So, I watched The Color Purple because I was not 100% sure I had seen the whole thing before or not. I remember watching part of it with my sometime podcast partner back when we were still in college, but I could only remember a handful of scenes. That happens sometimes. I have seen a lot of movies, but I wasn’t sure about this one. So, yeah, I watched it, most likely for the second time, before it left HBO Max at the end of February.
The more I saw, the more I remembered, but this is a good movie to revisit all the same.
Based on the novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple is the story of Celie Harris, played as an adult by Whoopi Goldberg in her film debut. Given what Whoopi was known for the longest time, it’s impressive that this was not only her first role, but that she was so darn good in it. Considering the cast also includes Oprah Winfrey, somewhat unrecognizable given what she looks like these days, there are a lot of fine performances coming from a cast that includes people that weren’t really known for film acting at the time. Regardless, Celie starts the movie as a young girl of fourteen giving birth to a child by her own father, and after the child is taken away from her, well, her life doesn’t get any better as she is essentially traded to a man known mostly as “Mister” (Danny Glover) not long after, and Mister is a big believer in physical abuse of a much younger wife, one brought in mostly as someone to take care of his kids and see to his own every need.
However, as much as the movie opens with showing just how years of abuse at the hands of men has left Celie with next to nothing, this is a movie about bringing hope to such a hopeless person, and that starts when Mister brings his showgirl mistress Shug Avery (Margaret Avery) home. Shug’s first comment to Celie is to tell the other woman how ugly she is, but Shug has a lot of freedom for herself, something Celie doesn’t, and she becomes something Celie hasn’t had in a long time: a genuine friend. Celie’s younger sister Nettie (Akosua Busia) was sent away, and whatever family Celie has is basically Mister and his wimpy son Harpo (Willard Pugh). Harpo’s wife Sofia (Winfrey) offers another look at what a household could be like, but this is early 20th century America, and there’s plenty of racism and sexism to try to keep the Sofia’s of the world down.
Essentially, this is a movie about Celie eventually building an alternate family for herself. This is a world where a woman like Celie is held down by the patriarchy represented Mister and general racism represented by the local mayor and his wife, though they seem more there to bring down Sofia than Celie. Celie does have her role models in the form of Sofia (at first) and Shug (once Shug apologizes for the “ugly” comment), and the way Goldberg’s face lights up when things start to go her way is a real thing of beauty. The movie is told to truly maximize the audience’s desire to see Celie find happiness.
It helps that Steven Spielberg made this at a point when he may have been at the height of his powers. Coming not long after E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark, it may not be recognized as one of his all-time bests, but it is an early example of what he could do when he wasn’t just making more crowd-pleasing, blockbuster sort of fare, the kind of work he does more frequently these days as he seems to alternate between the popcorn flicks and the serious dramas. There was a time when Spielberg’s work could appear to be both at once, and while that does not seem to be the case today, I do think it is safe to say that this was an early example of something he could do when he wasn’t just trying to dazzle audiences with a fun adventure story.
Grade: A-
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