“The Color Purple” received one Academy Award nomination. It should have received more. There’s probably no rhyme or reason why the Oprah Winfrey-backed project could only muster a single nomination (Danielle Brooks as Sofia in a best supporting actress role) when the 1985 film of the same name generated 11 Oscar nominations.
Winfrey’s “The Color Purple” is a more sanitized version of the first film, a movie that created open water-cooler discussions about domestic violence, incest, and abuse. These dynamics are often shunned in Black family discussions.
The Steven Spielberg-directed movie hit the Black community like a ton of bricks because these off-the-table topics were being played out on the big screen. The first version of “The Color Purple” does not apologize for its storytelling as it delves into rape, racism, and misogyny.
It is a cumbersome discussion that Black families have walked around and pretended it’s never been there. Black men have largely ignored it. Black women have been suppressed by it. All those secrets got blown up by “The Color Purple.” This is why the first film picked up all of those 11 Oscar nominations.
It also helped that it had an all-star cast to bring this movie to life. In the first film, Winfrey (as Sofia), Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Lawrence Fishburne, Adolph Caesar, and Margaret Avery made “The Color Purple” memorable.
In the first version of “The Color Purple,” the film leaves you emotionally and mentally exhausted. The only feel-good moments come at the end after you’ve been wetting your cheekbones with a steady stream of tears for more than two and a half hours.
In the remake of “The Color Purple,” that angst that you may have felt in the first film has been somewhat wiped away. The musical component may have something to do with it or it could be that the writers and everyone on set was intent not to bring a product so harsh as the original flick.
Whatever the case may be, there’s a sharp shift in the tone in the latest “The Color Purple” movie. The gist of the second film is still there as it was in the first movie. The knit between Celie and Nettie feels a lot tighter in the older film than it does in the newest version.
The first version of “The Color Purple” hit people like a ton of bricks. It was raw. The storytelling didn’t hold back. The 2023 released version of “The Color Purple,” was remade as a musical. A lot of the sting and rawness of that first film was taken away in the second movie.
Perhaps this was why the second movie only garnered just one Academy Award nomination compared to the 11 that the first flick received. We don’t know.
But having watched both films, the dramatic narrative and the in-your-face brutality of domestic violence, incest, and family politics within a Black family was something we had not seen before on the big screen. The acting was simply marvelous in the original flick.
Making things work behind the scenes was pivotal in the success of the 1985 film. It didn’t hurt that some heavy hitters on screen were bringing everything together. Danny Glover. Whoopi Goldberg. Oprah Winfrey. Margaret Avery. Adolph Caesar. Lawrence Fishburne. That’s an all-star cast within itself.
The second cast is good but is not quite as formidable as the first lot of characters. That’s especially true in the role of Shug Avery, who was originally played by actress Margaret Avery. Margaret Avery was so incredible as one of the central characters in the film that she earned an Oscar nomination.
Though she didn’t win the Best Supporting Actress award, Avery left an indelible mark as Shug. This means whoever plays Shug had better bring it. Taraji P. Henson took on the Shug Avery role in the second film and she did a good job, but she couldn’t deliver the goods the way Avery did.
Colman Domingo, who received an Oscar nomination for his work in “Rustin,” plays the ruthless and abusive Mister. Domingo was equal to Danny Glover’s Mister, maybe a little better. As far as the role “Celie,” actress/singer Fantasia Barrino is wonderful as the second heroine. However, there’s no replacing Goldberg. Period.
Goldberg is the gold standard for Celie and will remain that way until otherwise said and done.
Top Photo Caption: (L-r) FANTASIA BARRINO as Celie and TARAJI P. HENSON as Shug Avery in Warner Bros. Pictures’ bold new take on a classic, “THE COLOR PURPLE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Ser Baffo
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, social justice, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University.