You described what also happened in the movie "Harriet," in which the white slave owner was actually presented as a sympathetic character, even a love interest, to Harriet Tubman, while they absolutely _invented_ a vile, utterly abominable black man as the primary villain...when Harriet Tubman's memoirs never mentioned any such character. You might want to check out the award-winning 1972 movie Sounder, a more realistic story of the black family meeting the trials of early 20th century America. I think that movie did what you're asking for.
I agree with much is being said about the movie but let's make sure that we're not "ahistorical" with the facts on the narrative. The time period wasn't Reconstruction or Reconstruction Jim Crow. Those were two very different time periods. Reconstruction led to Jim Crow. If the US had gotten Reconstruction right, we wouldn't be facing the issues that we face as a people.
If I never see another enslaved black person or hyper-sexual black woman portrayed in movies, music or on the internet I won’t miss it and will not ask what happened. No one asked for this movie the first time and we definitely don’t want it now. Great vid!
I'll never support anything Oprah does she's compromised to do white supremacy bidding just like the black politicians that are on code with the do nothing Demo-rats
This movie was not saying every black man is a bad man. It showed us what generations of abuse have done. Mister's father was a horrible man and Mister wanted his approval and turned into a version of him. Mister's son want's his dad's approval and starts to turn out like him - until he decided to make some changes. This is male generational trauma. They were brought up to be this way and Ceelie was brought up to be meek and not stand up for herself all of the charater's behaviors come for generational trauma. it effects all of us
Black people have this thing about protecting the black image. So some of us shy away from wanting to see any depictions of black people in a negative light. As a black man, I have to say, black men like the ones depicted in The Color Purple existed then and still exist now. Ignoring that won't make it not exist. I don't take it as a reflection of me because it's not. I can empathize with what the female characters went through on a human level. I don't think I agree with Mr. Baldwin on this. Of course, someone displaying those types of behaviors would have a background. That's an entirely different story though. Serial killers and child predators also have a background. I don't think anyone was born that messed up but how often do people consider what a serial killer or a child predator went through that lead them to be how they are? I don't think Alice Walker's intentions was to write a book just to make black men look bad even though I will be the first to say, all the men in the movie were foul. I don't think The Antwone Fisher story set out to make black women look bad even though they had some vile black female characters. This notion that black people should only be shown in a positive light needs to stop because it's not real. Are we that sensitive? Ike Turner wasn't real? I watched a documentary the other day. A lady was describing an incident that happened to her. To get to the point, she was taken advantage of by a bunch of young men when she was a teenager. We have no idea how many women this has happened to. In Asata Shakur's autobiography, she describes a similar incident that almost happened to her where she had to fight off a bunch of boys who tried to take advantage of her. Oprah talks about her brothers taking advantage of her. I knew girls in the neighborhood where I grew up who went through similar things. Trust me. I'm not Mr. Panderer. I'm not a male feminist. I just try to be fair, honest and objective. How many people saying The Color Purple was propaganda to destroy the black man's image has ever been abused or taken advantage of? I doubt the ones who have are saying that.
I think u missed the point. She acknowledged that things happened. She's saying that thou things happened, we never oppressed bw. There was mistreatment, heck there was mistreatment on both sides, however we never oppressed them. Much respect to u thou big bro. Like the fact u kept it real and was trying to b fair. May Elohim bless u and keep u.
I am Senegalese but grew up in Italy. Me and my family really liked watching the Colour purple, the actors (Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover etc) they all did they best. The story also was and still is very compelling. Reading these comments kinda makes me questions why I even liked this movie, but I do like it a lot, I watched the OG Colour purple at least one a year, and I still am very touched by the story, as I too have sisters and we were separated. I will definitely read the novel in the future in order to get a better understanding of the characters. As for those who hated the movies/the book because you think is paints a negative image of Black men, well I do not know what to tell you, there are negative representation of every ethnicity. I suggest that you all start also criticize the rappers, the musicians who have a wider audience.
I criticize that industry too and the message it promotes. The story itself was quite compelling but the motive IMO was impure and even if you understand the history of teh writer it gives further understanding into the overall intention of the play. I don't deny drama exists, however this was definitely fiction and failed to paint an accurate portrayal of all that was hindering that Black family at that time. Also no critical lense was put on the women, it seemed a bit bias IMO. And this is coming from the perspective of a woman!
@@ChezCharde"no critical lense was put on the women". Sophia was loud, boisterous, thought too highly of herself and pregnant out of wedlock and shamed for it openly. Celie was beat for not being attractive. Celie was basically sold to Mister because she was sexually used up by her step father and deemed spoiled and was told she was ugly more than once? Sug was talented and ambitious but she was a sinful, prideful, whore according to her preacher daddy. But there was no critical lense put on the women? OK
I totally agree and appreciate your perspective. Everyone's entitled to their opinions but I think a lot of black people are overly concerned with protecting the image of black people. I'm like you. I thought it was a well acted and compelling movie and I love stuff like that. I don't want just cookie cutter movies that only paint black people in a positive light because that's not real. I haven't seen the new one but mainly because I'm not into musicals. I personally think that's why the movie flopped. To be fair, this new movie could've completely been agenda driven. A lot of movies these days are. I reserve judgement.
Alice Walker was bisexual.. and that is represented in the Novel.. but not the original film. And Alice walker was furious with Spielberg and the Screen writer for what they did to her black male characters and how they skipped the white oppression that created the context of the story. This 2023 version is worse because they make it an all black town.. which completely removes the fact that Celie and Nettie's father and uncles were murdered by the KKK for being too successful.. and her mother went insane.. and that insanity was the opening that their savage step father walked through and into control of their father's land and property. That oppression was central to the context of the abuse.
So, should Black woman that were traumatized never make films. In the present day there are black men who degrade black women and are abusive . Just like their has always been men throughour history that will abuse and degrade women. This movie is fiction. And apparantly many of you have no idea how to just sit and watch a movie without assuming that it's tryong to paint ALL black people with the same brush. It's also ironic how people continue to use that clip of James Baldwin, a gay black man whose life partner was a white man, using disparaging remakes to discribe a movie about situtions he knew nothing about. When you read biographies of men like Dr. Ben Carson and Emmit Til you find out that there were black men who beat and degraded their black women because of the oppression they faced. As a young black girl in the 80s I loved this movie because I finally got to see beautiful black women on film. I wish I could say more. But, every black movie doesn't have to be about the white man. And the original movie definitely showed that the white folks were waaay worse than Mista. Also, I realize that alot of you never noticed that this man was the way he was because of how his father was constantly disappointed in him. And Mista did make amends for his horrific behavior, proving that people can change. And that we can come together and forgive one another. But, most of you that complain about this movie ALWAYS miss that. The women in this movie were not perfect either. And they were very complicated. Sug loved Mista because she had no idea he treated Ciley the way he did. And black men treated Ciley like trash, the way many modern black men treat dark skinned women today. So, of course she would only love women. Black people are too hard on each other. Sometimes we are harder on each other than white folks. We are complicated people. And that's ok. Denzel won an oscar for playing a trashy black man. None of you ever raise hell about that. The film "The Color Purple" is an amazing movie. And there are plenty of movies that dipicte black men in a positive light. Everyone needs to calm down and just enjoy a good story every once in awhile.
Back in the 1980s my mother raved about the movie,Tthe Color Purple and she encouraged me to see it. Well I did and I was deeply offended because it portrayed every single black man in a terribly negative light. I pondered why my mother delighted in that film and why she encouraged me to see it. Needless to say it was the beginning of the end of our relationship because it gave me deep insight into why she was such a horrible mother to me.
You have a common society that is larger than you may realize. Black women's promiscuous behavior is destroying the nation, with their FOOD STAMP bumming, and HOUSING bumming with only REWARDS FOR THEIR BAD BEHAVIOR. I had a BBW throw a hammer at me outside Walmart in Sarasota. She's lucky to be alive. Her trial is in April.
As an African, aged 13 (back in 2007) my best friend and I were obsessed with African American movies. First put off with the 2 hours plus, we decided to watch the Oprah colour purple. Well, as soon as that Lesbian scene came on, we switched it off! Brought up in a strict, Christian home, even we knew at that age, the agenda of the movie! It wasn’t to uplift anyone but the depressed BW and make her turn away from the BM.. in every way.
Has anyone asked the question why did those men choose to play those roles? For me, the movie holds some truth but my grandmother was a sharecropper that’s was beaten in by her husband. I think in these conversations multiple things can be true.
I'm old enough to remember the first movie came out. My mother who is from south GA and was against the movie back then. She didn't go see the stage play and hated the movie.My father a “pro black” Garveyite refused to watch it. I remember people boycotting the premier and the NAACP calling for the boycott and came out against the movie. It was a lot of backlash from the black community when this movie came out. The Color purple is flat out misandrist cannon and has been used to socially denigrate and disrespect black men while making black women perpetual victims of black men..and it has worked. This movie should have never gotten a remake and like you said its total revisionist history. Those stories in the color purple were extremes and not the norms of ADOS family life in the south.
@@ChezCharde yeah I can see that, however it's on us to do our homework. My family is from Georgia and I can tell you those stories in the color purple are so disrespectful to every man from the Jim Crow era in my family. The real issue I have is how easy it is for them to make a movie like this as if its ok and get mad when people call them out. I'm raising a son in the south and I refuse to let this nonsense continue.
I've never liked Oprah Winfrey, I've never liked her crony either, That tall woman dressing Tyler Perry. I can't stand the buffoonery of Kevin Hart. Also most black movies piss me off. What happened to Good movies..
You forget how men were treated "black" then. Lynched for protecting & providing for their own families and communites. THAT story was way more common back then, than this BS fiction.
That BS depiction from the very beginning that blackmen were portraying slave masters and selling off black babies is not ANY of our history. Hollywood knows a whole lot better than me what they are doing, and intends to keep theaters full of indoctrinated negroes actually believing the black family in the horse and buggy age was broken and divided. We will never learn 🥲
It's gonna have to be a no contact, no conflict type of situation with Black Women as far as I'm concerned. I want nothing from them. They shouldn't expect anything from me. No condemnation or praise. Nothing at all.
Domestic violence has always been an issue then and now. How they tell the story and perspectives in how to make it more contextual, can totally be improved.
Even if The Color Purple was written by a man-hating feminist, the 1985 movie version is so beautiful it makes me cry. It's about an extended family of fkd up people all getting their shit together by the end of the movie. It's not a reflection of all black people any more than The Godfather is a reflection of all Italians.
This is why they gotta stop remaking/rehashing these gender war/male bashing ass movies. Black people were more concerned about staying the fuck alive from the TRUE oppressors than some men bad, female good woke ass b.s.
It never crosses their minds that abusive black women could be both making and using this movie as both a method of abuse and as a covert "justification" for how they treat black men. We already know that reputation destruction is one of the many tools abusive women like to use.
Bingo 👈 Anything to justify the BW's own phuckery. I tell you what though: I can't wait til that FREAKNIK documentary comes out, because it will tie it all together concerning the BWs reputation 👈
Damn sometimes it amazes me when a black woman these days understand what is going on. True or false the Willy Lynch paper hit too far to the truth. It’s written. Keep the black male down and the black woman will have no choice but to submit. You see it today. She will give you attitude and jump for a boss at work💯
I want to congratulate you for taking on this subject, your analysis is spot on. The First Color Purple movie was so bad that the NAACP basically banned the movie and was very critical of it , so why on Earth would Oprah revisit this White Supremacists propaganda movie?
Why would she revisit it? To make sure the next generation of black women continue to have a hatred for the black man. To make sure the gender wars keep going. So they can divide and conquer.
Honestly im confused on why people are focused on this movie when pretty much majority of media shows the negative side...drug dealers, thugs etc. Like no one talked about Power, snowfall, etc. And those shows had very high ratings. What is the difference? All are fictional shows/movies. No they aren't norms but there r some people who have been in those situations. 50 cent is being sued because some1 is saying Power was made about him. Abuse did happen. My grandmother born in umpteen hundreds was a victim if it. Is it wrong to make movies about these things? And y don't we call out all of the other shows/movies showing bm in a bad light?
@coolbreeze2.0-mortemadfasc13 actually my grandma lived a long time. She died in the early 2000s! She lived many years to be able to tell her story but she really didn't have to because she had 13 children some of who suffered through it. But this is besides the point of what I'm seeking clarification on...
😂🤣😂🤣 It accused the man in the movie of being a monster and it was a scenario that happens in real life what don't you understand. Watch it again with adult eyes this time
Once I found out it was being made, I said I wasn’t gonna watch it, for 1, Oprah produced it, 2, it’s a musical, but after it came out in theaters, what I heard about it, I said, you gotta hate black men to wanna watch it, if that makes sense. Oprah villainize black men when she make documentaries, hell, she called Dave Chappell crazy to his face, while interviewing him. Why would anybody wanna work with her
I'm still mad about Oprah doing all those interviews with Michael Jackson when he was alive. But waited until he died to do a documentary for his allegations.
I read the book and saw both films. Imo, the first film was a classic. That said, Oprah was raped by a male family member and many women are. I don't get the "it villainizes" Black men angle as most people recognize that it is a fictional movie and does not pretend to be a historical piece. That said, most of today's music put out by black men has at least 10 references to woman as whores. Imo, women need to be more concerned with that as it literally floods the airwaves.
They gonna say something like "what are you afraid of the truth???" But yet everyone ripped and raved about black love from back in the day? But u thought black men were oppressors... which is it? Black love or oppression? We have strayed so far from critical thinking that generalization has become the short cut for everything and I'm over it atp. I'm done watching movies and TV shows
@@areyourhandsbroke we're there some who stepped out, sure but it was still quite strong. It had to b. Like seriously, why do u think the government but laws in place to break it up.
I think us as a people overthink stuff too much it's just a movie and the only oppressive black men in the movie was Mister and Ceely's step dad not every black male character if y'all gonna criticize the color purple y'all need to criticize every Tyler Perry Movie smh
Thank You sis for speaking these facts. Im so tired of these narratives of separation and Im so tired of wypipo playing us off each other. I appreciate you for pointing out the foolery
I had 1 major problem with this film.....It went from Mr. being evil in 1985 and ripping Celie & Nettie apart to literally being the devil by 2023 and attempting to grape his 13 year old sister-in-law in her sleep & then shooting at her after throwing her out at night in the midst of a rain storm.
@@shebri00 No, that would be stupid right?? Men understand the small percentage of everything. But while we're here, are these your mother's brothers? What kind of men are your uncles?
@@4411825No, the flip side would be staying here and engaging in destructive rhetoric about black women. Black men have done enough, including being the men most likely to be stepdaddies.
I've never read the book, but from what I've been told by people who have; the book provides way more context as to why Mister was the way he was, and why Ceile tolerated so much for so long. Films based on books usually cut out a certain amount of context to save screen time while simultaneously trying to preserve the writers creative license. Alice Walker has stated for years that Cielie was a composite character loosley based on her grandmother's life and several other women she knew as a young girl. I've noticed over the years that the way black men are portrayed in black theatrical films only seems to be a cause for concern when the story is being told from the perspective of a black *WOMAN* . Menace II Society, Baby Boy, South Central, and Hustle & Flow, just to name a few, were horrible portrayals of Black American men. Yet, movies like TCP, For Colored Girls, and Waiting to Exhale, which were tame in comparison to the depictions in the films I named earlier, are public enemy number one in how they portray bm because these stories were narrated from the vantage point of a bw. I just wish the black community would say they don't like when bw tell their side of the story as it pertains to the Black American experience and their relationships with bm.
You nailed it! They only hate this movie because it’s a woman centered depiction of an abusive black man. If the movie was told from Mister’s perspective, he would be their hero.
The book alludes to the life experience that made Mister the man that he is. I think the movie gives a glimpse of a man desperately searching for love and some sort of control over his "world", cause Lord knows he had little to no control over the world outside his home.
The Color Purple is not a documentary. It is a movie based on a fictional book - a made up story. It is not for everyone but one "lesson" if you will is resilience. Celie did not have a perfect life but she persevered. Also every "black" movie doesn't have to be rainbows and sunshine.
You asked for our opinions, here is my opinion, you sound like a "pick me". First off, your comments are ahistorical. The movie does not take place during the Reconstruction era. The reconstruction era transpires in the 1800s. Ending around 1877. The movie takes place some 50 years later. Closer to the Depression Era. This is ONE STORY that spoke to the dynamics of black, male/ female relationships. Did men of all races marry much younger women (teenage girls) before laws were formed to prohibit this type of thing? Yes, it happened. Was incest and rape a thing back then regardless of race? Yes, unfortunately was and unfortunately still is. This is a black story, so the focus is on the black male, not the white male. What is hard to understand about this? This is a movie about a specific black experience at a point in history we should be trying to LEARN from. You spoke of and pointed out your male family members working hard to buy land and families relying on each other. Did you not see there was land and homes owned, farm work being done etc, and entrepreneurial efforts being made in the movie? Clearly what you did not see was the LESSON. The lesson being that all we have is each other and if we don't unify as black men and women and work together we will have nothing and be nothing. Here is the truth, black men are oppressed in the world and so as a result they oppress black women. Black women oppress each other and also berate black men. If we unify we can build and live harmoniously amongst each other BUT that never stops the forces of white oppression TRYING to destroy us. As you referred to Nettie coming back to America only to be oppressed, you ahistorically seem to forget about the colonization and upheaval and wars that were going on in that time frame in Africa. There was no war other than the one she was accustomed to (racial bigotry) going on back in America. Why should she stay in Africa? The color purple movies, old and new, are full of valuable lessons if you stop trying to look for flaws.
Everyone complains about Mister being abusive. No one cares that Mister's son Harpo was a good man with an entrepreneurial spirit married to an abusive or at least bossy woman (Sophia). It's like he overcorrected trying to not be like his father.
To me The color purple movie is another modern day birth of a nation movie that was made in 1916. Only difference no blackface in color purple just blackfakes.
Alice Walker is a Feminist. What did you expect? At least Steven Spielberg Disneyfied the original film in spite of it's dark subject matter. That's why some critics heavily criticized the 1985 film. It wasn't gritty enough, and it deviated from Alice Walker's fictional novel. That's why this movie was remade. AND NOBODY ASKED FOR A REMAKE OF THE COLOR PURPLE!!
I NEVER LIKED THIS MOVIE and frankly i never understood why so many black people liked it i was a kid when the O.G movie came out and it was HBO and my mom loved it and so many black women love it when i watched it as an adult i saw so many things that made me say WTF i don't understand stand the hype
It trips me out because watching this movie as a child, you get the impression that all black men are evil and abusive. So how many young black men and women grew up hating black men because of this movie.
One of my biggest problems with this movie and 98% of all "black" movies is that almost without exception every single character is morally corrupted in some way. Interesting point is that these types of Woman from this movie rarely existed in real life, but now you look around and you see these types of BW everywhere. Not art imitating life, but real life hase taken on the persona of the "art". Just like the Feminist movement our Woman have been suckered and used again.
She seems to be a highly educated young lady but my observation was also that she evidently hasn't read the book by Alice Walker if I am not mistaken. Then you have a better understanding of if not being a fictionalized story.
Actually black families owned millions and millions of acres of land. We rarely lived in shacks. Also sharecroppers were working the land of "black" land owners. Its public knowledge. Thats the only gripe i have with what youre saying. Dont short our ppl.
The Color Purple has caused a negative mental sydrom amongst the modern Black female. After seeing the original film I had no desire to see the new film. As damaged as our culture is in this country this was the last thing we needed.
I saw it and loved it, probably my favourite movie.......although it made my mother cry because both she AND my sister could relate to what celie went through as a child with a GROWN MAN. Oh I forget to mention my dad was no walk in the park either, just saying.
Agree 100% with your take on the movie. I was 18 when the original came out, and I knew it was a chop job even then. The older women in my family hated it. The younger ones loved it.
This film wasn’t even set during Reconstruction. I think her premise is okay, but some of the facts make me wonder if she saw the films or read the book.
How many people actually looked into the research of that time period? My grandmother was born in 1917 (the same year the movie starts in) & had HORRIBLE stories. BM are not exempt from abuse and oppression of BW. How is this movie worse than the Rap music, the Tv shows that display BM as criminals & drug dealers? This is a wild take. My grandmother spoke about how life was in the South. BM have been protectors AND abusers. Both are real occurrences.
Well, done.The Colour Purple starts in the 1910s. The campaigning newspaper editor, Ida B Wells wrote about lynching from 1892. White people claimed that lynching was about sexual violence by black men. Ida's research uncovered a difference reason - 'For Wells, lynching was intricately linked to the protection of white economic power. It was an unofficial tool of the state to thwart black economic advancement." She also investigated the lynching of black women. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-W0vfHQNEfv8.html
But there are some black men that act like Mr. I see it at my register as a cashier. And there are black men that are doing positive things this is just one story if you want to show the other side, then make your home movie. I’ve noticed anytime something comes out with a positive clean-cut sub subject, Black people don’t go see it. So Hollywood thinks we want gangsters, whores, pimps, rap music that’s what they think because that’s how a lot of us act.
Im just glad its doing so badly at the box office. Between this and those awful new marvel movies, Hollywood will be forced to either do something different or collapse.
Black people we're angry over the writing of the book. Because they didn't want the people to know their part in society. That book told the truth, people like this black man here and my grandfather were angry black men and they wanted to protect our black people they didn't want them to know the truth of what we really were. In the park when Oprah went to jail from fighting back was true in these times, and personally I think there's a certain generation needs to keep their and you can't begin to see a time that you never lived in. The color purple was one of the greatest books and greatest movies ever made and those that are listening in please don't let the opinions of others stop you from viewing that movie or reading the book. It's just like your history books told about slavery.
In addition to the other comments, I want to let you know what happened to me. When the movie was made, I was a man in his 20s. As a student at UCSC, hanging around with bell hooks, who was teaching there at the time, I had no idea of what was occurring. I didn't like the atmosphere, but what did I take away from the period? Well, having grown up in Mississippi, I could never imagine any black man having such domineering power over any woman at all, never mind a black one. I'd known pimps and prostitutes even but never experienced the level of abuse that Danny Glover exhibited in the movie, The Color Purple. I think black people were deceived (a lot of money was made) and that at the heart of it all was black women "yearning" (a bell hooks term) to become white women. I would think that the author, Alice Walker, had a desire to justify her marriage to a Jewish white man while at the same time benefiting from it. As for Speilberg, it was all about money and possibly wishing to exploit the opportunity to increase his stature. After all, Speilberg has come to be known for his work on the oppression of Jews. Of course, many of us black people didn't realize it then and don't realize it now, but, anyway, most of the black people I meet couldn't care less about dealing with our reality. It's better to try to escape into fantasy. The Color Purple functions to offer black women this option. They can say there's nothing wrong with them at all. It's the black man who is at fault. Well, we see where this escapist mentality is getting us. And finally, why wouldn't we, not unlike most of the population, prefer instead to go shopping and blame all problems on how men, especially black men, fall short in the sight of God or something like that. It seems easier for us to overlook the bad behavior of women when compared to men. Hence, "believe her because she is her."♥♥
It sounds like you should write another story that is about what your want to see in THE COLOR PURPLE movie. There is room for a million stories about very topic.
I don't think it is logical to say a fictional work such as the novel or movies is a lie. The word "fiction" in itself means something is not reality. I have only watched the 80's movie version and took it as entertainment. When watching you experience the things that make one sad, happy, amused as well as the acting performances. I did not feel indicted as a man. The brutality and actions of Mister are a bit over the top and over dramatized I admit but that is the nature of feature films and storytelling in general. One can't demand that the story be told how we think it should. If it is not your type of story or entertainment don't see the movie. It is the story of one unique (fictional) scenario. Black families existed at that time, of course, and it is possible that such unfortunate dynamics could have happened with this one singular family. Rather tasteful to our sensibilities or not. There are many villainous male Black characters out there in movies and tv so why put so much emphasis on this one?
Because the few recognize it as fiction. Many think it is an accurate accounting of the time in which it was based. There in lies here issue and that is exactly what she expressed.
@@Cosmiccoffeecup Naw, I don't think most people think it is a depiction of reality. Shame if they do. It's a movie musical based on a novel. What you are saying does not make sense.
This really was about one family problems with the men in that one family. It wasn't really a story about a whole town or place. This was a story of what one woman and her sister went through. It didn't focus on what was really happening with every woman there. This was just one story about a woman and the women connected to her life. It was just a story about one woman and the bad time ahe had with the men in her life. It wasn't about something that happened to everybody or every woman or man there. It was just based on a family and the triumphs of how two sisters were separated and what they went through to unite in the end. A few others were involved but only to tell their story.
I just finished reading the book and I would just like to add that the book doesn‘t paint black man as monsters. In fact at the end of the book the main character is friends with her ex husband who abused her. And it is vey clear that they both were unhappy and both of them became happier people after they decided to put some space between each other and find themselves apart from what the world around them told them women and men should be and behave like. The book shows more than once that black men have a reason for doing what they are doing without excusing their abusive behavior or erasing the pain of the women that suffered because of it. (For example The main character only becomes friends with her ex-husband after they talk about the pain he caused her and they both recognize each other as complex human beings) The book is good because it catches the complexity of human relationships without painting one side as purely evil and one side as purely good. I haven‘t seen either movie yet, but from everything I could find online so far it seems like they missed that point completely which is very sad. (The copy of the book I have literally starts with an authors note about why the 1985 Movie adaptation of The Color Purple isn‘t as good as the book, raising very similar points to the ones that are being raised now about the new movie adaptation.) So if you want to take anything away from my long comment: Read the book.
What the main stream media refused to mention, is how many black women did not go to support the movie. Our women are tired of being told to hate and fear their men.
Thanks for including the James Baldwin introduction commentary and examples of Black men and Black women relying on each other for survival. Thanks for giving attention to White systemic oppression. This film removes the cultural and historical context of the Black family. Bravo for an excellent review!❤🖤💚
You portraying this as some sort of gender war is more propaganda than anything. What was indicative of a gender war? You yourself said you’re not saying that didn’t mean people weren’t in abusive relationships. How does highlighting ONE abusive relationship indicate a gender war?
This filth will never get played in my house. I saw the original more times than I should have growing up in the 80s as a young boy. I come from very big southern families and none of the men and women in my family were like this. Even then the movie reeked of propaganda. I understand that it may resonate with a few but the way the movie was pushed on our community as the gospel truth representation of the black family was criminal and insidious.
I will not watch the movie, but, it has nothing to do with all of this her side, his side crap. I liked the first movie and if I want to revisit it, I will read the book; THE FICTIONAL BOOK. I think people are expecting too much out of everyone. It is a movie adapted from a fictional story that may have been inspired by real events. I do not understand why black people have an issue over this movie but are overwhelmingly supportive of other movies or tv shows that portray black men in a more horrible light than this? People look only at their history to gauge what was true or untrue about society back then. Basically, I don't think this movie lied on Black America. I think this movie (from the book) tells a story that many aren't familiar with or they refuse to acknowledge because they don't want it to be true. Liberties are obviously taken, but again, it is a movie.
Why is the black man so feared, hated, and vilified? It's an attempt to bind him, because he is so strong! ”But no one can go into a strong man’s house and steal his property unless he first overpowers and ties up the strong man, and then he will ransack and rob his house." (Mark 3:27 AMP.)