Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3067 in DVD
• Released on: 1998-09-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Full Screen, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 148 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Steven Spielberg, proving he's one of the few modern filmmakers who has the visual fluency to be capable of making a great silent film, took a melodramatic, DW Griffith-inspired approach to filming Alice Walker's novel. His tactics made the film controversial, but also a popular hit. You can argue with the appropriateness of Spielberg's decision, but his astonishing facility with images is undeniable--from the exhilarating and eye-popping opening shots of children playing in paradisiacal purple fields to the way he conveys the brutality of a rape by showing hanging leather belts banging against the head of the shaking bed. In a way it's a shame that Whoopi Goldberg, a stage monologist who made her screen debut in this movie, went on to become so famous, because it was, in part, her unfamiliarity that made her understated performance as Celie so effective. (This may be the first and last time that the adjective understated can be applied to Goldberg.) Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and actress (supporting players Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were also nominated), it was quite a scandal--and a crushing blow to Spielberg--when The Color Purple won none. --Jim Emerson

Amazon.co.uk Review
Steven Spielberg took a melodramatic DW Griffith-inspired approach to filming Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple. His tactics made the film controversial, but also a popular hit. You can argue with the appropriateness of Spielberg's decision, but his astonishing facility with images is undeniable--from the exhilarating and eye-popping opening shots of children playing in paradisiacal purple fields to the way he conveys the brutality of a rape by showing hanging leather belts banging against the head of the shaking bed.

In a way it's a shame that Whoopi Goldberg, a stage monologist who made her screen debut in this movie, went on to become so famous, because it was, in part, her unfamiliarity that made her understated performance as Celie so effective. (This may be the first and last time that the adjective "understated" can be applied to Goldberg.) Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and actress (supporting players Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were also nominated), it was quite a scandal--and a crushing blow to Spielberg--when The Color Purple won none. --Jim Emerson, Amazon.com

On the DVD: The Color Purple makes a sumptuous transfer to DVD in this special edition. The lush and vibrant cinematography is well served by the widescreen format; Quincy Jones's warmly enveloping score, shot through with jazz age references, is superbly enhanced by surround sound. The extras are ideal companions to the main picture, detailing the passage of Alice Walker's novel from book to screen. Walker herself recalls the anxieties of the process, while director Spielberg and various cast members remember many poignant moments during and after filming, reminding us with a jolt that this beautifully made, hugely popular and inspirational film didn't win a single Academy Award. --Piers Ford

DVD Description
DVD Special Features

• Conversations With Ancestors: The Color Purple From Book to Screen (27 minutes)
  
• A Collaboration of Spirits: Casting and Acting The Color Purple (29 minutes)
  
• Cultivating a Classic: The Making of The Color Purple (24 minutes)
  
• The Color Purple: The Musical
  
• Behind the scenes and cast photo galleries
  
• x 3 theatrical trailers

DVD Technical Information:

• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen Anamorphic
  
• Dolby Digital 5.1
  
• Subtitles: English, French, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish, German, Romanian
  Hearing Impaired: English and Italian
  
• Running time: 148 minutes

Customer Reviews

Thoughtful and Moving
This film, based on the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Alice Walker, follows the life of Celie, a young black woman who is married off to a violent, controlling man, at the tender young age of 14. Celie is played with utter brilliance by Whoopi Goldberg.

Separated from her beloved sister, Celie then has to endure an extremely difficult life with the man she calls 'Mr', played superbly by Danny Glover. Celie also has to come to terms with the fact that she may never see her two children again; the two children she had with the man she called her father, but was actually her stepfather.

Along the way, 'Mr' brings into his home the first woman he ever loved, a stunningly talented singer named Shug Avery, and Celie forms a friendship with her. Another excellent performance is provided courtesy of Oprah Winfrey, who plays a tenacious woman who is disgracefully imprisoned for seven years for punching a white man.

Eventually, Celie discovers that a veritable catalogue of mail from her sister has been intercepted and hidden by 'Mr', and with sheer joy, Celie reads all about how her sister has lived a full and eventful life, travelling to Africa as a missionary. Some very emotional scenes take place towards the end of the film, which should realistically bring a tear to the eye of anyone who has an ounce of humanity.

This film is not just hugely relevant, but also superbly acted and beautifully shot. It gives great insight into the lives of black people during the first half of the twentieth century, and the trials they faced with admirable backbone. No acting Oscars were awarded for this film, a fact which I attribute to the institutionalised racism which is still very much present in American life. Certainly this has to be regarded as Whoopi Goldberg's finest hour, and a definite triumph for director Steven Spielberg.

Given that Alice Walker was consulted frequently in the making of this film, I would imagine that it sticks closely to the details in the novel, which can only be a good thing. Alice Walker is a writer of amazing depth, sensitivity, emotion and relevance. This film helps convey that to a great extent.

Epic and Inspiring
This is one of the most amazing films of all time - one of those movies that will change your life forever just by sitting down and watching it once. It gives alot of insight into the way life was for some (not all)black people in the early 1900s in the more rural parts of America - especially black women.

The story revolves around Celie, a young woman from the age of around eleven has endured some incredible hardships. Her mother is dead and the only person in the world who actually cares for her is younger sister, Nettie, an intelligent and prettier alternative to Celie's homely looks and slight naivity. By the time Celie is thirteen years old, she's already had two children from her sexually abusive father which were both sold to outsiders who couldn't have children.

Nettie catches the eye of a local farmer - a widower known as "Mister" who has children and needs a wife immediately. Celie's father is approached by "Mister" who wants to marry Nettie, however, Celie's father is less enthusiastic about the idea, and palms off Celie on him instead (having his eye on Nettie himself).

So Celie is "sold" to Mister and sent off to live on the Johnson farm as less of a wife and more of a slave. Mister is selfish, arrogant, and abusive, the children are imputant and troublesome and the house is in a state of complete disarray with the mess bordering on unlivable.

After some time, Nettie arrives needing a place to stay after their father won't keep his hands away from her. Celie knows this is a bad idea as Mister also has his eye on but would rather have her sister with her where she can try to protect her - impending doom is on its way and the sisters know it; Nettie strives to teach Celie how to read and write and Celie strives to keep Mister happy.

The girls are seperated when Mister becomes furious that Nettie won't return his gratitude in ways that would satisfy him, and Celie is heartbroken as Mister exiles Nettie from ever stepping foot near their land again.

Celie succumbs to the life in which has become her prison. And so she grows up a woman in a house where she is little more than a slave and the only person she can really speak to about her woes and thoughts is God.

Following the story, life revolves around Celie, her stepson's wife Sophia(an amazing performance by Oprah Winfrey), and Shug Avery, a blues singer whose influence will change Celie's life forever.

This adaption of the Pulitzer Prize winning book of the same name is inspiring, tear-jerking, and uplifting. A breathtaking story of the troubled life of a woman who struggles through dominance and opression still clinging onto hope. Whoopi Goldberg's performance as Celie will blow you away.

My only woe with this movie is some versions of it come on a two-sided disc (as the movie is epic and long) and you have to get up to turn it over to see the second half).

Beautiful but flawed
This is a exquisitely directed, perfectly paced piece of film-making. The performances are beautiful and the cinematography captures the shifting moods of the film admirably. Goldberg is fantastic in a role which flies in the face of Hollywood 'leading lady' conventions, projecting a quite dignity and mesmerising spirit.

However, for all its realism and courage, 'The Colour Purple' is marred by its depiction of men. They are uniformly abusive, weak-willed or idiotic. As a woman I felt distinctly uneasy about the confrontational attitude of the movie. A less bitter and less polemical approach to the question to gender would have elevated this gorgeous film to classic status.

This is a visually beautiful film, which is both thought-provoking and inspiring. Ultimately it suffers from its willingness to surrender complexity to ideology, particularly in the final scenes.