MovieChat Forums > The Color Purple (1986) Discussion > Should have won Best Picture

Should have won Best Picture

posted 11 years ago by Degree7
16 replies | jump to latest

When I look back at the 1985 Oscars, I see that Out of Africa took home top prize and it makes me shake my head and go "huh?"

Nominated for multiple awards, color purple didn't win a single thing.

Who talks about Out of Africa today over Color Purple? It is easy to tell the more influential and remembered film is of these two.

Academy Awards is, quite literally, retarded in its choices.

Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.

[–] enchanted_nightfall 11 years ago

I can't agree more. This is one of my all time favorite movies. "Out of Africa" was fantastic, but not nearly as memorable. I think this film was cheated.

[–] Fatal_When_Swallowed 11 years ago

The Color Purple as a film bore little resemblance to the novel and was completely inferior. The members of the Academy made the right call by not handing out Oscars to Spielberg's piece of tripe.

[–] Degree7 11 years ago

Who cares. Blade Runner was an absolute disgrace to the original novel and yet it gets hailed as a classic day in and day out. The Shining was no where near as good as the book, and yet it's supposedly one of the greatest horror films of all time?

So why can't the Colour Purple be a classic too? It's got classic moments and scenes.

Limit of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief: directly proportional to its awesomeness.

[–] MrSuave56 10 years ago

You're on the money,Degee7,it's a classic to many people though.Also as others have pointed out it is still talked about alot.Only Blade Runner is praised as highly now as The Color Purple.Back To The Future was the most enjoyable film of the year,edging out Cocoon.

"You think I'm funny,in which way do you think I'm FUNNY!"

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Degree7 10 years ago

I agree, your comment is ridiculous and should be deleted. Go on now..

~ I've been very lonely in my isolated tower of indecipherable speech.

[–] R_Kane (15828) a year ago

The most boring 2 hours of my life. I would prefer root canal.

[–] amimajor 10 years ago

a movie is a movie, not a book.

[–] TMC-4 (20259) 2 years ago

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/32964694-eldergays-why-did-the-color-purple-lose

It boils down to 3 main reasons.

1) Competition. As detailed in this thread, there were multiple nominees in key categories that were favored over TCP. There are no real snubs among TCP's losers that year because the winners were considered well-deserved. It's even hard to make a case for Whoopi, who truly deserved to win, when a legendary 7-time nominee without a win was her competition. Absolutely no one was shocked that Geraldine Page won.

2) Spielberg backlash. Up until TCP, SS's films weren't considered high art like the usual Oscar fare, and many still felt he didn't overcome his popcorn-fueled and box office-driven approaches to filmmaking with TCP. He made schlocky kid's movies, low-brow sci-fi and movie about a shark before this -- the old guard weren't about to start handing him Oscars for his first "serious" film.

3) Racism. This wasn't the whole reason or even the main one, but it absolutely played a part, especially since the major winner was about colonialism and starring a bunch of white people in a film with "Africa" in the title. Consider too that the old guard at that time included a lot of Golden Age of Hollywood geriatrics, and this was decades before any hint of DEI efforts. The voting members of the Academy in 1986 included a ton of old racists who grew up with Jim Crow and segregation as the norm. They weren't going to vote for TCP when the likes OoA was in the running.

by Anonymous reply 92 May 22, 2023 11:37 PM

[–] IMDB_Vits 11 years ago

You're not alone:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/color_purple

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/out_of_africa

[–] lawrencetaylo19 11 years ago

Wow Out of Africa only had a 52% rating on rotten tomatoes. The Color Purple deserved several Oscars and Whoopi Goldberg was robbed of the best actress Oscar

[–] TimBur77 11 years ago

This is very true! I liked Out Of Africa and Witness from that year's Best Pic nominees but clearly, Color Purple is the remembered film! We are still talking about it today more than the others! From what I've gathered, The academy refused to let it win only because Spielberg was a blockbuster director at that time. It would have made them look bad if they let him take the Oscar home!

http://bat115.hubpages.com/

[–] amimajor 10 years ago

they simply did not want a spielberg movie to win an "important" oscar. his movies received usually technical oscars - if any - until schindlers list.

and yes, it is a disgrace.

[–] fairyqueen 10 years ago

I actually thought Witness (one of my all-time favorite films) should have won but The Color Purple was better than Out of Africa. Whoopi Goldberg should have won over Geraldine Page. I think Page's Oscar was more of a lifetime acheivement Oscar. She had been nominated many times before and had never won. Goldberg was a newcomer to film.

[–] scorpiascorpio 9 years ago

"Goldberg was a newcomer to film."

Huh? Spielberg began directing [amateur] films in 1959. He directed his first major theatrical film, "The Sugarland Express", in 1974. And although the film didn't fare as well as hoped, he was offered the director's chair for "Jaws", (1975), which made him a household name. So by the time he directed, "The Color Purple" (1985), he was far from being a newcomer to film.

[–] prplayer 9 years ago

i liked Out of Africa slightly more than this, it was more memorable and Streep gave an amazing performance

so many movies, so little time