Overview: Based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple is a richly-textured, powerful film set in America’s rural south. Whoopi Goldberg, winner of the Best Actress Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination, makes a triumphant screen debut as the radiant, indomitable Celie, the story’s central character.

Her impressive portrayal is complimented by a distinguished cast that includes Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery, Adolph Caesar, Rae Dawn Chong and Akosua Busia.

The Color Purple marks a new, more mature color in Spielberg’s artistic palette. It is an exquisitely crafted, landmark film that will be treasured and talked about for years to come.

4K UHD Blu-ray Verdict: Warner Bros. Entertainment is expanding their 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray catalog offerings this month with the release of the highly-anticipated The Color Purple in the expansive 4K Ultra HD video format this December 5th, 2023.

For my money, this The Color Purple [4K UHD+BR] combo pack sharpness takes a fairly large step forward from others in their 4K Ultra HD catalog and even comes with HDR (High Dynamic Range) for the complete 4K Ultra HD experience, of course.

So, what we have is The Color Purple presented to us as a two-disc combo pack with a sheet for a Digital HD Copy. Other stand out points you should know are: Codec: HEVC / H.265, Resolution: Native 4K (2160p), HDR: HDR10 Aspect ratio: 1.85:1, and Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1.

Featuring Dolby Vision and HDR10 for brighter, deeper, and way more lifelike colors, as with most all 4K UHDs, everything that we watch features these qualities - but somehow, this film gloriously shines within them all.

Noticeably crisp with the overall clarity receiving an obvious boost here on this release, what is more is that it is enjoyably noticeable. For as well as some new nuances to the somewhat drab palette courtesy of Dolby Vision, we also get to witness sudden bright pops of color, which makes the eyes draw in, for sure.

One of those moments now being the pivotal moment, nay, the turning point of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple occurs when Celie, the principal character, asserts her freedom from her husband and proclaims her right to exist: “I’m poor, I’m black, I may be ugly, and can’t cook . . . . But I’m here.”

Another scene now highlighted even more in this most wondrous 4K UHD upgrade, is “Celie’s Fixin To Shave Mister!” After putting up with Mister’s (Danny Glover) abusive ways for decades, Celie (Whoopi Goldberg) is nearing her breaking point.

As for the audio, well we get the choice of: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit), French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps), and Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps).

Overall, this is a very strong 4K HDR Blu-ray presentation, and, for the most part, the audio track remains fairly similar to its DTS-HD counterpart; with much of the action occupying the surrounds with outstanding directionality and placement where effects flawlessly pan between the sides and rears.

As for the story to hand, well, Celie’s above-mentioned response to the venomous enumeration from Albert, Danny Glover as the man who took almost thirty years off her life, leads the way as being one of the stand out, memorable quotes of this most incredible film.

And Celie is Whoopi Goldberg, in her first major role: a virtuoso performance where she bravely dilutes herself in the soul of a woman supposed to be dull and ugly, but only waiting for the right moment to bloom.

And the moment came with the ultimate triumph when she finally found the courage to stand against Albert. She doesn’t deny all the physical attributions; she’s poor, she’s black, she may even be ugly, but God, she lives. And after having witnessed two hours of a true hell of a life, we can only share the happiness that suddenly inhabits her heart.

The reason I started with this scene is to remind how emotionally effective The Color Purple is. It might not surprise from a movie directed by Steven Spielberg, both admired and loathed for his capacity to exude great emotions on screen.

And, sure, there is so much to be criticized, the contrast between the realistic drama and the whole postcard-like setting or some feminist undertones, but the story transcends all these flaws, elevated by the performances of Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey - all women seriously roughed up by life, and overcoming the racist and misogynistic adversity with what was at their hands.

Indeed, The Color Purple provides a thought-provoking approach of the South, where another form of racism was prevailing. In the social ladder, a White had more rights than a Black man, but within the Black community, a man had to respect his father as his son would respect him, but women were powerless. But not equally powerless.

Margaret Avery plays Shug, a sexy cabaret singer who could command men with her body. It’s ironic that Albert, the bullying husband turns into a puppy with Shug Avery. And if a woman couldn’t control people with sex appeal, physical and moral strength worked too. This is Oprah Winfrey as Miss Sofia, the wife of Albert’s son, Harpo. She grew up in a family of men, and learned to state her presence the hard way.

Both Shug and Sofia embody the fight of Black women, at the expenses of their dignity. Shug’s own father, a pastor, disowned her, for she was the local slut, in return, she lost every faith in men and life, but at the end, she finally realized that there was some place in her heart for pure love, by befriending Celie.

On the other side, Sofia had the most tragic character’s arc, when she refuses to be the maid of the town’s mayor through an unforgettable Hell no retorted by a severe pistol-punch on the eye, an 8-year sentence in jail, and maybe the worst punishment: finally working in the very job that got her in jail.

The energy, the inner strength, the colorful attitude that made her character so irresistible in the beginning, had been totally drained out: she looked prematurely older, and only at the end, in the very scene I described, her dead spirit finally resurrects.

Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey, both Oscar-nominated, are only supporting characters, yet they add a lot to Celie’s own journey. Celie is a Black woman who not only was labeled as ugly, but also didn’t even have the privilege of ugly women by remaining single. We meet her when she’s fourteen and pregnant. She gives birth to two children and is quickly married to Albert who initially wanted Nettie, her much prettier sister.

The father refused to give Nettie’s hand for some reasons we guess to be personal, so Albert, who needed a woman to clean the house and take care of the young ones resigned to take Celie. Yet his eye is still interested on Nettie, and after an attempt to take advantage of her, he forbids her to visit her sister, a punishment worse than any slapping, beating or insult. What remains in Celie is the memory of her sister and the capability to read inherited from her teachings.

And unlike Sofia with Harpo, Celie could never have the upper hand on Albert, and unlike Shug, she didn’t have the sex appeal. She was as low in the social ladder as any Black woman could be at the time, poor and ugly, yet the movie is about her realization that she deserves better. The most pivotal and emotional scene is when Shug teases her so she stops covering her smile, and then, with a magic that only cinema can apply, she smiles and bursts out laughing to the mirror.

The so-called mirror scene is even more significant because it’s not just Celie who starts appreciating herself, but also Shug who’s inspired by Celie’s genuine attraction to her. The following kiss is probably a more sugar-coated version of what the Alice Walker’s novel featured, but the essential is that both women found reasons to be proud of them.

Another miracle happens in the dinner scene, when Celie lets all his anger finally go on Albert, Sofia starts laughing and recovers from the wounds of the past. Celie has her Hell no moment, but with enough intelligence not to pull a knife on Albert’s throat, which would have been as disastrous as Sofia’s punch on the mayor.

There is a lot of learning in The Color Purple and even Albert finds a way to redeem himself. After all, if there is one thing learned in the film, it’s that it’s never too late to change for the better, and no flaw, nor physical, sexual or racial can prevent a person to seek her own happiness.

In closing, we all have an inner strength that could help us to overcome any adversity, The Color Purple is an invitation to find ours, through the triumph of three women, that we joyfully share with them, at the end of the film.

Special Features:
Conversations with Ancestors: The Color Purple From Book to Screen (26:40)
A Collaboration of Spirits: Casting and Acting The Color Purple (28:39)
Cultivating a Classic: The Making of The Color Purple (23:35)
The Color Purple: The Musical (7:36)
Trailers - Two teasers and the film’s original trailer