The Color Purple (1985)

 

Farven Lilla

“The Color Purple” was Steven Spielberg’s attempt to move away from the youthful action and adventure films he had become famous for and try his hands on more serious and “adult” topics (as he called it himself). The story he chose is based on the novel of the same name by Alice Walker and there are plenty of adult themes here for his hands to work on. Incest, domestic violence, racism and poverty to mention a few.

Celie (Desreta Jackson / Whoopi Goldberg) and Nettie (Akosua Busia) are sisters in rural Georgia in the early twentieth century. Their father is abusive and as the movie opens Celie is giving birth to a child fathered by her own father, only for the child to be given away immediately.

Celie is given away as a bride to Albert Johnson (Danny Glover), whose first wife has died. Albert is just as abusive as Celie’s father so no news there, and she is as much a maid (or slave) in Albert’s household as anything else. Nettie runs away from the father and seeks shelter with Celie, but when she refuses Albert’s sexual advances, he kicks her out, kicking and screaming and even hides the letters Nettie writes to Celie over the years.

During Celie’s long “marriage” with Albert two sub-stories are in focus. Albert’s son Harpo (Willard Pugh) marries Sofia (Oprah Winfrey), a strong and stout woman who will not stand for the kind of treatment women gets in this household. She walks away with her children but eventually returns. She also gets 8 years in prison for refusing to become the maid of the white mayor’s wife.

The second story is that of Shug Avery (Margaret Avery). She is a free spirit performer who is chased by Albert. Eventually she moves into the household and befriends Celie. Over the years she seems to be coming and going a few times.

 As is clear from the above, this is a gruesome story with hardships and abuse all around. Starting out with Celie’s father siring children on his own daughter, arranged marriage, an abusive husband, racism and effective slavery. There is plenty here. In the hands of a realist filmmaker this could be a crushing movie.

Steven Spielberg is great, but he is not that kind of filmmaker. In his hands everybody comes about as... morons, as caricatures. He brought in a levity, an almost comic element, which I suppose is intended to make the movie watchable, but which I feel is mocking the characters. Rather than evil or mean, the abusive characters, whether they are the men or the white people, become clowns and fools. Yes, they certainly are fools, but that harmless veneer removes the edge of the movie. In the same vein, the black women, who are universally the victims of the story are getting a silly and hapless edge which seems to say that they are in their predicament because they are too stupid to free themselves and that is deeply unfair to the characters.

I have not read the book so I cannot tell if this actually originates there, but my suspicion is that this is the Spielberg touch and if that is the case, I think he may have been the wrong director for the movie.

His focus appears to be having Celie sit all this out patiently and overcome her hardships in a final rebellion. That is Spielberg Classic, but, I think, not really the story that needs to be told here.

There is plenty of production value her, though. The pictures are beautiful, and the acting is first class. Goldberg at the centre delivers a stellar performance and you can tell a lot of thought has gone in to recreate the era. If anything, it is almost too smooth. This is a story that may have benefitted more from a grittier production.

I suppose “The Color Purple” deserves credit for taking on the serious themes of this story. They are important, both in a historical context and in the present day, but I am not certain they were done a great service here. There is an edge missing that ultimately leaves me a bit disappointed. Spielberg would eventually make up for these flaws with “Schindler’s List”, but with “The Color Purple” the Spielberg touch missed the mark.