The Color Purple
A musical about black Americans in Georgia in the early 1900s that white Americans should see.
This is a dynamic, gutsy film that rediscovers the meaning of musicals. Though it drifts a bit at the end, the film is filled with powerful singing and marvelous dance numbers.
The film follows Celie (Fantasia Barrino) in the early 1900s as she is torn from her sister and two children by an abusive father. Forced to marry an equally abusive husband (Coman Domingo), she is slapped around as a maid with no pride.
As the decades pass, she falls under the spell of Shug Avery’s (Taraji P. Henson) charisma and holds out hope of dumping her husband and seeing her babies again. Again, the story is told through song and dance numbers that left the theater audience repeatedly tapping their feet.
Ms. Barrino reprises her Broadway role as you watch Celie’s journey of grief and survival. Wait until you see her singing “I’m Here”. It sums up the film’s story of resilience and perseverance.
The movie is based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer-Prize-Winning 1982 novel. Steven Spielberg is one of this film’s producers. If you haven’t already, you should also watch the original film starring Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg that was released in 1985.
