the audience applauded

good back-story, and good acting

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Movie Review: "The Color Purple" (1985)Director Steven Spielberg receives the award-winning novel by Alice Walker from 1982 translating into capable dramatic story-arcing suspense moments between Father-Daughter-relations to harsh to be portrayed in Up-Town-New-York-City nerighborhood, nevertheless explored by Adrian Lyne directing Glenn Close and Michael Douglas in "Fatal Attraction" (1987), in an fictional Southern child-abuse drama, indulging on how to make a living in rural all-black neighborhood apart from the slave-owning traditions of the pre-civil-war 19th century North America, when Spielberg creates acting beats throughout, especially Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover in superior play-mode, rescue the "Best-Picture" Academy-Award-nominated from a close-to-sure failure of being a prevailing motion picture after more than 30 years, which clearly becomes the vehicle of a growing-up director after directing genre classics "E.T.-the Extra-Terrastrial" (1982) and a second installment of "Indiana Jones" starring Harrison Ford and Cate Capshaw in Hollywood season 1983/1984 with George Lucas executive producing."The Color Purple" can be enjoyed as another sunday afternoon relaxing movie with emotional challenges in atmospheric cinematography and moody Southern décor by avoiding I must say a preferable book-read in stealing away from times of over-flowing visuals from screens all around us.© 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC

A black Southern woman (Whoopi Goldberg) struggles to find her identity after suffering years of abuse from her father and others over forty years.Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film four stars, calling it "the year's best film." He also praised Whoopi Goldberg, calling her role "one of the most amazing debut performances in movie history" and predicting she would win the Academy Award for Best Actress. (She was nominated but did not win.) Now, with all due respect to Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover... this film just did not appeal to me. Not that anyone was bad, but I just never really got into it. I suspect this has something to do with Spielberg, and his need to be overly sentimental. Something about this film seemed like it was cynically designed to trigger emotions rather than achieve them organically.

This is absolutely one of my favorite movies of all time. The editing and score are superb. The acting and directing - simply amazing. Cinematography is out of this world! I think that Whoopi Goldberg is a under rated dramatic actress. They could not picked a better actress to play the role. Cinematography was gorgeous. The editing was spot on. I am not good at reviews. I just know this is my all time favorite movie. I love how the cuts in between her shaving Mister and Suge Avery running all to the beat of the African music. Oprah's role as Ms. Sophia was amazing. She played the role excellently. I would have not cast Glover in the role as Mister, but rather Morgan Freeman. The script, score, acting, directing, editing - all superb

Coming in 1985, this was Steven Spielberg's first attempt at melodrama; he had directed Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 3 and 4 years previously. This inaugural bid for Spielberg as a dramatic director feels a bit clumsy at times, and at times he struggles to portray harrowing oppression suffered by Celie Johnson, the film's protagonist. This may be the result of the film's PG-13 rating, as the harsh themes of domestic violence and incest are at times brushed over too lightly. Despite these issues, Steven Spielberg's dramatic debut is shot tremendously and full of brilliant performances. Danny Glover, while subdued by the film's hesitation to portray violence, is convincing as the abusive husband of Celie. Whoopi Goldberg is fantastic as Celie Johnson, and was undoubtedly robbed of an Oscar in 1986. Margaret Avery is also great as the inspiration to Celie and performs a few great songs, at least one of which also should have won an Oscar. But the real standout performance is from Oprah Winfrey as the empowering Sofia, giving by far the most moving performance in the film. The original music and musical collaboration in the film is superb, adding a lot of heart to the film. If you are a fan of Steven Spielberg, and want to see his origins in drama, this movie will not disappoint. It is a great film for black and female empowerment, but is not as brutal as films like Schindler's List, making it a great introductory drama to Spielberg's decorated career.