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“All my life, I had to fight” and “I’s married now! I’s a married woman!” are classic lines made popular in Black culture over decades thanks to the 1985 film “The Color Purple.” The new version of the film, which opened on Christmas Day, is still making headlines in the media and online. The film exceeded box office expectations with an $18 million domestic opening, which was the largest on Christmas Day in over a decade, according to Forbes.
Theatergoers should expect this version to resemble the Broadway musical more than the 1985 original. Based on Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, the story is told from the perspective of African American women in the South who deal with heartache and dreadful treatment during the early 1900s.
A movie with depictions of sexual abuse presents challenges for African Americans and African descendants watching it on the big screen. People like Dr. Arthur Lewin, Baruch College’s Black studies professor, aren’t fans of the new film, inspired by the Broadway play. “The play made it seem like Black men are complete monsters,” said the educator.
“And now they have made songs and dances to go along with it.”
Songs and dancing set the tone from the beginning of the 2023 movie. In contrast, the first few minutes of the original were very disturbing, with the audience learning the main character, Celie Harris, was about to give birth at age 14 to her second child by her father, Alphonso (it was revealed later in the film that Alphonso wasn’t her biological father). Had he behaved toward Celie in a manner more representative of an actual father figure, he might have prevented her from becoming the wife of Albert “Mister” Johnson. Additionally, Alphonso attempted to molest Celie’s younger sister Nettie. Because of this, the two sisters depended profoundly on each other emotionally throughout the film.
Just like the original, the new “The Color Purple” magnificently displays the strength of Black sisterhood, including how Nettie unfailingly wrote letters to Celie over numerous years. “I love you and I’m not dead,” Nettie said in a letter that finally reached Celie after many years.
The story plays out with Mister’s mistress, Shug Avery, helping Celie find the letters Nettie wrote to her, which Mister hid for years. (Shug, however, didn’t say her popular line from the original, “You sho’ is ugly,” in the remake.) Aside from Shug and Celie’s sexual relationship eventually developing, they also exhibited a sisterhood. This moved Shug to reunite Celie with Nettie through reading the letters, a reconnection Celie desperately needed after years of abuse and brutal mistreatment from Mister. Celie even confessed to Shug that Mister “beat me for not being you.”
“I remembered watching the very first ‘Color Purple’ and it was traumatic for me,” said Tanya Weddemire, the Black Brooklyn gallery owner. She said that trauma is her reason for not yet watching the remake. “Maybe if I had more dialogue with my peers around it, [that] would change my perspective.” She did, however, give major congratulations to all involved in the remake.
The film’s climactic scene, where Celie ultimately confronts Mister during a group dinner, appeared more intense in the original. Regardless, Celie reading Nettie’s letters gave her the strength needed to persevere. In the culminating moments, both films portrayed Celie completely fed up with all the disgusting treatment from her husband during their entire marriage. Shug Avery looked on, visibly proud of Celie escaping her mental prison. She represented self-love for Celie.
This scene featured one of the most famous lines Celie said to Mister: “Until you do right by me, everything you think about is gonna crumble!” Mister’s life was on a steady decline after Celie left him to live elsewhere with Shug and her husband.
“I love the movie ‘Color Purple’ for what it is: the importance of sisterhood and having a support system when overcoming adversities and differences,” said Kirstin Laws, an up-and-coming Black business owner. She relates to Celie’s character in the remake for having her own custom, handmade apparel business; Celie eventually owned her own successful business, selling tailored pants after relocating with Shug. “I feel like the movie always taught us valuable life lessons, boundaries, confidence, strength, [and] independence,” said Laws.
Various life lessons and other more negative aspects have been discussed during the press run of “The Color Purple.” Star Taraji P. Henson and executive producer Oprah made headlines over an alleged feud after Henson publicly discussed unequal pay in Hollywood for Black women and production concerns on set. “They gave us rental cars, and I was like, ‘I can’t drive myself to set in Atlanta.’ This is [an] insurance liability, it’s dangerous,” Henson told the New York Times a few days ago.
Oprah responded some days afterward, on “CBS Mornings with Gayle King,” saying, “I personally called Toby Emmerich, who was, at the time, the head of Warner Bros., and he said, ‘That means we have to do cars for everybody.’ Then I said, ‘Then we do cars for everybody.’” Oprah said she offered to pay for the cars personally for the cast out of her own money.
“The Color Purple” star Danielle Brooks confirmed in the same interview that all production concerns were handled. “I have just been the champion for everybody,” Oprah explained.
“When we first said that this movie was going to be a healing thing at CinemaCon, I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that people would try to break that down,” said the film’s star, Fantasia Barrino, during the same Gayle King interview. “Anything that has healing as a part of it, ‘they’ will do so.” The women showed there is no beef and that some form of sisterhood authentically exists.
“The Color Purple” is currently in theaters.
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