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The Color Purple
Special Edition
Studio: Warner Bros.
Year: 1985
Rated: PG-13
Film Length: 153 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (1.85:1)
Subtitles: English, French and Spanish
It's about life. It's about love. It's about us.
No other director has been able to pull my emotional
strings quite like Steven Spielberg. Growing up
during the 70s and 80s I witnessed a man create
memories of pure movie magic with such films as
Jaws, Close Encounters and Indiana Jones.
It wasn't until Spielberg's first dramatic effort,
The Color Purple that I realized the true
genius of this man. It was this film alone that
earned him my respect as my all-time favorite director.
More importantly, the film stands amongst my top
10 favorites of all time.
The Color Purple is nothing short of a
triumphant masterpiece. It was Spielberg's attempt
to go deeper than his normal escapism film and
create a rich, heartfelt epic that was extremely
true to Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
The film was an exercise of great storytelling, so
brutally honest and touching that I never cease to
cry every time I see it. The film managed to raise
the eyebrows of just about every film critic alive,
yet in perhaps the biggest upset in Oscar history,
the film earned 11 Academy Award nominations and
walked away with none.
The film begins in 1909 in the setting of rural
Georgia with two young girl's named Celie (Desreta
Jackson) and Nettie (Akosua Busia). On one horrific
night, Celie is raped by her father, and produces
two children, Olivia and Adam. The children are
immediately taken away from Celie, leaving her
with the only salvage in her life, her younger
sister Nettie.
When "Mister" Albert (Danny Glover) comes along
looking for a wife, he originally chooses the
younger and prettier Nettie. Her father decides
that he will only sell his uglier older daughter,
Celie, promising she will make a better, hard-working
wife for him.
Celie (Whoopie Goldberg) marries Albert and so
begins her life in utter hell. She's left to raise
his rotten children, take on all the chores of the
household, and even worse, beckon to his sexual
needs. The only light in her life is Nettie, who
has come to stay with her sister, that is, until
she refuses Albert's sexual advances and is
immediately thrown off the property. As the young
sisters part, Nettie promises to write, but a
letter never seems to arrive.
For the many decades to come, Celie endures many
trials and tribulations, culminating in a beautiful
self-awareness thanks to the inspirational people
she meets along the way including Shug Avery
(Margaret Avery) and Sofia (Oprah Winfrey).
Spielberg doesn't sidestep the social injustice
of violence and racism that existed in that era.
This film is a very true-to-life portrait of the
black experience in the early 1900s. Though the
director would eventually gain Academy recognition
for his look at the injustices against the Jewish
people in Schindler's List, it's amazing
that Academy members didn't recognize his efforts
earlier.
How is the transfer?
Before I wanted to talk about this brand new 2002
digital transfer, I had to first compare it to
the original 1997 release. The transfer on the
original release is not as bad as I had thought
it would be. There is a noticeable amount of film
dirt and occasional background shimmer. Some have
complained about compression artifacts, but scanning
through the disc I saw none. Actually, I was
quite surprised as how well the original transfer
has held up after all these years.
Of course, if you own the original release, you
are going to want to own the best available transfer
there is, and this 2002 version is it! Here is a
gorgeous print that has been totally cleaned,
containing none of the blemishes and dirt of the
original. Since The Color Purple was filmed
very soft, picture often seems more hazy than
extremely sharp, although there is still lots of
image detail here. There still seems be some slight
background grain in the picture and most of the
skyline shots exhibit a noticeable amount of noise
in them. Still, the film has a very natural look
to it, with nice warm colors that include lush green
fields and foliage. There is no doubt in my mind
that this is the best the film has looked on any
format to date.
The 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack does little justice
to the rear channels, but excels in the front with
crisp detailed audio, tremendous stereo separation
and dialogue that is always clear and firmly placed
in the center speaker. This soundtrack is definitely
front-heavy, as the surrounds do little more than
provide ambient noises from time to time. Even
the film's beautiful score by Quincy Jones only
occasionally extends itself across the entire
listening area. I don't really find this a
problem for a film that doesn't need to have an
active surround mix. In fact, I was so impressed
with the overall clarity in the front channels that
I soon forgot that the rear channels existed.
Special Features
I am so proud of Warner Bros. for releasing this
film in a brand-new two-disc Special Edition,
arriving in a very attractive cardboard slipcover
which contains a pull-out that opens to a 3-pane
inner gatefold. Inside this gatefold sits two
purple discs that reside in plastic housing placed
above photos of young Celie and Nettie. On the
far left pane sits the entire scene index of
Disc One.
Disc One contains the entire feature. The
Special Features on this disc include the
film's original theatrical trailer as well
as two teaser trailers. A Cast and Crew
page lists all the principles, but does not allow
you to click on anyone's name to get an extensive
filmography, which is a real shame. Perhaps the
reason for this is because this film was full of
newcomers. An Awards area lists the many
awards the film received outside of the Oscars
where it was sadly snubbed.
Let's take a look at Disc Two which contains
four new behind-the-scenes documentaries and a
handful of additional material....
Conversations with the Ancestors: The Color Purple
from book to screen begins with author Alice
Walker who talks about writing her book out of
love for the people that represented her parent's
and grandparent's generation. In fact many of the
characters in this film are loosely based on people
in her family. For instance, Celie was based on
her Grandmother, a woman who had 2 children that
died and was forever stuck in the house with her
Grandfather. The character of "Mister" was based
on her two Grandfathers who were horrible people
in their youths, but later managed to mellow out.
Walker goes into great depth in describing her
characters, particularly their relationship to
God who becomes an important figure in this film
as he is the one Celie turns to when there is
no-one else. Walker talks about writing the book,
and being in utter disbelief when she found out
it had won the Pulitzer prize. It was Producer
Kathleen Kennedy that brought the book to the
attention of director Steven Spielberg, urging him
to read it over a single weekend. In an interview,
the director reveals he was immediately taken by
the journey these two sisters endured. It was a
story that haunted him for a long time and when he
found out that Quincy Jones and Warner Bros. was
set to make the film, he set out to audition to direct.
Spielberg obviously won the audition, but the next
hurdle was finding a person to write the screenplay.
That person was Menno Meyjes who showed such
enthusiasm for the project. Spielberg talks about
some of his own personal touches in the film, most
of which showed transitions in many of the characters.
Spielberg was a man that wanted to rely on symbolism
instead of being specific about situations, many of
which I am sure you have caught while watching the
film.
(length: approx. 26 minutes)
A collaboration of spirits: casting and acting
The Color Purple introduces us to Casting Director
Reuben Cannon who talks about how he came to be in
the company of Spielberg and Quincy Jones. Through
an interview with Whoopie Goldberg, we hear how this
virtually unknown stand-up comic showed up at
a star-studded audition and totally blew away Steven
Spielberg to the point where he demanded that she
either be in the film or he wouldn't direct it.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, she talks about
her obsession with wanting to be part of the film.
You'll hear her remarkable story as to how she came
to finally audition for the film. From hereon in,
we hear other audition testimonials from Margaret
Avery, as well as Danny Glover who is thankful that
he didn't have to do an audition at all. In an
interview with Akosua Busia (Nettie), the actress
recalls the riveting scene where Danny Glover is
separating her from her sister. It was a very
difficult scene for everyone involved because of
its overall intensity. Whoopie Goldberg talks about
her admiration for Spielberg who not only understood
film, but how to communicate with his actors in order
to pull the best emotions out of them. Poor Oprah
Winfrey -- she was so absolutely terrified that
Spielberg would change his mind about casting her
in the film, but managed to pull off a totally
ad-libbed dinner table scene at the end of the
movie, which turned out to be one of the most
memorable scenes in the entire film. As this
featurette comes to an end, cast members reflect
upon the film and the ever-lasting friendships they
made with each other afterwards.
(length: approx. 28 minutes)
Cultivating a classic: The making of The Color
Purple begins with a wonderful revelation...not
only did Steven Spielberg's first wife give birth
to their son on the exact day he was filming the
birth of Celie's baby, but Steven later recorded the
cries of his own newborn and added them to the film.
Next up is a conversation with production designer
J. Michael Riva who talks about the task of finding
the film's farmhouse that had to be situated on a
large piece of land. Costume Designer Aggie Rodgers
talks about her task in recreating wardrobe that
reflected that time period. Director of photography
Allen Daviau talks about the various weather changes
that happened over the course of the Summer's filming
and how they were used to creatively depict passage
of time. We learn how pink flowers were spray painted
purple or how snow-like material was sprayed all over
the set to create a wintry setting. We also see how
transition and various lighting techniques help set
the proper mood to the story. And what about all
those letters that Celie receives? We learn how they
were originally penned and aged. Finally, Spielberg
talks about the criticism that the film had received,
mostly for the fact that people felt the director
sugar-coated the original novel. Still, Spielberg
is very proud of his work to this day -- and so
are we!
(length: approx. 23 minutes)
The Color Purple: The Musical takes us through
the film's musical numbers, some of which were a result
of a collaboration between Quincy Jones, Lionel
Richie and Rod Templeton. This is music that covered
a span of 30 years, and we learn how various styles
of each era were introduced to the film. One of the
film's most interesting musical sequences involves
rain falling in various pots that suddenly turns
an African beat with percussion instrumental.
(length: approx. 7 minutes)
There are two separate still galleries. The
first takes you behind-the-scenes while the
second concentrates on the cast members.
Unfortunately, the folks at Warner still haven't
realized that putting these pictures on a timed
rotation is a lot more inconvenient than letting
viewers scroll through the pictures one-by-one
using their remote.
Final Thoughts
From opening to finish, The Color Purple is a
sheer masterpiece of a movie, which has received
nowhere near as much recognition as it should have.
This movie manages to pull so many emotional strings,
and I warn you, the ending is one of the most beautiful
ever witnessed. I dare anyone to watch it and not be
moved to tears. Of all the films that Spielberg has
made in his long career, this is my personal favorite.
Warner Bros. has done an exceptional job with the
release of this two-disc Special Edition giving us
a transfer that looks terrific, and four new
documentaries that are really inspiring to watch.
I cannot give a film nor a DVD a higher recommendation
than this one.
Release Date: February 18, 2003
All screen captures have been further compressed.
They are for illustrative purposes only and do not
represent actual picture quality
thinking about the end of the film.
