Hill's Streets Of Fire. We're extremely excited this is one the bill since it gives us a chance to talk about this under-appreciated classic.

Streets Of Fire is one of the best rock and roll movies of all time. It's not the best because it's the most real, or the hardest, or the catchiest. It's one of the best because it exists in a world where rock and roll is life itself, and the whole society is powered by music. There's a reason why it's subtitled "A Rock And Roll Fable" and it is larger than life. It's safe to say that when this writer saw it in 1984 at a tender young age, it had quite the effect on framing his view of the power music could have on society. And what other way is there to look at music other than as a huge, towering life-force through which most other things in life are run?

Diane Lane starred as the ultra-mega rock star Ellen Aim, returning to her hometown for a big victory show that ends in her abduction, forcing Michael Paré as Aim's ex-boyfriend Tom Cody into rescue mode.

Along the way they run into slimy industry suit Rick Moranis, the hardscrabble soldier Amy Madigan, bandleader Robert Townsend, and Willem Dafoe as the movie's Big Bad, Raven Shaddock. Hell, even Fear's Lee Ving pops up to give the flick a bit of real-life punk rock color. Also, did we mention Diane Lane? She made quite an impression on this young writer at the time too, especially later in the movie when it turns out she might need as much rescuing as you thought and handles herself just fine in some tense situations.

And the soundtrack was suitably larger than life too. It includes over-the-top musical productions from Jim Steinman that blend multiple female lead vocals into a single voice because nothing less would convey the power of Ellen Aim. And these Wagnerian opuses sat alongside New Wave from The Fixx, doo-wop from Greg Phillinganes, rockabilly from The Blaster, southern bar boogie from Ry Cooder, torch songs from both Marilyn Martin and Maria McKee, and Dan Hartman's truly classic "I Can Dream About You." n other words it stripped boundaries and dubbed all of this rock and/or roll. And it was good.

Ready for the icing on the cake? The location providing most of the exterior shots for this rock and roll fable, the city that emanated all the different levels of grand romance and the menacing beauty of danger, is circa 1983 Chicago. Long before Batman came to town, Hill saw the city as a universal megapolis suited to telling a tale that was so much larger than life.

Streets Of Fire and Purple Rain screen tonight, March 11, at Rodan, 1530 N. Milwaukee, 7 p.m., FREE (and we hear there's going to be free gourmet popcorn for attendees as well), 21+