Steven Spielberg’s 1985 film The Color Purple, like the Alice Walker novel it adapted, was equally lauded and controversial at the time of its release. Today, the film and the book are both still lightning rods for debate, with critics and defenders alike echoing the same arguments about The Color Purple that people have been making for nearly fifty years.
Walker’s novel, The Color Purple, was published in 1982. It was literally groundbreaking; not necessarily for its form, or even its content, but in terms of its literary recognition. Alice Walker became the first black woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983. It was a cultural milestone. But The Color Purple also had vocal critics from the start.
The number of voices and the volume of criticism were amplified by the Hollywood adaptation that came out in ’85. The movie version of The Color Purple attracted controversy early on, in pre-production, when Steve Spielberg was announced as director. Still, the film Spielberg was ultimately a box office hit, and was nominated for eleven Oscars. It is beloved, and defended, by many viewers to this day. Still, The Color Purple continues to have more than its share of detractors.
The Ongoing Controversy Surrounding “The Color Purple,” Explained
Alice Walker’s 1982 Novel & Steven Spielberg’s 1985 Film Adaptation Are Both Divisive; Here’s Why
Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is one of the most “challenged” novels of the past 40 years. That is, a book that people have routinely tried to ban from schools and have pulled from library shelves. Conservative critics object to the book’s language, its sexual content, and the story’s central queer relationship. At the same time, some scholars have critiqued the book’s portrayal of black men, which is also one of the chief complaints levied against the film version of The Color Purple.
The choice of a white director, Steven Spielberg, to helm The Color Purple movie was controversial at the time, and it’s something that still raises eyebrows today. Criticisms of the film itself include that it eliminates the love story between Whoopie Goldberg’s Celia and Margaret Avery’s character Shug; that it “uplifts” the heartwrenching tone of Walker’s novel; that it leans into stereotypes about black people. Spielberg has addressed these criticisms over the years, as have Goldberg and other stars of the film, but they persist, especially as new generations of viewers discover The Color Purple.
That isn’t to say that every defense of the movie is satisfying, or that the debate about The Color Purple shouldn’t continue. Just that the movie continues to have its advocates to this day. The conversation surrounding The Color Purple, the novel and the book alike, is messy, and that’s okay.
“The Color Purple” Is A Must-Read Novel & Must-Watch Movie, Meaning The Debate Surrounding It Won’t End
Controversy Has Become Essential To The Color Purple’s Legacy
The Color Purple‘s 1983 Pulitzer Prize win secured Alice Walker’s novel a place in the American literary canon, and though it didn’t garner any Oscar wins three years later, Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the novel likewise earned The Color Purple a prominent place in film history. In each case, this also locked it in as a cultural lightning rod in perpetuity.
All told, The Color Purple is in the conversation for the most controversial book/movie of the 20th century. A distinction it truly earns because it has been criticized by conservative school boards and the NAACP alike. And on the flip side, the book is revered for its raw, devastating prose, while the movie is considered iconic for its cinematic rendering of the story, even if the details are mitigated by the film’s PG-13 rating.
Notably, the 2005 musical version of The Color Purple and the 2023 adaptation of the musical, though not without their own critics, haven’t been the subject of the same level of discourse as the original novel and Spielberg adaptation. In any case, though, the debate sparked across generations by The Color Purple has unexpectedly become an unavoidable aspect of its literary and cinematic legacy.