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The Color Purple (1985)
Rate:
10
Viewed:
10/15, 8/21
10/15:
The Color Purple was off to a rough start, but afterwards, it had grown on me, making for excellent black cinema.
Additionally, the movie feels like it was done by a black director because it has that kind of soul. Hence, I
say Steven Spielberg is the best all-around director ever. Most of his stuff are still classics today, and nobody can
beat his prodigious body of work.
He directed a masterpiece shark picture, a timeless action-adventure film (in fact, three of them) with a great Harrison Ford
performance every single time, a Holocaust drama that's the film of the decade, two highly memorable sci-fi pictures,
a dinosaur flick with an amazing display of CGI, a David Lean type of picture starring young Christian Bale, and a war
picture so realistic that it's like being there.
The performances in The Color Purple are excellent. It's impossible to deny the fact that Whoopi Goldberg, who makes
her screen debut, stole the show. Therefore, what a surprise she didn't win the Oscar in a leading role. Oprah Winfrey,
also in a debuting role, and Danny Glover, who's pure evil despite his famous 100-megawatt smile, are standouts as well.
As strange as the story is, it's difficult to get used to the hard lives as portrayed. Mainly, it's
due to the trappings of post-slavery and lack of modeling in terms of proper behavior for the blacks. Hence, some of
them have the tendency to act bizarre.
All in all, The Color Purple is a timeless masterpiece of black cinema.
8/21:
It's obvious that 1985 was the year of racism in Hollywood.
Completely shut out of every single Oscar nomination out of eleven (when it should've been thirteen; Danny Glover and
Steven Spielberg didn't get theirs) which is still a record today, The Color Purple is far, far better than
Out of Africa, an impossibly long picture that's forgotten today. Capturing the human
spirit so eloquently well, it's a strange yet moving work of art with many powerful scenes.
Making her astonishing screen debut is Whoopi Goldberg. She's the true star. Seriously, where's the Oscar for her? The Academy
has to be joking me as it ranks among the top fifteen of all-time snubs. The voters at the time must have been more than 99%
white. I think they made up for it by giving the award to Whoopi for Ghost although she did
give a great performance.
The cast is excellent: Danny Glover, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey, Adolph Caesar, Akosua Busia, and Willard Pugh.
There's so much their characters had to overcome including domestic violence, incest, forced separation, rape, slavery,
pedophilia, poverty, racism, and sexism. Mister Johnson is the root of these aforementioned problems, going back to his
father and then to his father before him and so on. It's disturbing to watch.
All in all, forget Out of Africa; The Color Purple is the best film of the year.