The Big Picture
- Steven Spielberg's film The Color Purple was a significant departure from his usual blockbuster and historical films.
- The film received critical acclaim and was a commercial success, grossing $98 million at the box office.
- While the film faced criticism for its portrayal of certain themes and characters, it remains an important part of both black and American film history.
We all have an idea of who Steven Spielberg is as an artist. We think of him as the man who understands blockbusters better than anybody in history, or we think of him as a deeply felt historian, with an empathetic touch on how to make major historical events come alive again. What he rarely does is straight-up historical fiction, and he's even less known for tackling films about racial issues, which is what makes The Color Purple such an outlier in his filmography. When he was tapped to direct an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, it was met with a lot of questions and, of course, a great deal of hype. The man who brought us films like Raiders of the Lost Ark and Close Encounters of the Third Kind is doing a prestigious drama based on a book everyone knows? That was a huge swerve for him, and the film itself wound up both living up to the hype and serving as an important fork in the road, both for Steven Spielberg and Hollywood representation as a whole.
The Color Purple (1985)
PG-13DramaDocumentaryA black Southern woman struggles to find her identity after suffering abuse from her father and others over four decades.
Director Steven Spielberg Cast Danny Glover , Whoopi Goldberg , Margaret Avery , Oprah Winfrey , Willard E. Pugh , Akosua Busia Runtime 154 Release Date December 18, 1985How Did Steven Spielberg Wind Up Making 'The Color Purple'?
The Color Purple tells the story of Celie (WhoopiGoldberg), a young woman growing up in an environment full of abuse and disappointment, particularly exacerbated by her being forcibly separated from the person she loves the most, her younger sister Nettie (Akosua Harris). After the novel became a massive success, Walker was given the offer to make it into a film by producers Jon Peters and Peter Gruber, and she was hesitant to do so, suspicious of how Hollywood tended to portray women and people of color. But after consulting with some of her female friends, who convinced her that the best way to ensure a satisfactory depiction would be to "work within the system." She became a creative consultant on the film, which included approval of the director and script, coaching the actors on how to deliver certain lines, aiding in the casting of actors, and ensuring that "fifty percent of the production team...would be African American, female, or 'people of the Third World.'” She was also instrumental in getting Whoopi Goldberg her big break, as Goldberg fought to get the role and Walker and Spielberg approved her after seeing her stand-up performance (the most infamous joke being a scenario where E.T. gets arrested for having marijuana). Credit can't fully go to her though, as producer Quincy Jones was the one who got Spielberg on board to direct and campaigned for a then-unknown Oprah Winfrey for the pivotal role of Sofia, a close ally of Celie's.
As for the film itself, while it has shown its age—most notably in the nuances of how some of the social politics have dated—is still an expertly made film. Spielberg's touch with actors is on point, and every actor's performance is wonderful, particularly Goldberg, in a role that showcases the incredible range she has, and makes it hard to fathom she didn't win the Oscar for it. Allen Daviau's cinematography makes itself expressive without being intrusive, using slow push-ins and diverse angles at just the right times, across several different moods. Regarding Spielberg's direction, it's impressive how he can find small bits of comedy in the context of such a serious film. One of the standout scenes is when Celie's husband, Mister (Danny Glover), is insisting he knows how to make breakfast but clearly doesn't, and Celie is sitting in a rocking chair watching him. He's so desperate to get an oven hotter that he pulls out kerosene, and the camera cuts to the rocking chair emptily swinging back and forth, indicating Celie knew something bad was going to happen. It's a laugh-out-loud moment amid a tense scene, and shows that Spielberg didn't let the pressure of doing prestige material scare him away from a little lightness.
How 'The Color Purple' Was Received
When the film was released, it was met with a huge box office of $98 million, along with a strong critical reception, with the likes of Gene Siskel and Janet Maslin praising Steven Spielberg specifically for his newfound ability to rise above "youthful entertainments" and proving himself skilled enough to tell a story about such a serious subject. On the other hand, outlets like Variety criticized Spielberg for making an "overblown production that threatens to drown in its own emotions." More importantly, it became one of the most award-nominated films of the year, getting 11 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Whoopi Goldberg. Spielberg himself was snubbed a nomination for Best Director, which was considered such a big shock that, when Spielberg won Best Director at the DGAs, he openly wondered if his win was "making a statement" against the Academy's decision. Little was anyone prepared for the even bigger shock: at the 1986 Oscars, the film would be completely shut out, tying the record for most lost Oscars with The Turning Point. This was met with protests from organizations like the NAACP, who called it a "slap in the face" to the Black artists who made the film with Spielberg. That being said, some of the criticisms of the film at the time do speak to how complicated the legacy of the film is today.
Spielberg's 'The Color Purple' is Still Important
When the film was first released, it got a wave of criticism mostly directed at how Spielberg chose to treat Walker's material, with many prominent Black critics voicing a variety of concerns. Legendary author James Baldwin accused Spielberg of "mangling the poetic vision" of Walker's novel. Furthermore, "Black feminist Michelle Wallace said the movie smothered Walker's feminist message in syrupy Disney-like sentimentality." It must be noted that, in the novel, there's a subplot where Celie has a lesbian attraction to Shug Avery (Margaret Avery), and Spielberg made the choice to tone it down, which he acknowledged was a mistake. Not to mention the film catching flak for how it portrays most Black men in a negative light, which is a criticism the book got as well. Spielberg himself attested that "Alice...was very supportive during filmmaking, and so I felt that we were doing a good job adapting her novel." It shows how even the best of intentions and honest collaboration can still produce art that will disappoint many.
On the flip side, the film serves as an important change for Steven Spielberg's career trajectory, as it was the first time he'd made a film with no reliance on action or special effects. There was a common perception that it was the film that made him "grow up" and become a more serious filmmaker, and gave him the validation needed to make future films like Empire of the Sun and Amistad. Plus, the film does have current appreciation, if for no other reason than it translates enough of the novel's raw power that it permeates throughout pop culture and can still resonate with Black women. In 2020, Indiewire had a conversation with multiple Black women scholars who discussed the film's legacy for its 35th anniversary, when Samantha N. Sheppard, Assistant Professor in the Department of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University, makes arguably the most important point about why the film has stuck around the way it has. She feels it's because "this work is imperfect and yet it is also still an interesting artifact of labor practices, of a representational politics, of an intra-racial gender divide. And so I think the legacy is that this is a part of black film history, part of American film history and as it continues to be talked about and used in reference in the vast wasteland of film and television and visual content that is forgotten. This work is remembered." If the latest musical adaptation is any indication, she was right.
The Color Purple is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
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