Hey, look, it’s a musical version of that movie Elizabeth Banks couldn’t remember Steven Spielberg directed, when she tried to call him sexist – forgive mistakes but never forget. And you know what, for a movie released in 1985, if The Color Purple were released today exactly as it were, it would surely be criticised for being too woke and anti-men 😮 It’s actually the perfect story to bring into this climate, bashing men for their righteous ill-will, and celebrating women for their hardship. The 1985 version, based off a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Alice Walker, launched Whoopi Goldberg into stardom, and came with two more Oscar nominations for the cast as well (back when the Academy was supposedly racist, or so I hear), so I can’t wait to see what will come out of this – some fresh gems, and a whole lot of soothing groovin’, I hope.
Two sisters, Celie and Nettie (played by Phylicia Pearl Mpasi and Hallie Bailey when they are young, and Fantasia Barrino and Ciara as they mature) live with their abusive father, and only have each other for happiness. One day, Mister (Colman Domingo) proposes to their father that he wants a wife, and so Celie is given away immediately to serve Mister, and help raise his three children. Mister is just as abusive, and as the years go by, we see Celie shrink to a shell of a person, while Mister’s son Harpo (Corey Hawkins) begins a relationship with the strongheaded Sofia (Danielle Brooks), against Mister’s will, and Celie pines for her distant sister, presumed dead due to a lack of correspondence. This is a rich story, with many important occurrences along the way, and throughout the story, Celie questions the existence of God, concluding, through all her misery, that God’s intention is beauty, which is why God got so showy when inventing the colour purple.
I rewatched the older version recently to familiarise myself with the story, and I think my admiration will be showing. What struck me right away with this new one is a runtime of only 141 minutes, compared to a runtime of 153 minutes before; and how is a movie supposed to fit in all that story, and add in additional songs, with a shorter run span? The answer is, poorly, and there are many instances where changes made to the narrative seem to be for convenience, where they are done haphazardly, and sometimes incoherently too. Some of you out there might suggest that I have to battle myself, to accept a new version of a story I’m familiar with, just as I did successfully with Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical early last year, but since I found a lot of The Color Purple striped or dumbed down, it really is a chore.
The artistry is lacking; the amount of tacky scene transitions that occur in the first twenty minutes alone is telling. Mostly, The Color Purple has softened the cruelty, domestic violence, and sexual abuse, which is such a strong component of the original movie, and integral, in my view, in building compassion for the character of Celie. Celie can’t now just blurt out that her sister is missing as if making conversation, just like she does in Sofia’s hut. The movie also has Celie explain to Sofia that she told Harpo to beat her out of jealousy, which is such a juvenile interpretation if you ask me – Whoopi Goldberg’s Celie told her stepson to beat Sofia as if a symptom of Stockholm syndrome, I always thought, because, as a longsuffering victim, it worked affectively over so many years. I also get an indication from the original that Celie has sheltered Nettie from a lot of their early hardships too, but here Nettie is so jubilant in a contrast to Celie seeming ignorant, which means it’s heartbreaking when Nettie is sent away, more because Celie could be too dumb to function without her, instead of Nettie purely being Celie’s beating heart. Their father offers the reason that Mister can’t have Nettie because she is smart, and “she’s going to be a teacher”; not simply because he wants to rape her, and is so cocksure in his bitterness that he doesn’t feel the need to offer an excuse for it – and there’s something so much more sinister and suppressive in the latter. We also see Celie’s father give away a baby boy, but then Celie is delighted to discover a baby girl named Olivia in the next scene, with no connective tissue in between – the original has Celie’s voiceover guiding us through 😤 Mister is clearly hiding letters from Celie, shoving them down his pants while she’s looking, whereas before, it was a mystery as to whether Nettie was writing, where her letters be, and if she were dead. The Reverand (David Alan Grier) also informs us that Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson) is his daughter, where I think that’s better off left as a surprise at the end too. All these changes might be to make the movie more digestible, and easy to follow, but they water down the power of the story in my view, when it all worked pretty well before, making me wonder why a remake was even necessary.
And I usually love musicals, more than the next bloke, but I had no time for the mundane dancing in this movie, unless the smooth-moving Corey Hawkins is involved – I lurved him in In the Heights too, and he has musical talent oozing out of him. I found the songs to be highly forgettable, basic in their lyrics, except for ‘I’m Here’, Celie’s big belter after life goes well, and that’s the only song worth listening to. Of course, now we have a song inspired by Celie’s sexual awakening, and celebrating a pride in newfound lesbianism, which again, felt to me like missing the forest through the trees, when her kiss and admiration for Shug was once a moment of pure relief, in that Celie had finally found some sensational joy in her life, and not a need for a label or for Celie to decide on a personal identity. Putting a song like this here felt arrogant and self-serving to me, especially since the domestic abuse – another ever-relevant social issue – has been toned down. (But in the book, Celie’s feelings for Shug are more overt, or so I’m led to believe by an online synopsis, so I suppose the movie is playing up on that, even if I still find it superficial).
What this movie actually did do well was make me more appreciative of how well defined Mister is, played by Danny Glover in 1985 – vile and stunted, Colman Domingo is too smooth to be a convincing as a blunt man of force; who he foolin’? I recently posted on my associated Facebook page how I’d be delighted to see Colman Domingo playing Kang as Marvel’s replacement, but I instantly change my mind. Based on this performance, I don’t know if Colman can be callous at all, and I recently read a headline saying John David Washington is now in discussions for the part, and so I change my preference to him.
Thankfully, Danielle Brooks is a bright light on screen. It’s funny because Sofia and Harpo are almost caricatures in the original anyway, often providing much needed relief in a really dour affair. Ophrah Winfrey played Sofia vigorously in the original, and Brooks is up to the challenge. Conversely, I couldn’t give a hooey about Fantasia Barrino as the lead, unfortunately. It could be due to a point that her role is diminished, in lieu of the dancing and much else to look at, but I also found that the only characterisation given to Celie is that she is soft spoken, and her mouth is always open – not that inventive. But, if I switch back to positive mode, that’s not the case with Taraji P. Henson, who genuinely makes the role of Shug her own, and provides the only part of the movie that I felt offered an alternative version that I could be enthusiastic about 🤗 Obviously, Henson is an actress I’ve come across many times before, but I’m rarely impressed by her, and what a funny place to find some admiration here. Is Henson actually that great of a singer, or has she been dubbed? You’ve got to check these days because I’ve been duped before (dang-nabbit, The Greatest Showman). Hailie Bailey is also really charismatic.
If I’m to offer a constructive suggestion, instead of simply stating how this is not how I would’ve approached this project, I will say that I thought a musical might’ve elongated the role of Squeak (sorry, her name is Mary Agnes (H.E.R)), since she plays an equally defiant part in the climactic dinner scene, and her ambitions and dreams are already there to be explored. Mary Agnes has a more expanded presence in the book too it seems, so some of the work is already done there. I think some songs about her pining to be a famous singer, or her admiration for Shug, or her fright at Sofia trying to steal her man, would’ve added another layer to an already tremendous story, and been something different. The Color Purple could rightly be suffering from The Producers’ problem, where the play’s identity, and more expressive content, had to be cut down to fit the traditional structure of the small screen. That could very well be the case, but I don’t know, man; all I can do is judge the movie in front of me, and despite a few performances, none of this worked for me.
1.5
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