The Color Purple

I have only seen the movie version of The Color Purple on cable TV so I was happy that it was a part of the TCM Big Screen Classics Series this year.  I had the opportunity to see it yesterday and I had forgotten how powerful this movie is!  Celie (played as young girl by Desreta Jackson and as an adult by Whoopi Goldberg), a young black girl living in the rural South in the early 1900s, has already had two children by her abusive father who have been taken away from her.  Eventually, she is forced to marry an older man known to her only as Mister (Danny Glover).  He beats her and forces her to cook, clean, and take care of his three children but, worse than that, he separates her from her beloved sister Nettie (Akosua Busia) and he hides all of Nettie's letters to her.  After several years of this treatment her spirit is entirely broken but it is her relationships with Sofia (Oprah Winfrey), the wife of Mister's son Harpo who teachers her that she can stand up for herself, and Shug Avery (Margaret Avery), Mister's mistress who teaches her to love herself, that give her the strength to overcome the adversity in her life.  The treatment that Celie endures is sometimes difficult to watch but it is worth it for the triumphant ending which always brings a tear to my eye.  There are so many scenes where Celie, almost wordlessly and almost without any change in facial expression, submits to the indignities of her life but Goldberg delivers an affecting performance that is both somehow sympathetic and compelling.  Her transformation is incredibly powerful, especially when she confronts Mister which, in turn, helps Sofia (a strong debut performance from Winfrey) find her voice again.  I wanted to cheer out loud during that scene.  I loved the message about the importance of female relationships and about finding the beauty in life when it seems so bleak.  I think the movie is more hopeful and inspiring than Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize winning novel (mostly because it is so beautifully shot in a bucolic setting filled with wildflowers) and I highly recommend checking it out!