MovieChat Forums > The Color Purple (1986) Discussion > A really bad movie

A really bad movie

posted 14 years ago by meisterjaan
51 replies | jump to latest

Just to equalize the scales here..

What was good in this movie:
*Spielberg's handicraft skills
*Some true moments. I liked most the scene where Harpo and his ex-wife were dancing in the joint and his ex keep telling "be nice now, be nice now" and then he goes "naww..alright". This was good.

What was bad:
*The lead actress.. or the way Spielberg had made her act. I didn't believe her. It seemed she had just been told to do a sad face for most of the time.
*The unreasonable misery. Okay, I aknowledge many people have had and still have the kind of lives like Celie, but in this movie as a hole, I didn't understand the cause of all this. Okay, Albert beat Celie, but why.
*Yes, the absencse of the WHY was the biggest flaw of the movie. Celie told Shug that Albert beat her for not being Shug, but these are only words which doesn't work for me.

This movie was mostly the display of violence but I've had enough of violence. After watching this movie, I start to more and more agree with Aristoteles who has said that a noble drama shouldn't display violence but only the causes and consequences of the violence.

For users who vague wheter to watch this movie or not and who read my post and try to figure out which taste I have, then my favorite movies dealing with Deep Purple kind of subjects are "White Ribbon" and "A Serious Man"

[–] EmElleCee 8 years ago

I had to think for a moment why you'd have the criticisms you have of this movie. I came to think you have little ability to put yourself in another person's shoes. Nothing should have to be obvious to anyone in a film, although I understood character motives very clearly since childhood. I actually understand Celie very well and maybe not so fortunately. I don't think anyone would have to live a life like her's to understand her pain and healing. You must not know anything about pain. I do notice the story doesn't exactly focus on Celie alone. Maybe that was a distraction for you but I think it's obvious the people in Celie's life actually gave her life and it helped to make the story clear.

[–] baran_erik 8 years ago

Why did she look miserable? Let's see......she was continually raped by her father most of her childhood, getting pregnant by him twice, she was forced into a marriage with a man who didn't want her to begin with, and beat and raped her while constantly stepping out on her.

The cause? Mmmmmm......how about slavery? And they were black and living in Georgia. There's no "absnecse of WHY" for anyone with even a rudimentry education.

I hope English is your second language.

Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

[–] ivanhjc 7 years ago

I really like the opening scene. It's so refreshing and uplifting that I started to tear up.