Happy New Year! I just saw The Color Purple 2023 this evening and I really enjoyed the movie. Like many African Americans in my generation, I grew up on the 1986 film. I entered into the heart of African America when I began to attend a predominantly Black public school in Prince George’s County Maryland in the fourth grade. PG County is a place in the US with one of the highest populations of African Americans in the country. My first viewing was the VHS version at my 4th grade best friend/classmate Malkya Joy’s slumber party. I was too sleepy to pay much attention and kept nodding off – probably because my eight-year-old mind was too young to process the story properly. By the time I was in the seventh grade, I had seen the movie – I think we had the tape at home. I don’t actually remember my first viewing when I truly understood the story – it is as if I have always seen it. It’s like trying to remember the first time I had grapes. Grapes have always been a part of my life, as has The Color Purple. The films intertextual presence in contemporary African American culture cannot be overstated. The movie is simply a part of our lives. Many of my friends know the movie line by line. We quote Sophia, Squeak and Celie as intertextual references in a variety of ways – as the climax of jokes, to express views on relationships, in Facebook memes, etc. I read the book for the first time in high school, and have gone through four to five different readings over the years. I know the book like the back of my hand.
Why does this story resonate with us so strongly? I think it’s because the story rests on the nuances of our culture – the South, the Black Church, the blues and the iconic Black woman singer who is independent, beautiful and sassy. Celie and Nettie’s story performs a return to Africa that we collectively experience as African American viewers who are historically exiled from the homeland. And the story is about redemption – Sofia, Celie, Nettie, Shug, Harpo and even Mister are restored in different ways. Liberation is a strong theme – Shug is liberated by daring to be herself, by her vocal talent, and carefree attitude, and serves as a liberator. She liberates Celie from Mister, who gains financial independence and comes into her own as a woman. Nettie is liberated from the racial oppression of the United States through her return to our homeland with Missionaries Samuel and Corrine. Nettie's unconditional sister-love also liberates Celie. Celie’s children are brought up ‘free’ in Africa, as Africans who have escaped the racial hierarchy of the United States. Of course, there is an emotional salvation scene with Shug’s return to her father’s church, and when her father forgives her for forsaking their highly religious lifestyle. Side note - Salvation themes are big in classic Black films (reference Walter Younger's transformation in A Raisin in the Sun and Eddie Kane's story in The Five Heart Beats). Alice Walker has written several essays to expand on the strong Black feminist statement that she intended to make with the story. I can go on and on with a longer essay, which will be The Ethnomusicology of the Color Purple - Part 2. Right now, I just want to share my thoughts about the characters and casting in the 2023 version. What do you think?
FANTASIA AS CELIE – 4 STARS. She was a pretty good Celie. However, since Fantasia is actually a ‘Shug’ - a full-of-life, unafraid, big-voiced, spunky, soulful, Black woman singer, I thought that Whoopie Goldberg transmitted Celie’s fear of Mister better.
NETTIE WAS A MISS. 1 STAR. In the book and film, Nettie is our bridge to Africa. The actor who played Nettie is Akosua Busia, who is from Ghana. Paired with Young Celie, played by Desreta Jackson, who is an Afro-Diasporan from the Virgin Islands, and Older Celie, played by Whoopie Goldberg, who is of Guinean descent according to Henry Louis Gates' African American Lives, Busia serves as an optical mirror of Celie's Africanity. Busia is literally an African princess - Bono. Her father is the prince of the royal family of the Wenchi Kingdom (a sub-group of the Asante nation). If Busia/Nettie as an African is beautiful, and a princess, then so is her sister Celie, even though she is described by her father and Mister as 'ugly,' who see her according to the US racial hierarchy they learned from their Euro-American slave master patriarch. In the book and film, Nettie is regarded as an African woman who has returned home. Her story reveals that Celie is a beautiful African woman, who is misplaced in the colonial US. She is a princess there and enslaved here. Busia as Nettie reveals the true identity of Celie that has been masked by centuries of slavery. Hallie Bailey and Ciara as Nettie just could not do that cultural work.
MISTER WAS ON POINT. 5 STARS. He was an excellent Mister. A total troglodyte who learned how to oppress, disrespect and see Black women as property from his slave-owning grandfather whose land and money he inherited.
SHUG - TOTALLY ON POINT – 5 STARS. Taraji is a ‘Shug’ in real life - feisty, sassy, creative, down to earth and sensual, full of that ‘Black girl magic’ and was her own Shug in the film. The singing…well…no one can sing that part like Táta Vega.
SOFIA. 5 STARS. TOTALLY ON POINT. Stout, sassy, funny, sensual and could sing! Those who have seen the film know what I mean.
HARPO. 4 STARS. He was pretty much on point. The 2023 Harpo had much more independence and confidence than the 1986 Harpo. A confident, secure man could never be the progeny of a bully like Mister.
SQUEAK/MARY AGNES - A TOTAL MISS. 1 STAR. First – in the book, her light skin is integral to the plot. She goes to see her white uncle to try to get Sofia out of prison ( he rapes her and uses the rape to deny that they are blood relatives). Second – The Color Purple 2023 has enough brand recognition to not need cameo appearances by pop singers. H.E.R….? Frankly, she just looked too young! Squeak was not 12 years old! She was a woman!
AFRICA – 4.5 STARS. There was much more Africa in the book and 1986 film, and we learn much more of Nettie’s story in the first film, which reveals the parallel history of the African American homeland. The scenes in Africa in the first film were splendid (of a fictitious ethnic group called the Olinka). I wish there was more of this in 2023, but the scene they did show in the 2023 film was MAGNIFICENT!!! They showed the Asantehene, King of the Asante, of Ghana, the gold wealth of that empire and a culturally authentic Asante dance, performed by women in ethnically-accurate garb. Yes!!!
CELIE'S CHILDREN – 3 STARS. Why did they change Adam’s wife’s name? Ok – I get it. They were trying to be culturally responsible by giving her a Ghanaian name, Abena, consistent with the depiction of Asante land. But - her name is Tashi!!!
Agreements, disagreements, questions, challenges? Let's talk! Please share your thoughts in the comment section.
