The Color Purple (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the film. For the color itself, see purple. For information about the original novel, see The Color Purple.


The Color Purple

IMDB Image:4of5.png‎ 7.6/10 (13,671 votes)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Produced by Steven Spielberg
Kathleen Kennedy
Frank Marshall
Written by Screenplay by Menno Meyjes based on the novel by Alice Walker
Starring Danny Glover
Whoopi Goldberg
Oprah Winfrey
Music by Quincy Jones
Andraé Crouch
Rod Temperton
Jeremy Lubbock
Caiphus Semenya
Cinematography Allen Daviau
Editing by Michael Kahn
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) December 18, 1985
Running time 154 mins
Country USA
Language English
Budget $15 million
IMDb profile

The Color Purple is the 9th film directed by Steven Spielberg in 1985. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker. The film tells the story of a young African American girl named Celie and shows the problems faced by African American women during the early 1900's; including poverty, racism and sex discrimination. The character Celie is transformed as she finds her self-worth through the help of two strong female companions.

Contents

[edit] Plot/Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Taking place in the south during the early 1900s, the film follows the life of a poor African American girl, Celie (Goldberg), whose abuse begins when she is young. By the time she is fourteen she has already had two children by her father, who she later finds out is her step-father. Celie is forced to marry a man in town who she calls "Mister" (Glover). "Mister" makes Celie feel she is unworthy of love and happiness. He continuously beats her, rapes her, and makes her take care of his children and the chores around the house from the beginning of their relationship. She becomes very close to Mister’s ex-lover Shug (Avery) and forms a close relationship with her. In the book this was clearly a lesbian love relationship, but the film does not make that clear. Celie also finds companionship in Sofia (Winfrey) who is a woman who once was also abused by the men in her life. Through the strength of her two friends, Celie develops into a confident woman who realizes she is worthy of love.

[edit] Main cast

[edit] Academy Awards

The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards (including Best Picture, Best Actress for Goldberg and Best Supporting Actress for both Avery and Winfrey) but saw none of them awarded. The big Oscar winner that year was instead the colonial drama Out of Africa, a twist which some considered proof of racial bias in Hollywood. There was also controversy in Hollywood when Spielberg himself failed to be nominated as Best Director, although he was awarded the prestigious Directors Guild of America Award.

Other critics pointed to the controversy that occurred during the production of the film as the reason for it getting snubbed by the Academy. Some African American civil rights leaders were upset that the film was being directed by Spielberg, who had no personal or professional experience to draw on while producing a film based on a book that digs very deeply into being a disadvantaged, and abused, black woman that finds empowerment and love through her relationship with another woman. Many feminist and gay critics were upset that Spielberg felt the need to interject humor into the film (reducing Celie's abuse to an 'aw shucks' battle of the sexes) and turning the lesbian love into platonic female bonding.

[edit] Awards/Nominations

Oprah Winfrey as Sofia.
Enlarge
Oprah Winfrey as Sofia.

[edit] Academy Award nominations

[edit] Golden Globes Wins

  • Best Actress (Drama) - Whoopi Goldberg

[edit] Golden Globes Nominations

  • Best Picture (Drama)
  • Best Director - Steven Spielberg
  • Best Supporting Actress - Oprah Winfrey
  • Best Original Score - Quincy Jones

[edit] Trivia/Goofs

DVD cover.
Enlarge
DVD cover.
  • This is one of only two Spielberg-directed films since and including The Sugarland Express which have not been scored by John Williams. The other is Twilight Zone: The Movie, which featured a score by Jerry Goldsmith.
  • This film marked the movie debuts of Whoopi Goldberg (Celie) and Oprah Winfrey (Sofia). Both received Oscar nominations for their roles.
  • Oprah Winfrey was at a "fat-farm" when she learned she had gotten the role of Sofia. She had to leave right away, because the role required her to be heavy.
  • Alice Walker wrote the original screenplay under the title Watch For Me in the Sunset. Walker, however, was unhappy with the finished script, and asked Steven Spielberg not to use it, so Menno Meyjes was assigned the task. Alice meanwhile became part of the movie's production team as the project consultant (as mentioned in the closing credits).
  • Alice Walker chose Whoopi Goldberg for the role of Celie.
  • In the scene where Sofia confronts Celie in the cornfield, Sofia says "You want a dead son-in-law, Miss Celie?". Sofia is talking about Harpo, who is Celie's step-son, not son-in-law (this mistake was also made in the book, but it could be deliberate).
  • Tina Turner refused a role in the film, saying "I lived Celie's life with Ike. I don't want to live it again".
  • In the scene in the cornfield where Sofia confronts Celie after finding out she told Harpo to beat her, Oprah Winfrey wasn't talking to Whoopi Goldberg, but was looking at a clapboard. She did the scene in one take.
  • The baby that Celie gives birth to in the opening scene was in fact a rubber doll while the sound of the baby crying was a recording of Steven Spielberg's son, Max, who was born early on in the production.
  • Táta Vega provided the singing voice for Shug Avery.
  • In "Crash Team Racing",there is a "movie" called "The Color Orange".
  • In the scene where Oprah Winfrey's character Sofia is knocked unconscious in the middle of town, the wind blows up her skirt as she is lying on the ground. If you look closely, she breaks character to move her skirt down.
  • Menno Meyjes wrote screenplays for other Steven Spielberg films such as Empire of the Sun, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
  • "Harpo" is actually the reverse of "Oprah".
  • Danny Glover admitted on one of the special features on the two-disc special edition DVD that he hated doing the scene where he has to separate Celie and Nettie.
  • During the scene where Shug is trying to get Celie to smile, Shug gets her to look at herself in a series of mirrors. In one of the mirrors, if you look close enough, you can see Steven Spielberg's reflection.
  • Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover co-starred again in Beloved (film) in 1998.
  • In Madea's Family Reunion, when the character Madea tries to comfort the character, Nikki, she says the the line from this film when Sofia confonts Celie.

[edit] External links


Films directed by Steven Spielberg
Duel • The Sugarland Express • Jaws • Close Encounters of the Third Kind • 1941 • Raiders of the Lost Ark • E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom • The Color Purple • Empire of the Sun • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade • Always • Hook • Jurassic Park • Schindler's List • The Lost World: Jurassic Park • Amistad • Saving Private Ryan • Artificial Intelligence: AI • Minority Report • Catch Me If You Can • The Terminal • War of the Worlds • Munich • Indiana Jones 4 • Lincoln • Interstellar
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../t/h/e/The_Color_Purple_%28film%29_832e.html"