Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3858 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-02-18
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 153 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
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, D.W. 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 shots 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 it won none. --Jim Emerson

Customer Reviews

Swine Husband
Unforgetable. Portrayal of an abusive, ungrateful spouse and long suffering wife. Love to see this fellow get his comeuppance. Great acting.

Not for the faint of heart.
I read some of the other reviews that gave the movie one star.
Hmmmm....having never read the source material I can't make further comment.
I however, loved this movie.
Brilliantly directed, Brilliant performances.
I loved Oprah's character. Strong, tough, BAD!!!
I wish that was the Oprah we would have seen when Tom Cruise was jumping on her couch.
WHAM!!!
A brilliant movie and a must see.

An emotional story of black female slaves!
Many people love this human stories about surviving hell, well... this movie present one of the best stories of survival.

We can learn from this movie! I mean... this story is set in the 1910's to the 1930's, a time when the black man slavery was over but NOT with black women. In this movie we can see how men can treat women as some extra arms that we have! There is no respect or even gratitude among them. Of course, the slavery comes from the black man against the black woman but is an example of what women could meant in those times: NOTHING!

Is a good thing that black women could survive that HORRIBLE slavery. at least the movie teach us that you can be rewarded if you strong enough to survive. Well... I guess that black women did just that!!

Adios.