The Color Purple

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is one of the best and most powerful novels of the 20th century. Three years after its initial release, there was a 1985 film adaption. This adaption adheres pretty close to the novel’s text. The main thing it lacks is two specific forms of representation. First off, Steven Spielberg directed this film about an African American woman. Spielberg is good director and he made a good adaption of the text. With one notable exception. By Spielberg’s own admission, he didn’t know how to handle the novel’s queer themes. This means that the 1985 film minimizes such themes are to near non-existence. Ghanian director, Blitz Bazawule directed the 2023 version . And there’s enough lesbianism in the film to qualify for my site. Do these factors mean the 2023 version is the superior cinematic version of The Color Purple? Honestly, no.

The obvious change to 2023’s The Color Purple is that it’s a musical, adapted from the 2005 Broadway show. You may wonder, isn’t it a strange choice to turn The Color Purple into a musical? Yes. It is. I watched this film with an open mind and heart. At no point did I think yeah, a musical is an appropriate medium for this story. Especially given the fact that this film is an adaption of an adaption. That means things get lost in translation not once, but twice. The novel is one of the most powerful texts I’ve ever read. But by the time they adapt that text across two different creative mediums, so much of that power is lost. So much story, complexity and especially, the heavier themes of the novel get shaved away to fit into the musical and then, movie musical mould.

The bias present in this review is that I’m white. That should be taken into account as I write about what I want to see in this African American story. Personally, the musical numbers never stopped feeling inappropriate for the content of the story. This movie is about a woman who suffers physical and sexual abuse from her father, and then immediately following that, her husband. The story additionally deals with the broad systemic oppression of Black people, and especially Black women in early 20th century America. Presenting such a story with admittedly high energy, well-choreographed dance numbers feels wrong to me. But maybe I am the one who is wrong. Maybe transforming such a dark story into a vibrant, triumphant musical is a radical and subversive representation of Black joy. I like to think I’m open to that as a concept. Just not with this particular text.

Especially because often, these musical numbers take up space regarding the story’s heavier moments. The novel basically opens with Celie giving birth to her father’s child. While that moment still features in the film, it’s after an energetic opening number about how God works in mysterious ways. The birth scene itself runs less than two minutes, before things move on again. Frankly, this movie is one big pacing problem. The novel has so many plot points and complexity that would never fit in the film. As a Broadway show, it also presumably ran longer than the film’s 2 hours and 20 minutes. So, even the musical numbers suffer. At least half of them cut off before completion. And like everything else in the film, there’s not time to pause for a moment before we’re moving on to a new plot point or even an entirely new year.

While I don’t think The Color Purple is the right choice to adaption as a musical, the film does show that there is so much potential for a musical about the African American experience at this time. Director Blitz Bazawule also shows his chops as a musical director. He has an eye for over the top colour and choreography. The real tragedy is that there was never a chance for a story like this that wasn’t The Color Purple to get green lit. Only a pre-existing and popular IP would be produced at this level of budget and given this subject matter. Sadly, The Colour Purple is really, the only story like this that has that recognition and audience. This review is about how I think a musical is the wrong fit for this text. But it’s the only text that would realistically be given this opportunity.

Ultimately, I think this is probably the worst version of The Color Purple. The novel is extraordinary. The 1985 adaption stays close to that text, which means it’s also pretty good. I haven’t personally seen the Broadway adaption, but I can only imagine that it made more sense in that form than the 2023 movie which is an adaption of such. 2023’s The Color Purple has a lot of talent in its direction and several of its performances. It also gives us a full musical number not just about female/female desire, but among two Black women. But none of this really makes up for the fact that in adapting it into a musical, the project loses some of the novel’s heaviness and complexity. And I’m still not sure that the story of The Color Purple is one that lends itself to a musical adaption.

Overall rating: 5.9/10

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