Movie Review - The Color Purple - Directed by Blitz Bazawule

There is so much to unpack in this powerful movie. Set in a small black community in Georgia in 1909, Celie is pregnant and living with her sister, Nettie and their father. She has had one other child. When she delivers, she is allowed to keep the baby for two days, but her father takes the newborn from her as he had her first child ‘giving them to God’. Celie never told what that meant and mourned for her babies. Nettie has an admirer who asks for her hand in marriage. Her father declines that request, but soon after he tells Celie to pack her bags. She was to marry this man. He has three children that ‘need a mother’. Celie is beaten from the first day she is there if she doesn’t jump when asked, or if this man that they call Mister, is in a foul mood or drunk. 

Nettie had remained with her father, but turns to Celie when her father touches her indecently. She is allowed to stay as long as she pulls her weight and does as she is told. One evening, while she slept, Mister tries to climb in her bed. When she fights back he picks her up and throws her out in the rain. Holding a shotgun at her, he tells her to get off his land and not return. It will be the last Celie sees of her sister for several years. 

Celie learns of a woman who is her husband’s girlfriend. Shug is a blues singer who has Mister wrapped around her little finger. Shug, soft hearted and kind, comes to their home for a visit. She is the one to tell Celie her husband’s actual name: Albert Johnson. The children grow up, the eldest son, Harpo, builds a house for a new wife. The house is connected to his childhood home by a bridge across the swamp. Harpo and Sofia's marriage is tumultous.

In the intervening years, abuse of women continues. Harpo’s wife, Sofia, is one woman who will speak up for herself. Not a gentle woman, but kind hearted, she refused to bow down to the mayor’s wife. This scene is extremely troubling. She is beaten by white men, jailed and then made to work for the mayor’s wife ‘until she was recovered' from the beating.

It is clear that the women were controlled by the men. Sofia is the first person Celie saw who fought against the control. Celie had never been able to stand up for herself, didn’t know that she could and continues to tolerate the abuse. Shug is the second to see the abuse and finally take Celie away from it. On that day, her husband yelled her “You’re poor, you’re ugly, you’re black and you’re a woman.” That from the porch of their house as she was driven to safety by Shug’s new husband, Shug and another woman. 

Because of the cruelties they faced, women supported each other when they could. This movie told their story with wonderful choreography and song. Brilliant casting, wardrobe and lighting made this a joy to watch. I’ll not give away more of this story except to say that the ending was joyful and very satisfactory.

“Everything want to be loved.”

~ Alice Walker, The Color Purple

Directed by: Blitz Bazawule

Second movie adaptation of : The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Screenplay: Marcus Gardley

Abbreviated Cast: 

Fantasia Barrino - Celie

Taraji P. Henson - Shug Avery

Halle Bailey - young Nettie Harris

Phylicia Pearl Mpasi - young Celie

Danielle Brooks - Sofia

Colman Domingo - Albert “Mister” Johnson

Ciara - adult Nettie Harris

Cory Hawkins - Harpo Johnson

Deon Cole - Alfonso

H.E.R. - Squeak

Louis Gossett, Jr. - Mister Johnson, Sr,

Jon Batiste - Grady