One of my favorite films that I remember was The Color Purple. Heart-wrenching and universally loved, The Color Purple isn’t really about the color purple. It’s about the trials and tribulations of black women in the turn-of-the-century south, and how they conquered over all the abuse, the poverty, and the lack of anything resembling a life.

The Color Purple received a whopping 11 Oscar nominations and won precisely zero. It was directed by Steven Speilberg.

The movie tells the life story of Celie, played by Whoopi Goldberg with a performance that was nominated for Academy Award and should have won. Celie is a poor girl in the South during the early 1900s. The story starts with her as a teenager and follows her troubled life through to middle age. She’s passed from an abusive father to an abusive husband and is oppressed from all sides. There’s two missing children somewhere, taken from her at birth, and a close sister that her husband refuses to allow her to contact. One of her only friends, played by Oprah Winfrey in another Oscar-calibre performance, is crushed in spirit by a segregated society of double standards. But as brutal as this story is, it’s one of hope. No matter how low things get, it’s not to late to start living.

Known for bringing us both Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey in their “big break” performances. 

delete reply redheadgirl4 wrote on Nov 8, ’07 I loved this movie, and loved the book too! Thanks for the great review!!