Die Farbe Lila

The performances are excellent, but otherwise, it's so disgustingly schematic and melodramatic that I can't believe the film has such high ratings. It almost feels like it's just me, but on the other hand, isn't it because Spielberg made a film about black people for white people so that whites could say, "This was missing here"? The Butler is better and more believable when it comes to emotion. (09.12.2015)

Another entry in the long list of Spielberg’s masterpieces that doesn’t even need a review. I don't know how he does it, but if a viewer can sit through 140 minutes of a humane conversational drama, it says something about the director's abilities. I won't go on about how serious and noble the subject matter is, how brilliant the actors are and how moving and human the story is, just read the synopsis and imagine the most beautiful way it can be executed, and you’ll get the review of The Colour Purple. Though, of course, not everybody will see it the same way. 95% (17.02.2014)

A crazy wide-ranging story that reveals for the first time one of Spielberg's weaknesses – if he feels he's telling an important story, he's cautious to be sufficiently respectful towards it. In so doing, he often falls into the trap of over-sentimentality, unnecessarily long poignant scenes, and an inability to omit certain sequences in order to make the film a little more compact. It also doesn't help that every scene has a different tempo and that the composer of the music, Quincy Jones, shows no restraint whatsoever, so that at completely inappropriate moments there is a soaring orchestra of three hundred instruments, like a Russian constructivist film. If it had ended with a bravura (but very theatrical) gospel interlude through which several stories are linked within a single space, I'd be considerably happier; but alas, it's Spielberg, so it won't do without a final farewell in Grey Havens. I was quite surprised, though, at how tolerant and patient the story is with Danny Glover's character, who deserves to hang from his first scene. (05.12.2021)

It's a fact that Steven Spielberg is a filmmaker with a capital F. He may not be as much of a genre chameleon as, say, Peter Weir, but I daresay he can brilliantly handle pure drama (The Color Purple, Schindler's List), science fiction (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, A.I., Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, Minority Report) and popcorn at the highest level (Indiana Jones). Few directors can boast such a diverse yet rewarding filmography that has brought the cinematic world unforgettable and timeless works. As for this particular film, The Color Purple, it's something of an outlier (as far as Spielberg's work goes) and the film itself is, at this point at least for me, unique out of all Spielberg's oeuvre. Perhaps because it's not as well known as, say, Schindler's List, but it's similarly sensitive, deeply emotional, unrelenting, cruel in its relationship with its characters, and at the same time very powerfully moving. Spielberg has managed to film a story that contains a truly enormous range of emotions, psychology, different emotional and life states of a person with grace, remarkable attention to detail, and excellent profiling of each character. The phenomenal Whoopi Goldberg and the development of her character, which you simply have to experience right along with her, just like all her sorrows, but also the smallest joys, is probably the strongest attribute of the whole film. It is also remarkable that, thanks to the sophistication of the story and the precision of the direction, the vast majority of the supporting characters are similarly interesting and together with the main storyline create a very detailed and (I might even write credible – at least from a feeling point of view) picture of a very difficult time. On the other hand, I was struck by the fact (and I consider this another huge triumph of the film) that the plight of some of the characters (not all, but some) is not directly caused by the times and specific repressions against specific groups of people, but primarily by human nature, individual behavior, and a remarkably cruel ability to degrade their counterparts to the very limits of human dignity. A typical "academic" film, but one that manages to use its "academicism" and artistry to tell an immensely compelling and engaging story, the narrative value of which is enormous. (24.08.2011)

I don't want to label The Color Purple directly as an academic borefest, but I kind of understand those snubbed Oscars. It's an interesting subject and very cleverly directed. The film has several very powerful scenes, which then shatter with the most sentimental ones (especially the ending), but that's Spielberg, and you must take it with a considerable amount of optimism. (07.07.2005)