Ending our Summer of Spielberg with a film that I feel he was the wrong director for.

TW: This episode is a heavy one guys. The Color Purple is the 1985 film adaption of Alice Walkers novel of the same name. It deals with topics of child sexual abuse, incest, and spousal abuse.

Steven Spielberg a controversial director of this film given the nature of the story being about predominantly African American characters. The film and the book have been criticized by the NAACP for the depiction of black men as abusers with little redeeming qualities. This must be acknowledged and respected. Although Spielberg has been defended and praised heavily by the cast for the last 40 years for his work, and the care he took in telling a story that for them felt sincere, he received criticism from audiences.

He also shied away from the queer relationships in the book at his admission of being out of his depth, which is such a pivotal and important part of the novel.

I think it’s important to discuss this film, as it has had a huge impact on cinema. I think it’s important to criticize directors for their missteps even when it seems to be done with good intentions. We also need to acknowledge white washing of narratives, and call out when white directors have been given opportunities that were not given to equally talented black directors.

Institutional racism needs to be broken down from within, not just from the outside.

Steven Spielberg was not the best choice for director for this film, and through this Summer of Spielberg series I feel it would do a disservice to only discuss his wins, I need to cover the controversies of his career as well. Which includes an opportunity that should have been given to someone else.

I will try to handle this as sensitively as I can and I want to ensure I take as much care with this review as possible.

This is not to take away from the actors in the film that are incredible, including but not limited to Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Oprah. Their performances are what make this film as good as it is. And they deserves their flowers for their accomplishments in truly making an emotionally moving motion picture.

Along with the film itself references used in the creation of this episode are linked below

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/color_purple

https://letterboxd.com/film/the-color-purple/

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-color-purple-1985

https://www.blackfilm.com/20030321/features/alicewalker.shtml

https://www.sfgate.com/books/article/alice-walker-on-the-making-of-the-film-the-color-3000001.php

https://youtu.be/TN34IySTNlg?si=EwrImCgmfiSdW0DF