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(SHORT REVIEW):

Praised by some as an emotionally overpowering masterpiece and damned by others as a Walt Disney treatment of serious issues, Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple is certainly a divided film...one that balances uneasily between a genuinely moving account of a woman's suffering and a glossy exploitation of that suffering. Whoopi Goldberg (who has never given a better performance) stars as Celie, a woman who endures so many hardships throughout the course of the film that there is the tendency for the story to cross over into melodramatic waters. Celie begins as an unwanted girl who is raped by her father and has the resulting baby taken away from her. Grown up, she is sold to a rather sadistic farmer (Danny Glover) who has absolutely no love for her and covets her sister. Celie's only glimmers of happiness and hope come from the letters from her sister and from the kindness of her husband's lover Shug (Margaret Avery). Spielberg shies away from the lesbian undertones of Alice Walker's novel...but the love between Celie and Shug is still affecting nonetheless. The movie works well as melodrama and is so raw in its emotion it may be off-putting to those who prefer a certain distance in films. There are flaws in the film, including a few too many pandering scenes (such as one in which Glover tries to handle cooking duties) and a slightly postcard-ish feel to the scenery. And certainly, the film's uneasy mixture of human realism and Gone with the Wind-style Hollywood hokum holds it back from being a masterpiece. Despite its flaws, Spielberg has adapted the novel with skill and produced a movie that is rather effective in its old-fashioned way.

Makes me cry everytime.

Alice Walker's novel is a tough read at first. It's wriiten from the perspctive of an uneducated, Deep South, black woman. It's hard to relate to and connect with. Then suddenly...something happens, and you care about Sophie, Nettie, Mr._____, Harpo, and the rest. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize, and the film version, while toned down a bit, is just as good.

Top Ten FIlms
#8:
The Color Purple

Starring: Whoopi Goldberg as Celie
Danny Glover as Mr._____/Albert
Margeret Avery as Shug
Oprah Winfrey as Sofia
Willard E. Pugh as Harpo
Akosua Busia as Nettie
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Menno Meyjes
based on Alice Walker's novel
Nominated for 11 Academy Awards
Whoppi Goldberg won a Golden Globe for Best Actress
Steven Spielberg won the DGA Award
Released 1985


The Color Purple begins in a beautiful field, where two young girls are playing. As they emerge from the tall grass and flowers, one of the girls is noticably pregnant. With this we are thrown into this world.


The girl, Celie, is soon "wooed" away by Mr. Mr. has just recently lost his wife and needs someone to raise his family and keep his house clean. He originally wanted Nettie, but Celie's father stands his ground and convinces Albert to take Celie.


Celie soon turns Albert's house into a home. The catch is that Albert is an abusive man who hits first and asks questions later. Celie is depressed, but Nettie has moved away from home and comes to stay with Celie. They are as close as ever and Nettie even teaches Celie some basic school items. However, when Albert makes a sexual advance on Nettie, he throws her out.


There's so much more that happens in this rich, powerful drama. I only covered the plot to a certain point, maybe a half hour. The thing about the film is it is the acting that takes over.


Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey were fresh faces back in 1985. It was both of thier first big screen roles. Goldberg was doing a one-man "play" in NYC when she was discovered by Spielberg. Winfrey was doing a local talk show in Chicago (not her syndicated show) when Spielberg noticed her. The result is pure movie magic. It would seem that both women were born to play their roles.


Goldberg brings a reserved dignity to the role of Celie. She is quiet and says little to nothing for most of the film. Yet, when she is awakened, watch out. Furthermore, Winfrey is a treat to watch as Sofia. Just watch the movie and see for yourself.


Danny Glover brings incompetant evil as Mr./Albert. He's evil for sure, but just kind of not all that good at it. The rest of the supporting cast is excellent.


Differences between novel and film
The relationship between Shug and Celie is kept to an absolute minimum. There is a scene in the film where Shug and Celie kiss, but the novel is almost pornographic in its descriptions of their intimacies.
Mr./Albert is not nearly as incompentant. In the novel, he isn't comic relief. Sadly, Speilberg's choice here hurts the film.
A major portion of the novel is about Nettie's African trek. This is considerably cut down in the film.

Petty things aside, the film is about hope and becoming independent against all odds. It's a powerful human drama...about us.


"It is a great, warm, hard, unforgiving, triumphant movie, and there is not a scene that does not shine with the love of the people who made it."
-- Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

MAGNIFICENT. INCREDIBLY DIRECTED, THE ACTING IS A DREAM. GOLBERG, AVERY, WINFREY, GLOVER, PUGH - ALL ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. A CLASSIC. THE SETS, CINEMATOGRAPHY - EVERYTHING IS GREAT.

I usually really appreciate a film that just flat out surprises me as much as Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple" did. I had never seen the movie prior to July of 2004, but I had heard from various sources over the course of the preceding nineteen years how wonderful it was; how Spielberg was robbed when he wasn't nominated for Best Director; how the movie was robbed when it didn't win any of its eleven nominations. The real surprise, as it turns out, is there's next to nothing about this movie I appreciate. After the delightful discovery of "The Sugarland Express", I was truly hoping to fall into another wonderfully-crafted tale by one of America's great directors. And nobody manipulates emotions as well as Steven Spielberg. But in 1985 - when he was still in the middle of his grand "Indiana Jones" period - Spielberg was not mature enough to handle the material in "The Color Purple". He just tries too hard, and the results are too apparent. Take the repeated motif of Celie (Whoopie Goldberg, in a decent enough performance), small in the background, while a man's hand (usually Danny Glover's Mister, doing a fine job playing the stereotypically black abusive husband) is the dominant image in the foreground of the screen. Had Spielberg not been used to the in-your-face attitude of the "Indiana Jones" films, he may have realized that this image would have more power if used at infrequent moments to emphasize a particular event. I counted at least six times the image popped up in the first hour alone. From that foolishness, to John Williams' score that accented every slight change in action or tone, to the broad and unnecessary Step 'N' Fetchet-style comedy that showed up throughout, my attention was constantly drawn to Spielberg's directorial choices. It was just amateurish and poorly done, and I have not read Alice Walker's book - so I hesitate before commenting on it - but I doubt that the, quite frankly, unproductive racial stereotypes that are overblown in this movie are exactly what she intended. For my part, I'm glad Spielberg wasn't nominated this time. I'm glad the movie didn't win any Oscars. I will now forget about it, and think of the other dozen or so Steven Spielberg movies I enjoy.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME,I 'D HAVE TO SAY I HAVE SEEN IT AT LEAST 200 TIMES AND I NOW HAVE THE DVD SO IT'S 3X'S
AS MUCH.
IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE, I RECOMMEND YOU RUN OUT AND GRAB IT SOON:)

:)STACY:)

The Color Purple - Man, Whoopi and Oprah were really good! I was surprised, and to think that it's this movie that made the world see Whoopi is pretty weird. I would have thought it was a comedy that did it. The story is really interesting as well. And if I'd seen the film without knowing who directed it, I'd never ever ever have guessed it was Steven Speilberg. He did make an great film though, it's just so different that the rest of his stuff.

Buffalo '66 - Why do people think Gallo is such a genius? Eh? Hmmm. Well, this was certainly an interesting film. Gallo's fucking wierd, man. I wonder if he's as big an asshole has Billy is. I think so. And that whole relationship would never, ever work. And the movie had some of the shittiest dialogue ever recoreded. And some really crappy editing work. But even so, I liked the film. Some of the editing worked well, and film has a really awesome, desaturated look. Christina Ricci is good, too, but the film has this really "arty" feel and look. And I really hate that word, but there's not really another way to describe it.

Sex, Lies, and Videotape - A really neat little film. A great story and acting, and pretty engrossing.

Modern Times - Not as good as City Lights, but still funny, and a classic. Chaplin's a genius, and I plan on watching every film of his (feature anyway) as soon as I can.

What's Eating Gilbert Grape - I was surprised at how good this film is. Maybe I shouldn't have been, but I was. The entire cast was great. I loved the story. And I guess that's about it.

The Princess Diaries - I'd already seen this. It's a cute, funny little film. It's not as clever as I remember it being, but I still enjoyed it.

.....

Well jay and i hired 9 movies today

Princess Diaries 2 was ok i guess

Last house on the left, was pathetic

CAMP i loved it but then i love musical type movies

The Color Purple one of my all time fave movies, i bawled my eyes out while Jay laughed at me

Also hired the village, 28 days later, van helsing darkness falls and wrong turn am kinda watching the village now but dont find it too interesting, yet to watch the rest

not much else happening, somehow i got 40 bucks less in my pay then i should have so i have to call monday to find out why

Hey All....

Well... alot's happened, and alot's not really happened....

Had my payments suspended on Thursday and had to go work that shit out. Got it put back on, went to an interview and got told I have to attend a 5 week seminar for 2 days a week on how to prepare a proper resume and how to act during a work interview.... all the stuff that I trained for for a whole year back in 98. I'm a bit mad that I have to go back and do it all again, but that's the way the world goes I guess. :rolleyes:

Called my Mum lastnight and she told me that she was at home alone watching All Saints on television when she heard a loud CRACK!! She thought it was a gunshot and thought to herself, "Sheesh, that was close!" Then about 5 mins later she saw blue and red flashes on her wall. She went out the front and the medium strip in the middle of the road was packed with people and there were about 100 people standing on the bridge across the road. There were 4 police wagons, 3 big fire engines the SES Emergency truck and 2 Ambulances parked across the road and they were taping up the park so people couldn't enter into it.

Mum saw her nextdoor neighbour standing there, so she went over to her and asked what the hell was going on. The neighbour said that a car had sped down the road, jumped the gutter, drove through the park and then went airborne into the river. Mum stood there until people started dwindling off, then she spoke to one of her friends that works for the SES Emergency Service.

He told her that a 60+yr old woman was driving into town when all of a sudden she sped up, jumped the gutter, hit a large rock - which is a monument in the park, went airborne, crashed THROUGH a tree (Which would've been the loud crack that Mum heard) before going over the embankment and into the river. The divers were swimming around down there trying to get into the car.

He said that they were worried because there were baby nappies/diapers floating on the top of the water and they were in a rush to get into the car because they were fearing that there may be a baby in the car. They didn't find any baby, but when they pulled the woman out, she was dead. They think she had a heart attack, fell forward while she was driving and put her foot down on the accellerator.... They say that she was going 160km/h before plunging into the river!! Anyway, Mum was all excited that she'd made it on the nightly news... TWICE! lol

I hired out more movies yesterday. Out of the 9 that I hired, I've watched the ones that I've rated above. Two of the movies are girly crappy ones, so I don't think I'll even rate them... Maybe I will... dunno.

Last House on the Left written and directed by Wes Craven in 1972 was definately different. I'd heard good things about it, but there's something disturbing about producing a movie with brutal rape and torture for the means of entertainment. It was ok for an older film... not as good as what I'd heard it would be like.

The Village starring Joaquin Phoenix was pretty good. The trailers definately made it look like something that it wasn't. The trailers made it look like it was something paranormal and creepy, which was totally not what the movie was all about. It was entertaining though.

I didn't really watch The Colour Purple starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah. I was online at the time, so it was basically noise in the background and something to glance over at when I was waiting for the pages to load up... damn dial up!! :mad:

When I first went to watch 28 Days Later with my brother at the movies, I watched all of about half an hour of it before falling fast asleep in the cinema!! lmfao. There's something about Pommie movies that I just can't get into. I think it must be the whole crappy acting/filming and the accent just doesn't grab me. I didn't really think much of it. It was good... but not good enough IMO.

Anyway, I'll give you another couple of reviews when I end up watching more movies.... ;)

Keep in touch....

....Jay....