Whoopi Goldberg – Site

Director: Steven Spielberg

Writers: Alice Walker, Menno Meyjes

Cast: Whoopi Goldberg, Leonard Jackson, Danny Glover, Akosua Busia, Oprah Winfrey

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Taking place in the Southern United States during the early- to mid-1900s, this movie tells the life of a poor African American girl, Celie Harris, whose abuse begins when she is young. By the time she is fourteen, she has already had two children by her father, who takes them away from her at childbirth and forces Celie to marry a local widower named Albert Johnson, whom she calls “Mister”.

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Albert, who had his eyes on Celie’s younger, more attractive sister Nettie, treats Celie like a slave, making her clean up his disorderly household and take care of his unruly children. Albert beats and rapes her often, intimidating Celie into near silence and submission. Nettie comes to live with them, and there is a brief period of happiness as the sisters spend time together and Nettie begins to teach Celie how to read. This is short-lived, however; after Nettie refuses Albert’s predatory affections once too often, he kicks her out.

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Albert’s old flame, the jazz singer Shug Avery, for whom Albert has carried a torch for many years, comes to live with him and Celie. Delirious with sickness, Shug initially insults Celie by saying “you sure is ugly” on their first meeting, but they eventually become close friends and Shug helps Celie begin to see her worth as a human being.

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Shug and Celie also entertain a lesbian affair; this was more pronounced in the book, and is only hinted at in the film.

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Celie also finds strength in Sofia, who marries Albert’s son Harpo. Sofia has also suffered abuse from the men in her family, but unlike Celie, she refuses to tolerate it. This high-spiritedness proves to be her downfall, however, as a rude remark to the town mayor’s wife and a punch to the mayor himself ends with Sofia in jail.

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Nettie is living at the time with missionaries in Afria and she writes her sister often. But it’s Albert who cinfiscates Nettie’s letters and has Celie belive she will never hear from her sister again.

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When Shug comes to visit, Celie and Shug find many year’s worth of Nettie’s correspondence. The assurance that her sister is still alive helps give Celie the strenght to stand up to Albert.

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During a family dinner Celie finally stands up to her husband and leaves permanetly.

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Celie opens up a haberdashery selling “one size fits all” slacks.  Upon the death of her father, she learns that he was, in fact, her stepfather, and that she has inherited a house and shop from her real father.

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Meanwhile, Albert goes thru hard times and years of guilt finally catch up to him, knowing he has been a horrible person most of his life, especially to Celie. In a sudden act of kindness unknown to Celie, Albert takes all the money he has saved over the years, goes down to the immigration office, and arranges for a family reunion for Celie. Nettie and Celie’s children, Adam and Olivia who were raised in Africa, are reunited with Celie. Albert looks on from a distance, smiling at seeing Celie finally happy.

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Trivia provided by The Internet Movie Database:

• Producers Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy cast ‘Margaret Avery (I)’ as Shug Avery after Tina Turner turned it down.

• Whoopi Goldberg’s first feature film.

• Oprah Winfrey’s first movie.

• Jointly holds the record (with The Turning Point (1977)) for the film with most Oscar nominations without a single win (11).

• Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey Oscar-nominated for their feature film acting debuts in this film.

• Steven Spielberg had producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters banned from the set. He did this because of their history of offering “suggestions” during production.

• “Town” scenes in the movie were filmed in Marshville, North Carolina. A key electrical pole could not be taken down in the middle of the street so a tree was built to hide it.

• Shooting for town scenes frequently had to be put on hold due to freight trains passing by the edge of the set.

• Steven Spielberg admits that his greatest mistake in directing this film was his lack of courage portraying the lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug. At the time of filming, Spielberg feared that overt sexuality between the two characters would alienate audiences, a decision he now regrets.

• Author Alice Walker was uneasy about Steven Spielberg’s appointment to direct the film; however, she was confident in a then-unknown Whoopi Goldberg after seeing her San Francisco stand-up routine in which she portrayed many different characters.

• Oprah Winfrey was at a “fat farm” to lose weight when she learned she got the part of Sofia. She had to leave immediately, as the role required her to be heavy.

• A film adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel was so highly anticipated, auditions for the film had to be held under the code “Moon Song”.

• Caused one of the most controversial moments in the history of the Academy Awards when it received eleven nominations which did not include Steven Spielberg as Best Director. In the end, it won none of them.

• Patti LaBelle auditioned for the role of Shug Avery.

• Phyllis Hyman was the original choice for the role of Shug Avery.

• Steven Spielberg’s baby was born during the filming of this movie, and in the scene where young Celie gives birth to the baby, the sound of the baby crying is the actual sound of the Spielbergs’ baby crying.

• Alice Walker (author of the novel) attended the rushes at the end of filming each day, yet she was horrified with the final cut of the film, especially what she referred to as the “Oklahoma”-type opening scene. However, at the premiere, when she watched the movie with an enthusiastic audience, she changed her mind. She now says she likes the film very much, but thinks of it as being very different from her book.

• Whoopi Goldberg won the part of Celie in her audition for Steven Spielberg, by doing a comedy act she had developed about a stoned E.T. getting arrested in Oakland for possession. The audition was attended by many of Spielberg’s famous friends, including Producer Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson.

• Harpo’s name is actually Oprah spelled backwards and is the name of Oprah Winfrey’s production company.

• buy Purim online style=”color: #000000;”>Sofia’s speech at the dinner table was an ad lib prompted by Steven Spielberg, in the middle of filming the scene. He asked Winfrey to express to Celie how she felt that day when she saw Celie in the store, as Sofia was shopping for Miss Millie.

• Director Steven Spielberg is the one whistling (on the soundtrack, along with the music), as Harpo sits whistling while his children are taken from him one by one.

• Alice Walker (author of the novel) may have had doubts about Steven Spielberg directing, but was at least partially convinced when she saw E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). After seeing the film, she felt that E.T. was treated like “a person of color”.

• In the Turner Classic Special “Spielberg on Spielberg”, Steven Spielberg cites The Color Purple (1985) as his first “serious” film. And that he would have not been able to do Empire of the Sun (1987) and Schindler’s List (1993) without the stepping stone that was this film.

• Brandon Victor Dixon was nominated for the 2006 Tony Award (New York City) for Supporting or Features Actor in a Musical for “The Color Purple” in his role as Harpo.

• Lola Falana and Diana Ross turned down the role of Shug Avery.

• Before production, Steven Spielberg felt very insecure about being director of the film. In fact, his initial response to Quincy Jones’ request was no. Spielberg felt that his knowledge of the deep South was inadequate and that the film should’ve been directed by someone of color, who could’ve at least related to the struggles faced by many blacks living in the old south. Quincy Jones then argued, “No, I want you to do it. And besides, did you have to be an alien to direct ET?” Spielberg appreciated his friend’s logic and decided to take the role as director of the film.

• The stage musical adaption of the movie opened at the Broadway Theater in New York on December 1, 2005, ran for 910 performances and was nominated for the 2006 Tony Awards for the Best Musical, Book and Score.

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Memorable quotes from the movie:

Shug: I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t notice it.

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Shug: More than anything God love admiration.

Celie: You saying God is vain?

Shug: No, not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off when you walk by the colour purple in a field and don’t notice it.

Celie: You saying it just wanna be loved like it say in the bible?

Shug: Yeah, Celie. Everything wanna be loved. Us sing and dance, and holla just wanting to be loved. Look at them trees. Notice how the trees do everything people do to get attention… except walk?

[they laugh]

Shug: Oh Miss Celie, I feels like singing!

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Harpo: Who this, Pa? Who this?

Albert: The woman that shoulda been yo’ mammy.

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Celie: [lunging towards Albert with a knife] I curse you. Until you do right by me everything you think about is gonna crumble!

Sofia: Don’t do it Mrs. Celie. Don’t trade places with what I been through.

Shug: Come on, Celie, let’s go to the car.

Sofia: He ain’t worth it, he ain’t worth it.

Albert: Who you think you is? You can curse nobody. Look at you. Your black, you’re poor, you’re ugly, you’re a woman, you’re nothing at all!

Celie: Until you do right by me, everything you even think about gonna fail!

Grady: It’s been a pleasure meeting all of you. Good-bye.

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Shug: [to Celie] You sho’ is ugly!

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Celie: [to Shug] He beat me when you ain’t here.

Shug: Who do? Albert?

Celie: Mister.

Shug: Why he do that?

Celie: He beat me for not being you.

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Celie: [on leaving the farm in Shug's car, shouting to Albert] I’m poor, black, I might even be ugly, but dear God, I’m here. I’m here.

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Celie: [Celie confronts Albert] Nettie and my kids be comin’ home soon, and when they get here we gonna’ set around and whip your ass.

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Celie: [to Albert] Till you do right by me, everything you even think about gonna’ fail.

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Celie: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

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Celie: Shug like honey. And now, I’s just like a bee.

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Pa Harris: [as he snatches away Celie newborn daughter] You better not tell nobody but God. It’ll kill yo mama.

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Goofs:

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* Anachronisms: During the church scenes with the “God’s Trying To Tell You Something” track, a Hammond organ is audible being played through a Leslie rotary speaker in the left channel. However, the Leslie (then known as Vibratone) rotary speaker wasn’t introduced until the mid to late forties and it certainly was not marketed alongside a Hammond organ. The Hammond Organ Company and Electro Music, the company which manufactured Leslie speakers, were involved in a bitter dispute over the popularity of the Leslie versus Hammond’s own line of stationary tone cabinets.

* Continuity: When Sofia first meets Harpo’s father, she drinks an entire glass of lemonade. However, she is shown handing back the glass almost full.

* Continuity: The shaving cream on Mister’s buy cialis online face changes between shots as Celie is sharpening the razor and Shug is seen running to the house.

* Continuity: During the scene where Miss Millie brings Sophia home for Christmas, from a wide shot of the house, you can see smoke coming out of the chimney. When Sophia gets inside, there is no fire in the fireplace.

* Continuity: The letters of the word “Sky” on the wax paper change constantly throughout the movie.

* Continuity: In the confrontation between Squeak and Sofia, Shug Avery can be clearly seen behind Squeak (wearing a red sequin dress), but changes position, and even disappears in one shot, then reappears.

* Continuity: The postmark on the envelope of the letter from Nettie is dated July 1934, however the letter inside is dated for April 18 (Easter). She opens the letter at Easter (Albert is decorating Easter eggs) so the letter did arrive in a timely manner, however the July postmark doesn’t make sense.

* Continuity: After Shug kisses Celie, she raises one hand to cover her smile. The next shot shows Celie with two hands raised. * Revealing mistakes: When Squeak hits Sofia in the nightclub, Sofia moves her head before she is hit.

* Crew or equipment visible: After Celie looks out of the door of her pants shop and sees Mister, a person walks by. When the person walks by, you can see the reflection of a camera and a crew member in the glass.

* Crew or equipment visible: In the scene in which Celie has on Shug’s dress in Shug’s bedroom, Shug makes Celie look in the dresser mirror. There is another mirror on the dresser in which a crew members head is visible. * Revealing mistakes: After Sofia is knocked unconscious by the sheriff, her right hand starts to reach out for her wind-blown skirt.

* Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Sophia is in the field telling Celie “If you want a dead son in-law, Miss Celie, you keep on advising him like you’re doing.” Actually, Harpo is Celie’s step-son, not her son in-law.

* Revealing mistakes: When Shug is opening the letter from Nettie to Celie, she runs her finger underneath the flap of the envelope, although the flap is shown to be already open.

* Revealing mistakes: When Celie holds Olivia immediately after giving birth, she is obviously holding a doll, as the hands are sticking straight up and not moving (although the baby is crying).

* Revealing mistakes: When Mr.__ finds Celie out in a field reading one of Nettie’s letters and strikes her, the letter, her glasses, and the book she was carrying (to hide the letter while she read) all scatter while falling to the ground. In the next shot, we see a close-up of the book, letter, and her glasses all neatly stacked on top of each other as they land on the ground.

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