The Color Purple, released in 1985 was a great film starring some of the best talent of that time. Who can forget Oprah Winfrey’s portrayal of Sofia and all of her lines? What about Whoopi Goldberg’s introduction to Hollywood as the iconic Celie? The character of Shug Avery alone makes the movie worth revisiting. But the way movie goers have received the new adaptation, it seems they would have wanted something else, and I agree.
At the very end of 2023 the musical form of the classic movie, “The Color Purple” was released and some people are shocked that it isn’t performing well in theaters and hasn’t been embraced by critics. In the eyes of most people, the musical form of the movie has “flopped.” Well I’m no movie critic but I did go see the movie, and of course I have an opinion. I have included in the references for this post, a link to an article published by The Root, where they give three reasons.
While I agree with their reasons and my sentiments may echo theirs but I decided to weigh in as well and add some much needed points that I have come up with. So if you are interested here is my take on why the movie was not received well.
Let’s start with my first reason.
Once Taraji P. Henson started complaining, we were cool on the film.
I saw the movie shortly after it hit theaters, not on the Christmas Day release. So the Color Purple started off riding high, but then some of the Black actresses began their press run promoting the movie. Not all of what they had to say was very flattering towards the new release. The actress that got the most press coverage was Taraji P. Henson.
So after a stellar Christmas release almost immediately negative coverage came out, and I think we can attribute some of the box office failure to the fact that nobody wanted to be the person who supported mistreatment. So when Ms. Henson started voicing her experiences with the production of the movie, and also shared her dismay with inequitable treatment in Hollywood, it was inevitable the wind was going to be let out of the sails.
But hey, nobody could predict that some of the cast would speak negatively about a movie that should want to be uplifting. But speaking of being uplifting, here is my next reason.
We didn’t know any of the songs.
Yeah the Color Purple was a musical right? Based on the classic film right? Why not update Quincy’s theme that plays throughout the movie? Hey here is a thought…give it words, and make it into a ballad that Fantasia could have belted out. We wouldn’t have known the words but those of us who remembered the movie, would of at least been familiar with the tune and would of appreciate the effort to tie the beloved old with the exciting new.
What they gave us was songs nobody knew and that were not very uplifting in my opinion. They weren’t even familiar.
And on the rare occasion they did give us a blast from the past, it fizzled out. For instance the 1985 version featured “God Is Trying To Tell You Something” and it was one of the highlights of the film. In the new version it’s a much downplayed version, and downright boring if you ask me. Yes, that is the perfect word to describe the songs, boring. Nothing really made me want to jump out of my seat. And this leads me into my next point.
It was too long!
The movie is approximately 141 minutes long, and if it were filled with exciting songs it wouldn’t have seemed so long and lackluster. And even though it was nearly two and a half hours in length the musical doesn’t really tell the story of the major characters the way the original does. It’s almost like you have to have seen the original movie as well in order to understand why this musical release was such a big deal.
When the movie was finally over I felt a sense of relief that I had gotten through it. No, the movie is not terrible, but it is boring so the length should have been much shorter or the movie should have been remade in a new exciting way so that people wouldn’t have noticed the time or even wished it was longer. But now I would like to expound on a point that was made in the referenced “The Root” article. And feel free to click on the link under references to get their opinion on why the movie flopped.
They claim that we didn’t want a musical.
They claim that the Black Internet did not want a musical. I think if it had of been a good musical, it would be being praised, but because its not all that great people have concluded nobody wanted it.
I think we still wanted the story. Maybe they could of made a movie about the life of Shug Avery of Celie and Nettie when they grew up, after their long awaited reunion. It could have been a feature film or musical, and if it were to be good I think it would be well received.
But that’s what I think, so now in the comment section you can let me know how you feel. Did you see the musical? If you did what is your opinion of it?
What are your thoughts?
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References:
Black Internet Gives 3 Reasons Why The Color Purple Flopped (theroot.com)The Color Purple (2023 film) – Wikipedia
