Movie Review – The Color Purple

Yes, yes!  I asked myself the same darn question…. How do you turn such a dramatic story into a musical adaptation and still keep the melancholy effect?  Well, Director Blitz Bazawule did just that…effortlessly.  Let me describe it this way. You know how you watch a traditional movie, and the music is faintly in the background and you later purchase the CD soundtrack?  Well, this movie puts the soundtrack within the script, kind of like a regular Disney film technique.

This movie musical is about the story of unconditional sisterhood, and a journey of an oppressed woman turned badass.   You will really enjoy this movie!  Even if you didn’t see the December 1985 original movie, you will still be able to understand and follow the iconic story.  However, I do recommend that you watch the original movie soon as well.  For those of us that saw the original movie or even the Broadway play, you’ll love how Director Bazawule kept nearly all the original movie’s classic lines that made us laugh out loud or shout in agreement with the empowerment scenes.  The three classic scenes that I noticed missing in this musical film were: when Shug tells Celie, “you sho is ugly”; when Sofia came to the club mad at Harpo and the piano guy stopped playing and yelled “gotta go”; and when Celie’s son, Adam, first saw her and muttered, “momma, momma, ma.”

Three major things resonates with me about The Color Purple: (1) Celie always had the heart to help somebody else even though she was going through her own struggle; (2) It was ironic that the women abusers, Mister and his dad, were left at the table alone looking silly at each other after all the women walked out on them; and (3) Celie and Admired-by-Everyone Shug needed each other to fight and empower themselves to a better life and victory.

The audience clapped and laughed frequently throughout the movie if those are any indications of a good entertaining film.  Now, the last thing you’ll wonder.  Is Taraji really singing?  It is my understanding that Taraji did sing her parts.  As a matter of fact, Taraji did her own rapping and her name was also Shug in the award-winning 2005 Hustle & Flow film.

Finally, I quote Shug’s line about the movie’s title, “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t notice it.”  Therefore, don’t regret not seeing this wonderful musical adaption of The Color Purple while it’s still on the big screen.

Grade: A

About The Peetimes: There are three solid Pee Times and an emergency one. Given the anticipation of seeing familiar taglines from the original movie, I avoided Peetimes that would steal your joy. I recommend the 2nd Peetime above the others.

There are no extra scenes during, or after, the end credits of The Color Purple.

Rated:	(PG-13) Violence | Language | Sexual Content | Mature Thematic Content
Genres:	Drama, Musical
Starring:	Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks
Director:	Blitz Bazawule
Writer(s):	Marcus Gardley, Alice Walker, Marsha Norman
Language:	English
Country:	United States

Plot
Celie is a young poor, uneducated 14-year-old African-American teenager girl living in the Southern United States in the early 1900s. She writes letters to God because her father, Alphonso, beats and rapes her. Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once, which resulted in the birth of a boy, Adam, whom Alphonso abducted. Celie believes that Alphonso killed Adam. Celie then has a second child, and Celie’s ailing mother dies after cursing Celie on her deathbed. The second child is a girl named Olivia, whom Alphonso takes from Celie shortly after her birth.