The Color Purple

Name: The Color Purple
Released: 1985-12-18
Cast: Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Adolph Caesar, Margaret Avery, Rae Dawn Chong

The Color Purple

PG-13
2h 36m
1985

81%

age 14+

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Academy Award winner Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Oprah Winfrey star in director Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple. From 1909 to 1949, Celie (Goldberg--Ghosts of Mississippi), a Southern Black woman, gradually gains self-respect as she strives to educate herself and to find love--despite an abusive spouse and a society biased against her race and her sex.

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Producer:

Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Quincy Jones, Jon Peters, Peter Guber

Writer:

Menno Meyjes

Cast:

Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Adolph Caesar, Margaret Avery, Rae Dawn Chong, Oprah Winfrey, Akosua Busia, Willard Pugh

Rotten Tomatoes® Score

TOMATOMETER®

81%

Critics Consensus: It might have been better served by a filmmaker with a deeper connection to the source material, but The Color Purple remains a worthy, well-acted adaptation of Alice Walker's classic novel.

Reviews

Cinelipsis

Federico Furzan

Spielberg's first entry into cultural history is just as shocking as it is a beautiful story about self empowerment. [Full review in Spanish].

The movie filled me with disbelief and disappointment.

It's not the color purple we notice so much as the heavy hand of the filmmaker.

August 22, 2019

FULL REVIEW

The New York Review of Books

Darryl Pinckney

Spielberg's strategy was to broaden Walker's cunning simplifications, and in blowing up her plot, Spielberg not only makes its flaws more visible, he also uncovers, beneath the feminist rhetoric, the melodrama at its heart.

...we can forgive Spielberg his indulgences when the outcome is so profoundly moving.

June 22, 2017

FULL REVIEW

Common Sense Media

age 14+

Common Sense Says

Powerful tale of survival with wrenching scenes of abuse.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Color Purple is an intense drama adapted from the novel by award-wining author Alice Walker. It deals with serious themes -- incest, marital abuse, overt racism and sexism -- that are not appropriate for young children. On the other hand, mature teenagers will benefit from seeing the movie, as it will open their eyes about the difficulties women -- especially black women -- experienced in the early 20th century. Many scenes include glimpses of violence and abuse, all against women, but here are also positive messages about the importance of women's relationships with other women, the power of the sisterly bond, and the human capacity to overcome oppression.