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Color Purple, The
EMAILPRINTWarner Bros. Pictures
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 12 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Gay/Lesbian | Romance
Written by:
Menno Meyjes
Alice Walker (novel)
Directed by:
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 18, 1985
DVD: March 26, 1997
Running Time: 154 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13
Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Margaret Avery, and Oprah Winfrey
Following the life of Celie (Goldberg) who is married off to an abusive man (Glover) after becoming pregnant by her own father in the early 1900s.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: A.I. Artificial Intelligence Amistad Catch Me If You Can E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Empire of the Sun Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Jaws Jurassic Park Minority Report Munich Raiders of the Lost Ark Saving Private Ryan Schindler's List The Lost World: Jurassic Park The Terminal War of the Worlds
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel
Let's put it this way: To miss this film is to cheat yourself and your family of a memorable moviegoing experience. [20 Dec 1985]
TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
The film deserves praise for its heartwarming, empowering presentation of the strength and nobility of black women.
Read Full Review >Empire Angie Errigo
Unashamedly emotional, it either totally grabs you or leaves you cold.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Janet Maslin
Although the combination of his sensibilities and Miss Walker's amounts to a colossal mismatch, Mr. Spielberg's Color Purple manages to have momentum, warmth and staying power all the same.
Read Full Review >Variety Staff (Not Credited)
There are some great scenes and great performances in The Color Purple, but it is not a great film.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Sheila Benson
For the film's existence alone we can be grateful, and it contains at least three memorable performances, but the transition has been at a harrowing cost to the tone and scale and even the underlying theme of Alice Walker's book. [18 Dec 1985]
Time Richard Corliss
A lavishly illustrated, well-intended, self-inflicted knockoff.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott
The film is mystical in tone but peculiarly inexact and weepy in execution - it embodies the apotheosis of pathos. [21 Dec 1985]
Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon
There are many scenes in The Color Purple that are strong and affecting. They do not, however, compensate for the often hackneyed vision of domestic humor, the overreaching for artsiness, the rambling final 20 minutes or so in which Mr. Spielberg subjects us to the sight of hordes of blacks leaving the sinful confines of a jazz club and heading off to church, having already been overcome by a joyous fit of gospel singing. [19 Dec 1985]
Chicago Reader Dave Kehr
A lot of good actors (Danny Glover, Margaret Avery, Adolph Caesar, Rae Dawn Chong) are lost to Spielberg's shallow melodrama; the only one who emerges with any clarity is Oprah Winfrey, perhaps because Spielberg shares her shameless crowd-pleasing instincts.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
In the end, through mawkish direction that includes ludicrous sequences of wild animals in Africa transposed from the novel but made silly by visual literalness, and a completely inappropriate musical number combining a juke joint blues singer with a gospel choir, The Color Purple disintegrates into Steven Spielberg's biggest commercial and artistic failure. [20 Dec 1985]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
R. L gave it a10:
The Color Purple is a truly amazing film!
