The Color Purple

Hey everyone and welcome, today we will be talking about the film The Color Purple. Fun Fact, this film is based off a musical of the same name which is also adapted from the 1982 novel by Alice Walker. This film came out in 2023 and stars Fantasia Barrino, Coleman Domingo, and Danielle Brooks and was directed by Blitz Bazawule. So without further ado let’s get right into it.

The color purple follows the lifelong struggles of Celie in the 1900’s who was separated from her sister at a young age and longs to escape an abusive relationship and find her long lost sister.

The color purple is a musical drama. It has similar vibes to The Color Purple, Fences, or Dream Girls.

This isn’t the first time The Color Purple has been adapted and to be honest I don’t really remember the orginal but I was excited to see this one because the cast was filled with some great actresses and I was excited to see the songs considering I hadn’t seen the musical. I was happy that this film was marketed as a musical because I knew going into this that there would be music and songs. I was fully invested straight from the get go and the music only helped elevate the film even more.

Fantasia did a great job as Celie and showed how this character who endured years of abuse from a young age was completely hopeless. She had aspirations and dreams and missed her sister Nettie and tried connecting with her but mister was always in the way until Shug came and shook things up. She eventually gets a happy ending by being reunited with Nettie but my god the journey there was rough. Every time Fantasia sang it reminded me that I made the right choice all those years ago voting for her on American idol.

The young actress for Celie and Nettie were perfectly cast in my opinion. Both of the actress did a great job helping get the movie started on the right foot and showed how sad their life was from the get go.

Coleman Domingo was so good as Mister, so good I was hating him every time his name was mentioned or we saw his face throughout the film.It was nice that in the end he helps Celie find her sister but that doesn’t change the fact that he beat her, raped her attempted to rape her sister, mentally abused her and hid her sisters correspondences all those years, the only thing that would’ve made his characters storyline better would’ve been if he died.

Danielle Brooks was funny and perfectly casted as Sofia and I love how she didn’t take crap for anyone and if anyone wanted to scrap she was never scared of a fight. It was sad to see her broken after being thrown in jail by white people because she didn’t want to be a maid but I was glad at the end she was kind of getting back to her self when she laughs at Celie telling Mister off and then she breakdown crying and thanking Celie for being the main one checking up on her while she was in jail and making sure she survived.

Taraji P Henson was great as Shug and really made Ciele feel beautiful and helped free her from her prison. I was happy that she connected with her dad again even though he didn’t approve of her life. I just loved her confidence and how in contrast to Sofia she wasn’t shown as a physically fighter but that doesn’t mean she didn’t speak her mine and fought for what she wanted.

Whoopi Goldberg making a cameo was something that was so small but I felt was great to see. Whoopi played Celie in the first adaption and in this film she is the midwife helping Celie deliver her baby.

My favorite part of this film was Fantasia performing Im Here. It was a moment where it seems like she was truly free from mister and decided from here on forward to focus on her own happiness and she realized that she is beautiful. The song is a power ballad that steadily builds and talks about what she’s grateful for now. The song is very optimistic and tells of how much she persevered through. Fantasias vocals are perfect for this song and I loved seeing her perform it and Celie just seemed so much happier in this moment. This was the perfect performance to add towards the ending of the film.

The Color Purple is an interesting film that showcases some black women I the 1900’s who have just been through a lot. The cast and the music is great and while the story can be heartbreaking it was nice to see the character persevering and finding that even though they had a rough life that for them it got better.