Review of The Color Purple (1985) by Steve M — 10 Feb 2011

In 1985 after getting a big name for himself for making the most inventive and entertaining blockbusters around "Steven Speilberg" decided to switch up his style a bit and make a touching and extremely powerful drama film titled "The Color Purple". It was based on a prize-winning novel written by "Alice Walker" and had a top-notch cast including the likes of "Whoopi Goldberg","Danny Glover","Oprah Winfrey","Margret Avery","Willard E. Pugh". and "Laurence Fishburne".

So the story is based in the years 1909 to 1949 and revolves around the life of an African American girl named "Celie". She lives in South America with her father and sister. As the film begins we are introduced to "Celie" and her sister "Nettie" when they are teenagers. "Celie" has been allready impregnated twice by her father. She gives birth again and her baby is taken away by her father and as of now the whereabouts of her new born baby is unkown. "Celie" soon enough gets married to a very abusive man who she sadly refers to as Mister, "Danny Glover". He abuses and beats her on a regular basis it even unfortunately goes on for many years. So Nettie comes to stay with them because of the fear of her father but is soon kicked out when she refuses to follow "Mister's' rules. Sadly "Celie" and "Nettie" are parted, but "Nettie" promises her one thing and that is that she will continuously write letters to her.

"Celie" soon grows to adulthood, now older she is played by "Whoopi Goldberg" and is sadly just come to accept her life with her abusive husband because she obviously feels to threatened to try to leave and has unforntunately even become use to this life as if it's normal. We now get introduced to a son of Mister's named Harpo 'Willard E. Pugh" he meets and marries Sofia who is played by "Oprah Winfrey", they are having some problems with there relationship, "Sofia" is overly controlive towards "Harpo" when he asks for "Celies" advice she actually tells "Harpo" to beat her. It's like from all this abuse this is actually what she considers normal. We soon are introduced to Shug "Margret Avery" who we find out is Misters mistress. But not like "Celie" she calls him by his real name which we find out is "Albert". She comes to live with them and she becomes more and more aware of how desperate "Celie's" situation is in life and tries to help her through this struggle the best way she can. With this help from "Celie's" new friend she becomes more confident with herself.

Now im not gonna give anything more about the plot away I just realised how much I may have overdone it but alot soon happens I mean after not getting any of those promised letters from her sister there must be some logical explanation right? and soon enough "Celie" should have enough of living in such an unstable life.

To break it down the best way to possibly describe this film is that it's more of less about the overall growth of "Celies" character, we first see her as a young fragile, dergraded woman who just choses to ignore all what's wrong in her life to one that's building up to a more strong and confident woman. How much of this can she take? With the help of "Shug" and several other woman we see her fight through this unfair life. We as the audience manage to fell sad,disturbed,angry and overly shocked with how things turn out for her. It sucks that such a thing really does happen in reality. It's not like watching a film like this is the most entertaining thing but we as movie finatics should because to go beyond genres and watch something as touching just for it's realsim this aint a speilberg film that's here to simply entertain but one that's here to educate and remined us all just how powerful the art of cinema can really be. This is one of the most touching and powerful movies you will ever see and is pieced together and told brilliantly. Now as for the emotional aspects I have mentioned the genius of this film even manages to add in a bit of comedy just to keep you wathcing, you feel so many different emotions whilst wathcing this film, that's how it was intended to be veiwed, that's how it worked on me and how it will to anyone willing to give this one a shot. It's a profound but remarkabley great movie-going experience.

I also must meniton the performences in this film, they were completely flawless the whole cast was on there A game....

"Whoopi Goldberg" undoubtabley gave her greatest performence on here she managed to be charming at times, whilst being sad and angry as her character devolped, one of the greatest female performences of all time and I strongly mean that just see it for yourself.

"Danny Glover" was also amazing I mean if you thought he was good in "Lethal Weapon" then maybe he was but you still havent witnessed his full potential untill you see this he was so convincing as a complete asshole , he pulled it off well you just hated his character's intentions but admired his acting skills as was intended.

"Oprah Winfrey" really suprised I mean REALLY suprised me. It's not that I didn't think she could ever act or anything but it's just I never even knew she did act untill I saw this her performence was as good as allmost any experienced actress. What happens to her character is really sad too and she really does make you feel for her, I dont wanna give anything away but yea quiet frankly she was flawless. I mean did she ever act in anymore films because if not then she should have.

Margret Avery", who im not particualy familar with definitely shined in this movie too she did what she needed to do and was defintiely a prefect pick for her role. You just really admired what she was doing for "Celie" and she let her skills be known. "Willard E. Pugh" was very convincing and overall great aswell. "Laurence Fishburne", was good but he was only really a background actor and was only on the movie for no reason other then the fact that he's who he is I suppose I just felt the need to mention him at the top because he's one of the only other actors I could indentify.

I do realise this review is to long for certian people's taste but when I started writing I found it hard to stop, I just had so much (maybe too much) to say about this amazing film. Im not gonna keep raving on but if you havent seen this movie you really do need too. This is a very sad film like ive stated maybe even over and over but it really is a must-see. It's now time you take my advise, This is without a doubt a masterpiece. One of speilbergs top 5 greatest and im suprised more and more people dont aknowledge that fact. I also believe this didn't win best picture eventhough it was nominated now I wanna see "Out of Africa" im allready certain im gonna dissagree with the win though. Anyway thanks for reading, and watch the film!!