{"id":2771,"date":"2025-08-01T01:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2771"},"modified":"2025-08-29T11:56:44","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T15:56:44","slug":"the-color-purple-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2771","title":{"rendered":"The Color Purple-1985"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Color Purple-1985<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Steven Spielberg<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #153<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #358<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Reviewed January 9, 2016<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Steven Spielberg, admittedly a director who focuses more on sentimentality, mixes heartbreak with the courage to blend a recipe that makes for a perfect, mainstream film from 1985.<\/p>\n

It is a different direction for him- far extreme from the summer blockbusters he was known for until this time.<\/p>\n

Exceptional acting and cinematography lend themselves to The Color Purple, a film based on the much darker novel by Alice Walker. Certainly, one of the best films of the 1980s.<\/p>\n

A relative unknown when the film was made, Whoopi Goldberg gives an astounding performance in the lead role.<\/p>\n

The film spans approximately forty years in the early twentieth century and is set in rural Georgia.<\/p>\n

Celie Harris (Goldberg) is an oppressed black woman, her sister and best friend Nettie is sent away, leaving Celie a virtual prisoner with a man, Albert Johnson (Danny Glover), whom she is forced to marry and care for in addition to his children.<\/p>\n

Raped and beaten, Celie is left with little self-worth until two women, rotund, feisty, Sophia (Oprah Winfrey), and Shug (Margaret Avery) inspire her to be something better.<\/p>\n

The Color Purple is a very sentimental film filled with inspiration for anyone beaten down or otherwise abused by people or by society.<\/p>\n

The depiction of southern life for blacks, especially black women is depicted well, though softened I have no doubt. Liberties must be taken for the sake of film as black men, in particular, are not portrayed well- surely there must have been some decent black men in this time?<\/p>\n

But, despite Spielberg being a male, The Color Purple is told from a definite female perspective.<\/p>\n

Her role of Celie is Goldberg’s finest and hers is a case of the Academy getting it all wrong; she should have won an Oscar for\u00a0this performance instead of a conciliation win a few years later for her secondary (and unremarkable)\u00a0role in Ghost.<\/p>\n

Goldberg never achieved any roles as great as Celie.<\/p>\n

Her expressions and mannerisms spoke volumes and her occasional wide, beaming smile would melt the coldest heart.<\/p>\n

Winfrey, equally brilliant as Sophia (and also robbed at Oscar’s time), is a completely different character. Angry, abrasive, and outspoken, she fills Sophia with life and energy, which makes her big scene heartbreaking to watch.<\/p>\n

Defying a white man she is beaten and arrested and reduced to living out her days as a limping maid to a white woman- who she swore she would never serve.<\/p>\n

The cinematography and direction of The Color Purple are grand.<\/p>\n

Spielberg does a believable job of depicting time accurately. The costumes worn by the cast and the lighting, in general, are bright and colorful, and I think this gives the film a flavor that is nice to watch.<\/p>\n

Again, Walker’s novel and the real-life experience were undoubtedly much darker, but for the film’s sake, this adaptation (numerous stage versions preceded and followed) makes for a wonderful film.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Picture, Best Actress-Whoopi Goldberg, Best Supporting Actress-Margaret Avery, Oprah Winfrey, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Original Score, Best Original Song-“Miss Celie’s Blues (Sister)”, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, Best Costume Design<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Color Purple-1985 Director Steven Spielberg Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey Top 250 Films #153 Scott’s Review #358 Reviewed January 9, 2016 Grade: A Steven Spielberg, admittedly a director who focuses more on sentimentality, mixes heartbreak with the courage to blend a recipe that makes for a perfect, mainstream film from 1985. It is a … Continue reading The Color Purple-1985<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7834,128,1368,192,1407,1406,1405,1077,7464,1404],"tags":[7835,131,1373,193,1411,1410,1409,1078,7460,1408],"class_list":["post-2771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-153-favorite-film","category-1985-films","category-danny-glover","category-dramas","category-laurence-fishburne","category-margaret-avery","category-oprah-winfrey","category-steven-spielberg","category-top-250-films","category-whoopi-goldberg","tag-153-favorite-film","tag-1985-movie-reviews","tag-danny-glover","tag-dramas-2","tag-laurence-fishburne","tag-margaret-avery","tag-oprah-winfrey","tag-steven-spielberg","tag-top-250-films","tag-whoopi-goldberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2771"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21886,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2771\/revisions\/21886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}