La Couleur pourpre

Beautiful adaptation of Alice Walker's riveting novel that captures your heart and soul with each frame. The cast of Goldberg, Glover, Winfrey and Avery are amazing and director Speilberg brings us into their lives with care and with passion. Snubbed at Oscar time, this is one of Speilberg's most important films.

The film version of Alice Walker's hugely emotive and influential 1983 novel (written largely as letters from the central character Celie to God) was a massive Oscar success, and rightly so.

In the role of the abused and awakened Celie, Whoopi Goldberg gave her best screen performance by miles. Not far behind her was Oprah Winfrey as Sofia, the fiery woman tamed by fate. Others in the cast fleshed out the characters Walker had introduced so clearly on the page - Danny Glover as Albert, Celie's abusive husband; Margaret Avery as Shug, a force of change for the good; Willard Pugh and Rae Dawn Chong as Harpo and Squeak; Susan Beaubian as Corrine, the preacher's wife; and the much-missed Carl Anderson (otherwise best known as Judas in the 1973 film of Jesus Christ Superstar) as preacher Samuel.

Beautifully paced and sensitively written, 'The Color Purple' does justice to its source while opening out the story to involve viewers of a feature-length drama.

Steven Spielberg, proving he's one of the few modern filmmakers who has the visual fluency to be capable of making a great silent film, took a melodramatic, D.W. Griffith-inspired approach to filming Alice Walker's novel. His tactics made the film controversial, but also a popular hit. You can argue with the appropriateness of Spielberg's decision, but his astonishing facility with images is undeniable--from the exhilarating and eye-popping opening shots of children playing in paradisaical purple fields to the way he conveys the brutality of a rape by showing hanging leather belts banging against the head of the shaking bed. In a way it's a shame that Whoopi Goldberg, a stage monologist who made her screen debut in this movie, went on to become so famous, because it was, in part, her unfamiliarity that made her understated performance as Celie so effective. (This may be the first and last time that the adjective understated can be applied to Goldberg.) Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and actress (supporting players Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were also nominated), it was quite a scandal--and a crushing blow to Spielberg--when it won none.

Simply beautiful really is the only way to describe such a wondrous film, one which warms the heart, nourishes the soul, and brings a tear to the eye. This statement is neither hyperbolic nor exaggerated, one of many reasons I suggest you see this film.

The film opens in 1909 when Celie (Whoopi Goldberg in her feature film debut) as a young girl, as well as a victim of incest, impregnated by her father. Unattractive and unloved, separated from her beloved sister and children, Celie has no other option than to be wedded to an abusive, impoverished, and philandering husband named Albert (Danny Glover), a man who treats her no better than a slave. However, Celie's life forever changes when Albert returns home in accompaniment with his mistress Shug (Margaret Avery), a beautiful Blues singer.

In spite of the seemingly hopeless situation the film's plot provides Celie with, the Color Purple is not a tale of her despair, but rather her triumph, one which is immensely inspiring. Stellar in every aspect this film is, including Stephen Spielberg's highly credible direction, the acting, especially of the four most prominent stars: Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey (both quite impressive in their debuts), Danny Glover, and Margaret Avery, the plot, etc. As one of my most revered novels and films, I definitely recommend the Color Purple.

Grade: A+

Review following a 2020 rewatch of this brilliant movie. Tears streaming down my cheeks on several occasions throughout and writing after a few minutes to reflect and recover. Leads all fantastic, particularly Whooping Goldberg. She was gentle, pathetic, strong and fierce and times throughout and all felt honest and believable. I was truly taken in her journey and came out almost exhausted from the roller coaster of emotions that she, and me, went through. Danny Glover does the impossible by being genuinely unlikeable through the majority of the movie. Oprah was another standout and well deserved of her Oscar nom. Overall, an outstanding movie that crushed my heart and had me sobbing but beautiful at the same time. Long yet fast paced. I'll watch again in a decade and have no doubt that I will be crying again.