The Color Purple
In delivering Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the screen, Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple tells a powerful and emotional story about race, relationships and sexism faced by African American women in the early 1900s. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but it didn’t win any.
There’s no question that The Color Purple is powerful stuff, but something about the way in which Spielberg presents it leaves a lot to be desired. There are some odd moments in the film, such as a strangely slapstick barroom brawl and a couple of mistimed comedic moments, that interrupt the emotional impact somewhat and diminish the overall power of the picture. Even so, it is the tremendous performances that really elevate this movie.
The Color Purple is the story of Celie Walker (Whoopi Goldberg). She is a poor African American girl who knows nothing but abuse. Abused by her father and given away by her father into an abusive relationship with a man called Mister (Danny Glover), to say Celie’s had a rough go of things would be an understatement. She has a sister (Akosua Busia), who loves her, but the two of them are torn apart by Mister’s lust and abuse.
Celie is able to find strength through some of her relationships, including an initially awkward one with Mister’s old flame, a jazz singer named Shug Avery (Margaret Avery). There is somewhat of a lesbian subtext there, although Spielberg strays from pushing it as far as the book does. Mister’s son, Harpo (Willard E. Pugh), marries the strong Sofia (Oprah Winfrey), supplying yet another layer to this dramatic tale.
The book is certainly much more invested in the sexual subject matter. Spielberg tones it down significantly, dropping the sexual revolution of Celie in favour of focusing on a bigger picture. While this works to some extent, it also leaves out a good deal of controversial stuff and may have been more of a product of its time rather than directorial expediency. The meat of the novel is lacking, at times, in favour of Spielberg’s desire for scope and size.
This also leaves many things out and creates an almost “jumpy” feel to the motion picture, unfortunately. While the performances are stellar from top to bottom, The Color Purple stumbles most when it leaves out the meaty material. Walker’s book invests an awful lot in Celie’s religious growth as well, discussing the character’s relationship with God and her evolving beliefs to a nature-oriented philosophy. This would have been an interesting component, but Spielberg’s focus is on more conventional material.
And that’s really what keeps The Color Purple from going down as a truly great film. The performances are tremendous, especially that of Winfrey. She inhabits Sofia, from her walk to her spirit to her spirit’s re-emergence, and embodies hope. Goldberg is at her best as she keeps things simmering nicely beneath the surface of her heartbreaking Celie. Everything is timed beautifully from these two gifted women. Remember, too, that this is Goldberg’s motion picture debut.
There are plenty of reasons to see The Color Purple and it is, indeed, a significant motion picture. It is heartbreaking and compelling, but Spielberg doesn’t go for the jugular as he should. It lacks momentum and punch at times, leaving an awful lot for the performers to do. In the end, The Color Purple is a movie about the performances and that, frankly, is good enough.
Trailer:
