The Color Purple (1985) on Netflix
In Georgia, Celie bears two children by her abusive father, and both are taken from her. She is married off to Albert Johnson, who beats her, and separated from her sister Nettie.
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Trailer
Plot summary
Celie is a teenager in rural Georgia at the start of the twentieth century. She has twice given birth to children fathered by her abusive father, and both babies were taken from her. Her father marries her off to Albert Johnson, a farmer who puts her to work as a servant and beats her. Her younger sister Nettie flees their father and takes shelter with Celie, and the sisters promise to write to each other should they be parted. Albert's son Harpo marries Sofia, who fights back when Harpo tries to strike her. Albert then brings the ailing Shug Avery into the house, and Celie, who has admired her from a photograph, nurses her back to health.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Color Purple (1985)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Whoopi Goldberg, then 29 and known for a one-woman Broadway show, lobbied producers for the part and was personally picked by Alice Walker after she saw her stand-up; at her audition for Steven Spielberg, with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson watching, she performed a routine about a stoned E.T. being arrested for drug possession.
- Steven Spielberg waived his usual $15 million directing fee for The Color Purple and instead took the Directors Guild of America minimum of $40,000.
- Quincy Jones's insistence on giving Oprah Winfrey more dialogue in The Color Purple sparked an apparent feud between Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg that lasted several years afterwards.
- The Color Purple's premiere in Los Angeles was picketed by members of the NAACP, who objected to the film's depiction of rape.
- Steven Spielberg won his first Directors Guild of America Award for The Color Purple and became the first director to win that prize without even being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director.
- The Color Purple was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, but won none, tying the record set by 1977's The Turning Point for the most Oscar nominations without a single win.
- For the role that went to Margaret Avery, Steven Spielberg pursued singers Chaka Khan and Tina Turner, but both turned it down; Patti LaBelle and Sheryl Lee Ralph also auditioned, and Phyllis Hyman was considered.
- For The Color Purple, the North Carolina town of Marshville had its paved roads covered in mud and clay to match the early 20th-century setting, and the church used was a real 60-year-old Baptist chapel moved piece-by-piece from its original location.
