The Color Purple [DVD] [1986] [1985]

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DVD Special Features * Conversations With Ancestors: The Color Purple From Book to Screen (27 minutes) * A Collaboration of Spirits: Casting and Acting The Color Purple (29 minutes) * Cultivating a Classic: The Making of The Color Purple (24 minutes) * The Color Purple: The Musical * Behind the scenes and cast photo galleries * x 3 theatrical trailers DVD Technical Information: * Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen Anamorphic * Dolby Digital 5.1 * Subtitles: English, French, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish, German, Romanian Hearing Impaired: English and Italian * Running time: 148 minutes .co.uk Review ------------- Steven Spielberg, proving he's one of the few modern filmmakers who has the visual fluency to be capable of making a great silent film, took a melodramatic, DW Griffith-inspired approach to filming Alice Walker's novel. His tactics made the film controversial, but also a popular hit. You can argue with the appropriateness of Spielberg's decision, but his astonishing facility with images is undeniable--from the exhilarating and eye-popping opening s of children playing in paradisiacal purple fields to the way he conveys the brutality of a rape by showing hanging leather belts banging against the head of the shaking bed. In a way it's a shame that Whoopi Goldberg, a stage monologist who made her screen debut in this movie, went on to become so famous, because it was, in part, her unfamiliarity that made her understated performance as Celie so effective. (This may be the first and last time that the adjective understated can be applied to Goldberg.) Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and actress (supporting players Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were also nominated), it was quite a scandal--and a crushing blow to Spielberg--when The Color Purple won none. --Jim Emerson