The Color Purple

A musical adaptation of Alice Walker's novel. Celie is a girl in Georgia at the start of the twentieth century. She is married off very young and separated from her sister Nettie. In her new home she is mistreated for years and the only thing said to her is that she is worthless. The narrative covers forty years. Across it Celie meets two women: Sofia, who submits to nobody, and Shug Avery, who sings on stage. Each shows her something else about herself. It is not a direct adaptation of the novel; the source is the Broadway musical made from it. So the narrative moves through songs, and the music is built on gospel, blues and jazz. The film's choice is to carry the hard scenes with music. Violence is shown, but the narrative ties the scene to a song and moves into the character's interior. Fantasia Barrino plays Celie, Danielle Brooks plays Sofia and Taraji P. Henson plays Shug. Barrino and Brooks had played these parts on stage. Blitz Bazawule directed. A strong example for anyone who likes musicals and literary adaptation. Before you watch, know this: the narrative takes abuse as a direct subject and its first section is heavy.