THE COLOR PURPLE: 4K UHD Blu-ray (Warner Bros./Amblin, 1985) Warner Home Video
After a decade of directing rubber
sharks and hand-held puppets, Steven Spielberg surprised even his harshest
critics with The Color Purple (1985) an affecting and bittersweet
triumph of the human spirit, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice
Walker. Elegantly mounted, utterly heartbreaking, and instantly memorable,
Spielberg’s great gift to the project was his narrative kinship for the colored
race – something even he was unsure he would initially be able to pull off;
also, the simplicity with which he brought forth a miraculous and varied
palette of the 80’s finest repertory of black actors and personalities (both
stand-up comedian, Whoopi Goldberg and talk show hostess, Oprah Winfrey had yet
to make a movie). Initially, Walker was apprehensive
and highly suspicious of Hollywood’s interest in her novel; more so, to
discover her African-American saga would be repatriated by a white, Jewish
director who, to date, had only helmed eight summer blockbusters. It was, in
fact, composer, Quincy Jones who suggested Steven Spielberg to direct. However,
Spielberg was also wary of accepting the job, concerned his limited
understanding of the Deep South would affect the integrity of Walker’s prose. To
sweeten the deal for Walker, Spielberg waived his usual $15 million salary,
accepting the Directors Guild of America minimum of $40,000 instead. Walker’s
eventual acquiescence to Spielberg derived from her respect for his latest run
away hit, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982); also, on the advice of
close friends. Nevertheless, Walker insisted on a contract that gave her control
over the hiring of at least 50% of the production team, aside from the cast,
made up of African-Americans, women and ‘people of the Third World.’ Walker
also secured the right to write the initial draft of the
screenplay, thereafter, replaced by Dutch-born, Menno Meyjes for the final
polish. Walker, however, retained script approval.
Viewing The Color Purple
from a vantage nearly 40-years removed from its theatrical debut is, at least
for this movie-goer, to again be magically teleported to that glorious renaissance
in American movies that brought forth such mammoth and meaningful masterpieces
as Chariots of Fire (1981), Gandhi (1982), Driving Miss Daisy
(1989), and Out of Africa (1985) – the picture that beat out The
Color Purple for the coveted Best Picture Academy Award. That The Color
Purple would go on to mark a most dubious distinction as one of the most Oscar-nominated
pictures failing to take home a single statuette (11 nominations/no wins, a peculiarity
tied with 1977’s The Turning Point) is, in hindsight, either one of the
most egregious slights in Oscar history or a forgivable oversight in a year
rife with worthy contenders for the little, gold, bald guy. More crucially, The
Color Purple has since gone on to have a life of its own. It is poised to
be re-envisioned as a musical/drama hybrid for Christmas 2023. Having seen the
previews for this reboot/reimagining, given the blessings and participation of
the original film’s alumni – Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, and, of
course, without actually having seen this ‘bold, new’ version, at least to
my fifty-three-year-old eyes, the remake of The Color Purple appears as
a wan – if glossier - ghost flower of that already spiritually uplifting, truly
intense and utterly faithful adaptation Spielberg wrought some 38-years ago. Things
come suitable to a particular time, and The Color Purple is, ostensibly,
a picture that could only have been made in the 1980’s – a decade of such
mind-boggling diversity in American picture-making, only it could have
reconciled the high art and drama of The Color Purple’s ilk and pedigree
with the likes of Back to the Future, The Breakfast Club, The Goonies, The
Journey of Natty Gann, The Purple Rose of Cairo, A Room With A View, St. Elmo’s
Fire, and, A View to A Kill – just a sampling of some of the more
mainstream and high-profile product being pumped down the pike this same year.
The central casting of Whoopi
Goldberg as Celie Harris/Johnson melded with Walker’s desire to hire lesser-known
actors. Goldberg, then, primarily a comedic stage performer, acclaimed for her
one-woman Broadway show, had also appeared in 1982 avant-garde and even more
rarely seen flick, Citizen: I'm Not Losing My Mind, I'm Giving It Away. As
for Oprah Winfrey – her recent popularity as a nationally syndicated television
hostess caught Quincy Jones’ attention. Alas, professional jealousies sparked
between these two leading ladies after Jones insisted on giving Winfrey more
scenes and lines to play. Although they remained civil throughout the shoot, Goldberg
and Winfrey would extend their silent feud for several long years thereafter. Of
the principles, Danny Glover was the most high-profile name on the marquee. Margaret
Avery, a veteran and previous recipient of the NAACP Image Award for her
performance in a made-for-television movie, landed the plum role of Shug – but only
after Chaka Khan and Tina Turner turned it down. Briefly, Patti LaBelle and
Sheryl Lee Ralph were also considered for this part. Ultimately, Avery dominated,
though her vocals were dubbed by Táta Vega. While Alice Walker had set the
piece of her story-craft in and around her own childhood home in Eatonton,
Georgia, The Color Purple was actually shot in Lilesville and Union
County, North Carolina. Production designer, J. Michael Riva had an
Antebellum-era plantation constructed just outside Wadesboro, while the nearby
town of Marshville agreed to have its paved roads covered in clay to mimic the
early 20th century setting. The church, so prominently featured in
the picture, was a real Baptist chapel, relocated piece-by-piece from its
original location. As Spielberg shot during the summer months, virtually all of
the winter sequences contained artificial snow. Near the end of the shoot,
several scenes were lensed at Universal while second unit director, Frank
Marshall traveled to Kenya to shoot the African flashbacks in Nairobi.
The Color Purple opens with a monumental
betrayal. After having her newly-born daughter sold by her stepfather (Leonard
Jackson), the man also responsible for having raped her, young Celie Harris
(first played by Desreta Jackson) is given to indentured servitude as the abused
wife of Albert Johnson (Glover) who would have much preferred to wed Celie’s
more attractive sister, Nettie (Akosua Busia). Albert settles for Celie, while
keeping his fantasies alive about Shug Avery (Margaret Avery) – an
alcohol-abusing, honky-tonk torch singer and excommunicated daughter from the
local church’s Reverend Samuel (Carl Anderson). Survival in Albert's unhappy
home is demoralizing to say the least. Celie's introduction to her three stepchildren
results in her being struck in the head with a brick. Exploited as a housekeeper
and occasional object for Albert's drunken sexual abuse, Celie's one ray of
hope extends from her ongoing relationship with Nettie, who quietly teaches
Celie how to write and read - skills that will become useful later in life. Unfortunately,
Albert has also taken an interest in Nettie. After she barely escapes his
attempted rape, Nettie is banished from Albert’s farm. Celie (now played by Whoopi
Goldberg) endures the passing of her youth, until one rain-soaked night when
Shug Avery arrives, drunk and insolent, on Albert’s front porch.
Albert has hopes to take Shug on as
his mistress. However, the more forthright Shug does not share in his limited
appeal as her potential suitor. Aside: in the novel, Shug is bisexual – leading
to an affair with Celie. Spielberg did not dare go as far exploring this for
the movie. And thus, the relationship between Shug and Celie evolves into a
sort of mentor/pupil passion; one in which Celie eventually learns how to love
and respect her own self-worth. Unable to reconnect with her father, Reverend
Samuel, who has all but chosen to ostracize her from the church, Shug slowly
begins to sober up. While Albert is away, Shug and Celie rifle through Albert's
mail, unearthing Nettie has been writing to Celie through the years from Africa
where she has been taken on by a missionary couple. In the meantime, Albert's
son, the hapless, Harpo (Willard Pugh) has impregnated the impoverished, though
stalwartly determined, Sofia (Oprah Winfrey). Forcing the marriage, Sofia
becomes the 'man' of her family - bossing Harpo until, at his wits end, he asks
Celie what he should do about his new wife. Regrettably, Celie's only reply comes
from her own limited perspective as a drudge in Albert’s house. She instructs
Harpo to beat Sophia into submission. Mercifully, Sofia is hardly the shrinking
type. Instead, she gives Harpo a bigger beating before leaving him for another
man. Harpo then takes up with Squeak (Rae Dawn Chong), a flirtatious sort with
few inhibitions. However, when Sofia refuses to take menial work from Miss
Millie (Dana Ivey), the mayor's wife, she is arrested and severely beaten
before being sent to the woman's detention home, and finally, indignantly
remanded into Miss Millie's custody as her servant.
After years of enduring her
husband's torturous abuse, Celie defies Albert - almost killing him with his straight
razor; a fate narrowly prevented by Shug who, together with her new husband,
Grady (Bennet Gillory) takes Celie and Squeak away from Albert’s farm. Celie experiences
independence for the first time, opening a haberdashery that specializes in
'one size fits all' slacks. Having become ‘respectable’, Shug’s attrition from
past immorality is, as yet, unable to break through to being accepted by her own
father. Appearing at Harpo's speakeasy on Sunday, Shug begins to sing her
trademark torch song, ‘Sister’. However, before long, the echoes of a
spiritual, ‘God’s Trying to Tell You Something’ from her father’s nearby
church stir Shug to follow her heart. In what has to be The Color Purple’s
high-water mark of emotional outpouring and one of Spielberg’s irrefutable tour
de forces as a film-maker, Shug arrives on the steps of Reverand Samuel’s gospel
church, her band and the clientele from Harpo’s throwing open the doors to belt
out ‘God’s Trying to Tell You Something’. Shug’s audacious pursuit of
her father’s forgiveness leaves Reverend Samuel thunderstruck. Ascending the
altar, Shug proclaims, "See daddy. Even sinners have souls." In
tandem, we witness Albert’s heart soften. Now, a lonely and isolated man living
on a farm fallen into disrepair, Albert writes U.S. Immigration to bring Nettie,
Celie's son, Adam (Peto Kinsakaback) and Celie’s daughter, Olivia (Lelo Masamba)
to America. Old Mr. Johnson dies, leaving Celie the ancestral farm where so
much unhappiness began. Celie makes this her new home. As Shug and Celie peruse
the fields dotted in purple wild flowers, they see Nettie, Adam and Olivia approaching
on the horizon. From a distance, Shug shares in Celie’s tearful reunion with
her sister and children as, in long shadows of golden setting sun, Albert’s
quiet silhouette passes, leaving Celie and Nettie liberated to rekindle their
sisterly bond.
The Color Purple is such an
extraordinarily nuanced and sensitive exaltation of the human spirit, its subtleties
are oft overlooked by the bombast in its set pieces. The aforementioned musical
‘showdown’ that leads to Shug’s reconciliation with her father is undeniably
the standout here, as well as the centerpiece of the movie, as are the inserts
set in Africa Celie experiences through Nettie’s newly discovered letters of
correspondence kept secret from her by Albert; letters brought vividly to life
by Spielberg’s expert use of the movie flashback to create a startling parallel
between Nettie’s crushed optimism and Celie’s burgeoning independence from her abusive
and morally bankrupt husband. Alice Walker’s initial misgivings, about having
‘a white boy’ direct an all-black ensemble were almost immediately set aside
after Spielberg's early rushes began to reveal his total investment of heart,
mind and soul into every frame of the picture. This, in hindsight, ought to have
come as no great surprise, as the core of Spielberg’s most celebrated sci-fi
masterworks – 1977’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. -
the Extraterrestrial are richly textured canvas, devoted to the human
element in his storytelling. In spite of its deplorable performance at the
Oscars, The Color Purple was a resounding success at the box office, grossing
over $98.4 million worldwide over its 21-week stay on marquees, making it the
#1 rated PG-13 movie of 1985, and #4 of all-time. Stats alone are fun to quote.
But they never tell even a fraction of the tale or qualify any movie for
timeless endurance in the public’s estimation. In The Color Purple’s
case, they merely augment what is already and conclusively a magnum opus in
American cinema, and, surely to remain one for as long as time itself endures.
The Color Purple arrives on 4K as
part of Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary celebration, and, like its
theatrical release, is a tremendous experience to behold. Allen Daviau's sumptuous
cinematography has never been more fully resolved, except, when projected theatrically.
Color density in 4K astounds. Overall
image clarity is breathtaking. Shadows and black levels are bang-on
exceptional. Truly, a reference quality effort from Warner Brothers that makes
one admire the picture-making prowess of Steven Spielberg all the more. The DTS
5.1 audio is beautifully resolved and seems, ever so slightly more refined than
the 5.1 that accompanied the standard Blu-ray from some years ago, though I
would hardly call it a ‘reimagining.’ Warner has ported over all of the extras
from it’s retired Blu-ray 2-disc set from 2014. These include, 'Conversations
with Ancestors: from Book to Screen’ - a documentary on the making of
the film, short featurettes on the stage musical adaptation, cast-focused
featurettes, but regrettably, no audio commentary from Spielberg or anyone else
for that matter. Bottom line: nothing quite so tenderly evolved as The Color
Purple has been brought forth on the big screen since its time. And, the trailer
for the new reincarnation of this beloved classic doesn’t provide much hope the
‘reimagining’ will be able to improve on greatness. When will Hollywood learn?
You don’t re-make the great movies. You remake the bad ones, hoping to elevate
them to a similar level of artistic integrity and excellence. No need to
attempt that here. Greatness has already been achieved! But I digress. The
Color Purple on 4K. Get it. Love it. Treasure it. Enough said.
FILM RATING (out
of 5 - 5 being the best)
5+
VIDEO/AUDIO
5+
EXTRAS
3
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