The Color Purple

The Color Purple is an amazing, well-thought out piece about a young African American woman, Celie, who is raped and impregnated by her father. Her father gives her children away, and is separated from her sister when her father forces her to marry an older black man named Albert and/or Mister.

The Color Purple was originally a novel written by Alice Walker, but was made into a film in 1985 with the help of director Steven Spielberg. Whoopi Goldberg does an incredible job transforming into the quiet and timid character of Celie. Daniel Glover also does a nice job taking on the role of the dark and controlling Albert/Mister. Participating in her first film, Oprah Winfrey does a fine job adapting to Harpo's (Willard E. Pugh) strong willed wife, Sofia

The beginning of The Color Purple takes place in the winter of 1909, a time when whites and blacks did not always agree. An example of the racial differences taking place in the dialogue would be when the mayor's wife (a white woman), asks Sofia if she and her children would come work for her. Sofia is a proud black woman, and says "Hell no." The mayor slaps her for speaking that way to his wife, and Sofia reacts by punching him, and is then sent to jail for eight years. In the end Sofia is forced to work for the mayor and his wife anyway.


A shot that appears many times throughout The Color Purple is the focus on a character's shadow. When Celie and Nettie are younger there is a shot where they are gossiping about Mister and the shot is focused on their shadows on the wall, through the door frame. Then later the camera follows young Celie when she is reading out loud to herself, cuts out for a moment, and then when it cuts back you hear a much more mature voice as it becomes older Celie, (Whoopi Goldberg).


Diegetic sounds seem to fuse together throughout this film. When Celie and Nettie are younger, they are playing a hand clapping game, and those sounds fade into the clatter of horses hoove beats on the road. While Celie is reading Nettie's letter from Africa the sounds of Celie's surroundings in America blend with those made from Nettie's surroundings in Africa.

Toward the end of the film there was one scene that seemed to be a mistake in continuity editing. The camera is following a group of people walking into a church, then when the shot cuts to the other end of the axis of action the people have already stopped walking. This was fairly distracting for me.

Overall I would say that this is a very good film, and I would recommend it to those who enjoy a more serious, but well-crafted film.

Blog 2, DENZEL!

Out of all the actors and actresses in Hollywood, Denzel Washington is my absolute favorite. Although he generally only partakes in a limited variety of film genres, such as drama and/or suspense, I think he does an amazing job taking on the role of each character, and adapting to their frame of mind, rather than his own. My favorite "Denzel films" (in no particular order) are: The Bone Collector, Remember the Titans, Out of Time, John Q., Antwone Fisher, Out of Time, Deja Vu, Man on Fire, and Inside Man.

Denzel shows his diversity playing Steve Biko in the strong and overwhelming story of Cry Freedom, and Don Pedro of Aragon in the forever "classic" Much Ado About Nothing.

The only time I have ever disliked a film of Denzel's was when I saw The Pelican Brief. It's possible that I wasn't paying attention, or that I simply did not understand the plot, but I found it very boring, and I couldn't tell you one thing that happened during the entire movie, except that I think Denzel and Julia Roberts (co-star) were in a big crowd together at one point in the film.

Two films that I have yet to see of Denzel's, and would really like to, are Training Day and The Manchurian Candidate. Hopefully I will be able to soon.

Superbad

I read a review of the movie, "Superbad", by Stephen Farber. I found it on www.rottentomatoes.com, and it was a “squashed” review. I have yet to see Superbad, but from all other sources, excluding this one, I have heard that it is amazing! Stephen Farber says that;

Some of the patter is funny, but the movie lacks the clever plot developments
and the character nuances of a classic like "American Graffiti."

This would be a problem for me because I cannot stand films that do not have a well thought out plot development, and that just run in circles until the end of the credits.

Stephen Farber claims at two different points during his review that “Superbad” will only appeal to a young male audience:

It's the script that brings the movie down. Guys who are the same age as the
characters will whoop it up, but the film won't reach beyond that young male
demographic, as "Knocked Up" and "Virgin" managed to do. Because it obviously
was made on a low budget, "Superbad" will make money for Sony, but don't expect
it to have much shelf life after the kids are back in school.

And then later he states that;

"Superbad" is stuck in a state of male arrested development, just like the
characters. The movie's low budget shows in rather primitive technical credits.
The super-cheap "Superbad" will get laughs from undemanding kids, but it doesn't
come close to transcending its dimwitted genre.

I disagree with this because I know many girls who absolutely loved this movie, and returned to overpriced movie theaters to see it over and over again.

Although this review was not in favor of the film “Superbad” it does not, however, have a great effect on my desire to see, or to not see the film. I still think that I would enjoy it a lot, and cannot wait until I get an opportunity to see it.

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