The Color Purple (1985)
"A black Southern woman struggles to find her identity after suffering abuse from her father and others over four decades."
Stephen Spielberg is objectively one of the greatest film makers of all time. With pop culture classics like Indiana Jones and ET, to beautiful and powerful drama pieces like Schindler's List. This is a man who knows how to make a movie, and the Color Purple is "one more chalk on his board," or whatever the saying is. It's a film with a heartwarming story, amazing acting, and excellent cinematography. I watched it once, and it immediately became one of my favorite films of all time.
The Color Purple was a story of sisterhood, and the actual color purple was a symbol of that. We meet our main character, Celie, playing in a field of purple flowers with her sister Nettie. When the sisters are torn apart, the sky is filled with ominous purple clouds. Then after many years not knowing whether her sister was dead or alive, she finally got her hands on one of Nettie's letters, and as she read the letter the room had soft touches of purple on Celie's dress, the drapes, and even the lighting. When the sisters finally reunite after many years, not only are they both wearing purple, but they reunite in the same field of purple flowers we meet them.
While it's a tale of two sisters at it's core, there's some much more to Celie's story to not only make you feel emotional, but also empowered. This film is fueled by it's strong female characters and it's theme of women empowerment. During these times, women were property and often abused the way Celie was. Yet the leading ladies here overcome that and really prove they are more. Nettie is well educated and fights for what she believes in. Shug Avery is living large and living freely. Sofia is not afraid to stand up for herself and will literally punch a person if it comes down to it.
These strong female influences are what Celie needed. Celie was abused mentally, emotionally, physically, and sexually for so long, by both her father and husband. She had no idea how to fight back and felt too worthless to even try. But we see that men never made her feel special. She had Nettie, who was the only one that loved her. Then Shug Avery came and rocked Celie's world. Shug was the first person since Nettie who had a true emotional connection with her. She made her feel loved and helped her become more confident and stronger in who she is.
Thanks to these powerful influences, we find Celie at the end of the film as an independent woman, home owner, and business owner. Celie is not only the definition of a dynamic character, but she is also the definition of perseverance and woman empowerment. Her happy ending was well deserved and most satisfying.
Not that I was there, nor am I African American either, but it seems African American culture in these times were depicted pretty accurately, in the way that they lived, hung out together, and talked. And while racism wasn't the focal theme of this brilliantly written story, it's very much there as it was in real life. We see it most with Sofia. All she did was speak against a white lady and punched her white husband, and ended up in jail for like 8 years. Systematic Racism right there. Sofia was such a strong headed woman. This experience knocked her down, but then she regains her spirit toward the end of the film; a satisfying end to her arc.
That scene where Sofia is surrounded by angry white people was both powerful because of what it symbolized, but also because of the acting. While I'm at it - The Acting in the Color Purple is literally supreme. Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey, Akosua Busia, Desreta Jackson - I'm talking directly to all of you. I want to thank you and congratulate you on these brilliant performances. You made the film feel so real, so raw, so emotional, so powerful. It was Cinema at it's finest. Spielberg sure knows how to perfectly cast a movie.
I do this weird thing that if the acting is really good, I'll smile, even if the scene itself is dark and inhumane. I want to leave a list of scenes that just stood out to me the most, because no words can begin to describe the quality of the acting, directing, and writing that will make me come back to this movie again and again:
Sisters separated, Shug's song to Celie, Celie smiling, Sofia's downfall, Christmas reunion, reading the letter, The Final Supper, the Reunion.
While Albert is a horrible person, you can tell he is very very miserable with his life. And thanks to scenes with his dad, we can see that he became the man his father wanted him to be. But when Shug reconciles with her father, she say "sinners got soul too." And this is immediately followed by Albert helping Celie's family return home. After everything he's done, there's no chance of redemption for him, and he'll be trapped in the external and internal turmoil he put himself in.
But doing one good thing for someone he tormented for so long - that must've given him tremendous inner peace. If he did one thing right, it was this, and he knows it meant literally everything to Celie. As Celie reunites, we see all her friends watch with tears of joy, because they too want Celie to find the happiness she deserved after everything she's been through.
To end the review, I want to highlight the moment I found most inspirational: Albert tells Celie she's not going to make it in life because she's poor, black, ugly, and a woman. Her response was "I am here." If that's not the definition of powerful, I don't know what is.
My Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★