The Color Purple Reviews

I already saw this movie but since it was such a long time ago, I was quite eager to check it out again. Well, even though it was heralded when it was released, it was even nominated for 11 Academy Awards (it won none eventually) and  even though it was loved by many viewers, to be honest, I thought the whole thing was actually rather disappointing and this re-watch didn’t change my mind at all. I mean, sure, it was a decent drama and Celie was an interesting character with a very strong performance by Whoopi Goldberg but, in my opinion, it was pretty obvious that it was Steven Spielberg's first attempt at this genre. Indeed, the whole thing tends to be sometimes pretty cheesy and, even though the material was dark and complex, it felt as if Spielberg insisted to shot the damned thing as if it was aiming for an audience composed of 12 year old children. For example, it completely downplayed the lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug which was reduced to a chaste kiss when this relationship was actually a major milestone for the main character. Another thing was that while the black women were displayed as oppressed, they were eventually quite resourceful and even powerful but all the black men were displayed as either drunk, idiotic, misogynist or violent and they should have developed more these characters to make them more nuanced. Anyway, I have to admit that, for a first drama, it was not bad at all and even though I don’t really get why this movie got so much praise, it is still definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Spielberg’s work.