Last week, I watched The Color Purple all the way through for the first time. Folks tried to challenge the authenticity of my blackness a couple of weeks ago, since I mentioned on here that I haven’t watched The Wiz. So for the sake of keeping my black card from being suspended or revoked, I decided to watch The Color Purple and finally be able to understand to the quotes that people throw around from the film. After watching it, a few things came to mind:
I appreciate Whoopi Goldberg a little more now
Since most of my Whoopi film experiences came from being subjected to stuff like Jumpin’ Jack Flash and whatever that crap movie was with her and Ted Danson, I kind of shuddered at the thought of watching anymore movies featuring her in anything more than a supporting role. I can’t lie, she played the hell out of that role. Celie lived a hard life! Mainly thanks to her performance, I’m going to read the book now. Here’s to Whoopi! She may sould like Marge’s chain-smoking sisters on The Simpsons when she talks, but she did her thing in that movie.
Look at LARRY Fishburne!
He was still Larry back then. This was back in the Cowboy Curtis from Pee Wee’s Playhouse days, before he got sa-diddy and started going by “Lawrence.”
I almost went “Mister” on someone the other day
Don’t worry. I didn’t beat any women, but some lady made me curse her out something terrible! It reminded me of the scene where Celie was leaving, and Mister starting yelling at her, talking ’bout “Look at you! You ugly! You black!”
You’ll have to read my King Magazine online column to see what I said. My situation was quite different, and my words were a tad more eloquent, but delivered with the same force of “Sit ‘cho punk ass down and shut up” that Danny Glover had in his voice during that scene.
Yeah, all the major male characters were screwed up, but…
In Mister’s case, he tried to seek some sort of redemption in the end by fixing that void he created in Celie’s life. Plus, you realized that he turned out totally screwed up, thanks to his pops being just as screwed up. Adolph Caesar was great at portraying old, angry scumbuckets in the early-to-mid 80′s. I still laugh when I think of his raspy voice talking about “The day of the geechie” in A Soldier’s Story. Now when I think of that dude, I hear him saying “She black as tar, nappy-headed, got legs like baseball bats, and I hear she got that nasty woman’s disease”
So now that my black credentials are that much safer, I am going to go eat some leftover Thai food. Enjoy your afternoon.
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I almost went “Mister” on someone the other day….*DEAD* LMAO
that is one of my all time favorite movies i like when they were sitting at the table and the father asked mister “you gonna let that ol nappy headed gal talk to you like that at your own table?” that was messed up. its a classic just like the wiz and the golden child.
LMAO…you know what..Imma be quiet on this one…cause I can so see you having a Mista moment..lmao
The movie was good (my cuz and I still advise people who are having trouble with their woman to “beat her” ala Celie…LOL) but I must warn you about the book- it’s written in slang, as in phonetically. I never got passed the first page.
Call me a snob but I need my literature written as close to the king’s english as possible.
I can deal with a foreign word here or there, but a whole book written phonetically?? Oh HELL naw…
I can’t believe you haven’t seen The WIZ!!! You’ve got to see the genuine proof that Micheal Jackson was really black. He’s the ultimate American Dream. Think about it. A black boy from the ghetto that becomes a rich white man!!!
BTW I love the comments about Mister! Yeah, my soon to be ex-husband is walking around more humble than him!
Man, you call yourself a blackman and you’ve never seen this movie! For shame…. so um what’s it about? It’s the one with Oprah in it right?
nah it’s the one with Kunta Kinte in it
One of the best of all times! By Steven Speiilberg of all people.
Yeah, the Color Purple is one of those movies that you come across and automatically put down the remote. So will you see the play when it comes your way. I hear it’s better than the movie. It’s here in L.A., so I’m purchasing the tickets this week.
I can’t talk Leon, I didn’t see Coming to America for the first time until college lol.
I’ve also never had Kool-Aid
So your Black card is as good as mine! lol
I have read the book about 3 times, and I love the book as much as I love the movie….ain’t no mountain ain’t no sea keep my sista away from me.
Heyyy…Oprah was good in The Associate too! And she’s definitely the voice of reason on The View, she be runnin things. I like the scene at the dinner table when Oprah starts laughing randomly- it was so liberating! lol ;)
I can probably quote that entire movie without pausing but my all time favorites are “it’s gonna rain on yo head” and “she fixin to shaaaaaaaaaaaaave mister” and “did i ever ask you for anything! DID I EVER ASK YOU FOR ANYTHING! I ain’t never ask you for nothing not even your sorry ass hand in marriage”… aahhhh nothing like a good emancipation scene in a movie!
I’m glad you finally got to the see the movie! Many males feel the movie puts them in a bad light, but they need to understand that the time/era in which the movie was supposed to be was 30-35 years post slavery. They must look past what’s in the movie, read the book and gather a better understanding of the complexities of the characters. Each of them have a story.
Among other things, the movie was about Celie’s struggle to find and love herself through years of abuse at the hands of a man who hardly knew anything about her-her husband.
Mister’s attempt at reuniting her with her sister after 30+ years apart, IMO, was hardly an effort in redemption. He was wrong and kept her in a life of servitude as payback for not being able to marry her sister.
If that was the year 2000+ and he tried that mess, we’d be watching an episode of Oxygen’s “Snapped, The Color Purple edition”.
Honey,
You have no need to fear losing your card. I have been trying to keep mine because I hate watermelon and collard greens! I am glad you decided to read the book. Once you are done, read “The third life of grange copeland” . It’s another good one from alice walker.
I may have to loose my card because I’ve never seen “The Wiz” all the way through. But I HAVE seen it as a play, so I guess that counts.
But “The Color Purple” is one of those movies that I will sit down and watch, no matter how many times I’ve seen it. That or “Coming to America”.
Me and my brother’s favorite part is when Celie was sharpening the razor, and it was juxtaposed with the Rite of Passage Ceremony that Nettie’s kids were going through in Africa. Sometimes we’ll just start chanting “Eeeeee-yaaaaaaayyyyiiiii” out of nowhere. (and Shug running to the porch was priceless too)
The book is great too.
IMO, this is one of the best ever film adaptations of a book. I watched the movie as a little girl, which made me appreciate the book so much more once I was actually old enought to read and understand it….
Now go “ease on down the road” to see “The Wiz” and your card will be safe and sound…
Unless you tell me you haven’t seen “The Five Heartbeats” either ^_^…LOL
I luuuuved the Color Purple book and movie. I still die from laughter when Oprah storms through the corn or cotton field ( never really figured that out) and confronts Whoopie about her telling Harpo to beat her ass…
“You told Harpo to beat me. Alls my life I’s had to fight. I loves me some Harpo, Lawd knows I do, but I’ll kill him dead before I let him beat me.” (that’s not word for word but you get the pic)
And you can def. catch me and my negro friends reenacting Shug’s church scene where she takes the brass band down the ole country road singing “God’s Trynna Tell You Something”. “Ya see Daddy, even sinners have a soul.”
You see I really can play the role of a black woman…Yeah me!
But have u read the book. My homeboy played Harpo
i love the music in all these movies i would hava a cd with “ease on down the road” and “nobody bring me bad news” from the wiz….”sister” from the color purple and the african music from coming to america.
i dont drink kool aid because no one in my house will buy it….i have to get it from my street pharmacist like crack or something.
me…yo you got something for me?
street pharmacist…yeah what kind you lookin for?
me…uh…you got the red one?
street pharmacist… yeah i got that. 2 for 50.
me… damn! 50 dollars???
street pharmacist…nah 50 cents.
and i hate fried chicken so dont feel bad….i hope i can keep my black card because i know how to dance and i love watermelon and i seen like every black movie. lol
imagine if all the celebrities tried to come back and do a remake of the movies they were in. look at where they are now i dont think oprah would ever go back to them days. and michael jackson forget about it. i think eddie murphy would be the only decent one. him and whoopy goldberg because she’s still ugly and she still looks like ceile.
how could we forget im gonna get you sucker?
Yall done said it all…..huge smile on my face reminicing about the book and movie. Spielberg replaced spike lee as my fave director on the strength of this movie alone.
I am sooooooo happy for you… better late than never right…
It still amazes me though how many adults have never seen the movie. I just cant fathom it since I watched it multiple times as a kid… my mom had it on vhs in the house
When I went to see the play on broadway there was a woman behind me in her 40′s and she whispered to the person she was with… I wonder if this is like the movie… and I couldnt believe a black woman her age had never seen it.
“Sat in that jail, sat in that jail and near bout done rot to death..I knows what it be like Ms Celie, wanna go somewhere and you can’t”
I think every black person in the world should watch this movie, It was one of the best I’ve ever een. (The Wiz too..)
I began reading the book when I was 14. I didnt get the full experience then, due to its use of slang. But I got over that. And I loved the movie too! Im glad you decided to finally check it out.
L
Hi! prSMMO
@Leon: have you seen the purple color in the rainbow?