The Color Purple was a dramatic departure for director Steven Spielberg and looks great on Warner’s new 4K disc.
The Production: 4.5/5
1985 marked a bit of a departure for director Steven Spielberg. After years of making adventure (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws), fantasy (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial), and science fiction (Close Encounters) films, the wunderkind filmmaker got his artistic toes wet with his adaptation of Alice Walker’s best-selling and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, which dealt with some fairly heavy subject matter – incest, abuse, and cruelty. The film was received with mixed reactions from critics, with some feeling that Spielberg wasn’t quite mature enough as a filmmaker to really delve into the material, and seeing this film nearly 40 years later, it is one of two films in his catalog that I felt he should have gone ahead with an R rating than be more cautious with a PG-13, which sanitized some of the film’s more mature content (the other film is A.I.: Artificial Intelligence). Regardless, The Color Purple is still an emotional tearjerker that is beautifully photographed by Allen Daviau (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Empire of the Sun).
Below is Cameron Yee’s review of the Digibook Blu-ray release from 2011:
Growing up with a sexually abusive father in rural Georgia in the early 1900s, sisters Celie and Nettie Harris (Desreta Jackson and Akosua Busia) must rely on each other to get through life. Even when Celie is effectively handed off to “Mister” (Danny Glover) – a handsome but mercurial widower with a house that needs cleaning and kids that need looking after – the two girls can’t be kept apart. Nettie eventually comes to live with them and admonishes her sister to stand up against Mister’s physical and verbal abuse. Celie’s response is simply heartbreaking – “I don’t know how to fight; I just know how to survive.” When Mister eventually goes after Nettie, she takes her own advice and squashes his advances, but at the cost of being banned from her sister’s life for as long as Mister has the power to keep them apart. It’s a separation that will forever haunt the girls’ lives, though it’s apparent from Celie’s circumstances that she is the one in greatest need of a lifeline. Nevertheless, she does prove skilled at survival, reaching a working relationship with Mister, his unruly children, and the mistress he has a genuine passion for, Shug Avery (Margaret Avery). In fact it’s Shug who gives Celie (as an adult played by Whoopi Goldberg) as her first glimpse of a life consisting of more than just getting by, but of truly living – of being able to see there is more than just darkness in the world, there is the color of royalty and dignity. There is the color purple.
As much as Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel breaks your heart, it just as effectively lifts your spirits as it tells Celie’s often painful story with honesty, dignity and sometimes humor. Though Spielberg was an unexpected and unconventional choice to helm a film about the struggles of young black women in the rural South, his ability to tell a story ultimately won out over the need for a common experience. Indeed, it’s the delicacy with which he handles the material that makes the film so moving, neither veering too far into maudlin sentiment nor pulling up short on the emotional resonance of the characters’ life journeys. Finely balancing those elements, it becomes a film that while specific to a time, place and people – and sure to resonate deepest with those who know of those things first hand – also hits home with anyone who has known struggle and heartbreak, hope and joy. Though the breadth of that 25-year experience winds up being a little too much for the film to handle within its two-and-a-half hour run time (specifically in the final act, which feels too rushed), the film is an impressive work and an adaptation worthy of its award-winning source material.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
The Color Purple was filmed in 35mm with Arriflex 35-III and Panavision Panaflex Gold cameras and completed on 35mm film. Warner’s 2160p HEVC encode features the film in its intended aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with HDR10 high dynamic range on a BD100 disc. Film grain appears light but organic, never intrusive. Colors are vivid and natural without ever appearing overly saturated. Contrast is excellent, providing deep blacks and strong shadow detail. Another superb 4K transfer of a catalog title by the folks at Warner.
Audio: 4/5
Warner has repurposed the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix from the previous Blu-ray release, which is still a very good track for a movie of this type and considering that the film was originally mixed in stereo with a matrixed surround track. The track features a wide front soundstage with excellent stereo separation. Surrounds are used to add some ambient immersion with a few discrete sounds such as a bird singing out of the right surround during the opening credits. LFE is used very sparingly, mostly to provide some low-end to Quincy Jones’ score. Dialogue is clear and understandable throughout.
Special Features: 2/5
This is another single 4K disc release from Warner with all of the standard definition video supplements ported over from the previous Blu-ray release upscaled to 1080p. I would certainly like to speak to whoever it is at Warner who has been upscaling these SD extras to 1080p lately, because these are commonly upscaled with the wrong frame rate (see my reviews of The Fugitive, The Exorcist, Training Day, etc.). These were all created in 480/30i but have been upscaled to 1080/24p, which result in a stuttering appearance.
Conversation with the Ancestors: “The Color Purple” from Book to Screen (upscaled 1080p; 26:39)
A Collaboration of Spirits: Casting and Acting “The Color Purple” (upscaled 1080p; 28:40)
Cultivating a Classic: The Making of “The Color Purple” (upscaled 1080p; 23:33)
“The Color Purple”: The Musical (upscaled 1080p; 7:34): This is not about the Broadway musical or upcoming musical remake.
Teaser Trailer #2 (upscaled 1080p; 1:26)
Teaser Trailer #3 (upscaled 1080p; 1:15)
Theatrical Trailer (upscaled 1080p; 1:24)
Digital Copy: A Movies Anywhere code is included to redeem a 4K digital copy of the film.
Overall: 4/5
The Color Purple looks great in 4K. Too bad the special features have been upscaled in the wrong frame rate.
The Color Purple (1985) (4K Ultra HD + Digital) [4…
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Todd Erwin has been a reviewer at Home Theater Forum since 2008. His love of movies began as a young child, first showing Super 8 movies in his backyard during the summer to friends and neighbors at age 10. He also received his first movie camera that year, a hand-crank Wollensak 8mm with three fixed lenses. In 1980, he graduated to "talkies" with his award-winning short The Ape-Man, followed by the cult favorite The Adventures of Terrific Man two years later. Other films include Myth or Fact: The Talbert Terror and Warren's Revenge (which is currently being restored). In addition to movie reviews, Todd has written many articles for Home Theater Forum centering mostly on streaming as well as an occasional hardware review, is the host of his own video podcast Streaming News & Views on YouTube and is a frequent guest on the Home Theater United podcast.
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