The Color Purple
A woman faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds extraordinary strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
The Colour Purple, Blitz Bazawule
The Color Purple hit cinemas in the UK on Friday, 26th January 2024, a month after it was released in the States and nearly 40 years on from the original adaptation of Alice Walker’s seminal novel.
Set in early 20th century Georgia, the story follows Celie as she traverses, seemingly powerlessly, through a series of harrowing events. Raped by the man she believes to be her father, and robbed of the children she bears because of his transgressions. Sold to Mister, a man decades her senior, who subjects her to years of physical and psychological abuse. Perhaps most crucially for her ability and desire to escape a life of drudgery and cruelty, she is separated from Nettie, her sister, a solace and reminder that, “life can never break your soul”.
In Nettie’s enforced absence, Celie is befriended and uplifted by the indomitable Sofia, wife to stepson Harpo, and the alluring Shug Avery, long-term mistress to her husband; in turn supports them through their own tribulations including parental ostracisation, addiction and racism.
It is no surprise that this empowering Black sisterhood, famed from past iterations including the (2005) Broadway show, has been kept at the centre of this remake but what is astonishing is that the subject of sisterhood, or supposed lack thereof, has been a contentious issue in the real lives of the film’s female leads. Or is it?
On the promotional press tour for the film Taraji P. Henson spoke up and broke down about the pay disparities and substandard amenities she and other Black actresses faced, not only on set where they were without drivers and security personnel, but in Hollywood as a whole, where the ceilings they smash and accomplishments they achieve hold little weight. Online, people were quick to apportion blame at the door of Oprah suggesting that she as executive producer could have advocated for the cast more, causing a hubbub so big Oprah felt the need to clarify she had championed “everything that everybody needed”.
Although Henson may have dispelled the criticism directed at Oprah by exclaiming that, “Ms Oprah...provided encouragement, guidance and unwavering support to us all”, the whole episode highlights that the exceptionalism expected of Black people in general and Black women in particular extends to allyship, and leads us to question if we must work to pull those coming behind us up, and if so, how hard?
“It is no surprise that this empowering Black sisterhood, famed from past iterations including the (2005) Broadway show, has been kept at the centre of this remake”
Is it not enough that as producer, Oprah would have had a hand in sourcing and securing funding, so the remake was viable? Is it not sufficient that she lit the fire and provided the blueprint for Sofia, so Danielle Brooks and others only had to replenish the fuel? Was her rejection of a role in the new film, presumably so a new generation could take centre stage, not an adequate enough act of platforming their talent?
Should groups such as ‘The Sisterhood’, a collection of Black female authors, including Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Audre Lorde, who regularly met to hone their literary craft, advocate for liberation and the inclusion of Black women writers at publishers and magazines such as Random House and Essence? Should Taraji’s decision to fight for those coming up behind her be an expected norm or a discretionary choice?
Let’s not exert ourselves with standards that wouldn’t be expected of men or white women; let’s be fair and absolve ourselves from the pressures for Black Girl Magic and Black Female Excellence in the arena of allyship too!
The Color Purple has not been widely acclaimed with some cast members receiving mixed performance reviews and elements of the plot critiqued. One recurring bugbear has been the art form, with commentators questioning if a musical is the correct way to depict incest, rape, racism and poverty, and if song is the correct accompaniment to brutal, heart rendering, sorrowful scenes?
Those familiar with director Blitz Bazawule’s artistic back catalogue (he spent the years before and after his degree in Business Administration making music and has four albums under his belt) will find his choice to suffuse his retelling of the story with music as no surprise. However, if you understand the history of Black struggle and how music has been intertwined within it, you will perceive Bazawule’s choice to be less about creative licence and more about birthright, tracing tradition and paying homage.
Spirituals that acted as a salve to those enslaved on plantations, the gospel and blues that carried the Civil Rights Movement, and Roots Reggae, which amplifies the economic inequities Jamaicans have faced since independence, are some examples of a Black diasporic tradition of using music to transcend trauma and to give voice to injustice. With this in mind, nothing makes more sense than Bazawule using song as the instrument through which to tell Celie’s struggle and ultimate triumph.
Release Date: January 26th, 2024
Director(s) Blitz Bazawule
Writer Marcus Gardley
Producer Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders, Quincy Jones
Starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., Halle Bailey, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi, Fantasia Barrino
Cinematography Dan Laustsen
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Runtime: 141 minutes.