The 81st annual Golden Globe Awards are scheduled to be broadcast live on network TV this coming Sunday, January 7th. And while it's fun to have a new Hollywood awards season start this month, I'm still too busy processing why the new musical film The Color Purple received only two nominations from a total of eight categories.
The Color Purple originated as a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel from 1982 by Alice Walker which was first adapted into a film in 1985 by Steven Spielberg. The book and film were then adapted into a stage musical that was first produced on Broadway in 2005. This newly released film is the silver screen treatment of the Broadway musical, The Color Purple chronicling the lives of three Black women in rural Georgia who endure racism, abuse, imprisonment and loneliness from the early years of the 1900s through the 1940s.
This film is mainly a historical female drama with the flair of traditional musical sparkle showing detailed set designs, expressive choreography, and gorgeously inventive transitions between the dusty poverty of the real world and the dramatic fantasy of the musical numbers. The tiny grooves in a spinning record and the simple reflections on a window are captivating entries into song and imagination. If you're a fan of old school musicals, like Top Hat (1935) or Stormy Weather (1943), you will love this film.
All the actors do a superb job playing a rich cast of family members and friends to remind all viewers of the importance of kindness and hope. The songs in the film are exciting kaleidoscopes of ragtime, gospel, jazz, and blues that completely transport viewers to another emotional realm that is joyful and wounded and everything in between.
And let's make sure to give praise to The Color Purple's leading actress Fantasia Barrino. Every time she opens her mouth to sing in this film, she reminds everyone why she deserves to be a star. Her raspy muscular voice pours out buckets of suffering, love, and wistful yearning. But nobody should be surprised by her performance since she played this leading role on Broadway starting in 2007.
My only criticism for this film is its use of time. In an effort to keep the pace continually flowing, many of the scenes and musical numbers feel too short or too hurried so viewers can move on to the next chapter. This makes The Color Purple feel less like a fully connected narrative and more like a series of separate vignettes lightly related to each other under the umbrella of Black sisterhood. But the film doesn't feel too long, which is often the case when famous Broadway musicals are adapted into films; look at Into the Woods (2014), Les Miserables (2012), or Nine (2009).
This film is rated PG-13 and is something I'm happy to recommend to anyone, because it put a smile on my face as I left the theater. It wasn't the biggest and brightest smile of my whole life, but it was surely a lasting one.
So I'll wallow in my worry this weekend about the 2023 film Air being nominated for Best Picture at the Golden Globes while The Color Purple is not. (I thought, "Wait. Air is nominated over The Color Purple for Best Musical or Comedy of the year?!") But The Color Purple has received five nominations at the Critics Choice Awards.....and it can dream of some future Oscar nominations too.
