Glorious, Emotional, and Overflowing with LOVE!
http://feelthefilms.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/the-color-purple-1985/
Love. Not just romantic love, love, any love is a gift given to everyone at birth. Love for going for a walk, love for athletics, love for spaghetti, love for your family and friends, love for horror movies. We all have different levels at which we love, but it's all there in our hearts somewhere. Our lives are shaped by how tight we allow love to grip onto our lives, what power the grip has over our wellbeing if love is denied, and how we move on with our lives using the leftover love. To love is what I believe to be the purpose for existing on this blue and green planet, and love is the nucleus to The Color Purple.
The thing that makes The Color Purple the potent film it is, is the concept of love, not just for your partner in life, sometimes the people who come in and out of your life, but most importantly yourself. You have to love yourself for any of the time you spend here to mean a damn. The Color Purple also is about the people who occupy our lives. Each person in our life means something unique to everyone. Some people are here to break your life, others meet you to heal the scars and get you where you need to be. The Color Purple is about everyone, it's about ourselves. There's so much communication and understanding between the film and the viewer, that you feel connected to this film as if by an umbilical cord.
The Color Purple may look on the page as if its bitten off more than what could fit in its hypothetical mouth in terms of political issues and bonds in life, but it carries each issue with poise. The most obvious explored topic is race and the tribulations of being an African American at the beginning of the millennium. Not only just a woman, but an abused African woman. Better yet, a bisexual, physically abused African woman. Wait, a diffident, bisexual, physically abused, African woman. To top it off: a diffident, bisexual, physically abused, African woman that bore two children from her own father. The Color Purple studies these issues with a firm, fully developed, emotional handle. The film also soars in its relationships within the family.
Steven Spielberg may be famous for the adventure genre and the creativity that lies in this blockbuster hits, but The Color Purple proves of his knowledge of human beings and our complex feelings. In a story about love, Spielberg's supplied the film with a sensitive mood and a heartwarming touch, with so much sentimental spirit, you would assume a woman, reflecting more on her inner life, would've directed the picture. There are some scenes of high intensity and violence that are really well cooked. Spielberg involves the audience so much in the story, that each of those "high intensity" scenes become 3-dimensional, making us believe we are the characters in those situations that could result in anger and sadness.
When I think of the look a picture, I forget that there were some beautifully captured films before the 2000s because of the technology that has been invented to make movies nicer to look at. The Color Purple is one of those examples where the photography is everlastingly beautiful to just sit and stare at. To add to that, each camera angel, shot, and cut has a symbolic meaning to the characters. It's a fulfilling level of narrative, telling the story within the story through the camerawork. Not only does the story unfold within the characters and the action of the movie from the expertly written novel, but the cinematography adds another layer to the tale. A trademark of The Color Purple (besides the exploding color of violet all over the film) is the silhouette shadow visionary shots.
The acting ensemble takes the heavily progressed characters and works hard to become one memorable cast. It's hard to believe Danny Glover's fiery work was ignored here by the press and audiences, however one could easily have been distracted by the women's grinding efforts. We all know Whoopi Goldberg for a good laugh from her work in Ghost, Sister Act, and hosting The View, but The Color Purple holds the truth of her range. It is her movie. Celie is like a can of soda being shaken by Danny Glover's character for years and the moment Celie finally snaps is like opening that can of soda and watching it rupture, which may be Goldberg's finest scene in the film. Her work stands taller than any other work of 1985. Oprah is just as tough and strong in her role as she is years after the release of this film in real life. Margaret Avery full of warmth and charity in her remembered character.
The Color Purple is a treasure that kept me engaged through it's lengthy running time. It's a film that derives its powerful narrative from strength and love, filled with performances that have stood the test of time, a director filling the screen with what's in his heart, and cinematography that is intellectually and visually stimulating. It's a adaptation that just a glorious, burning time at the movies.
Rating: 10/10
Grade: A+
Feel the Films: A Blog by R.C.S. -> http://feelthefilms.wordpress.com/