The Color Purple

The Color Purple (1985)

Information at Internet Movie Database
Themes
- Clean/Unclean
  - Traveling blues singer Shug Avery comes home and becomes a sensation in a local "juke joint." She is staying with a couple, and it is known throughout the community that she is the man's lover. She enters a church building in order to speak to her father, the pastor. Upon seeing her enter the otherwise empty sanctuary, he sits in one of the pews with his back to her. She reminisces about how things were when learned to sing in church as a young girl. Her father gets up and walks away from her. She says that she understands that he won't answer her, considering the way things had turned out. He goes through a door on the other side of the sanctuary and closes it behind him. (David K. Miller)
- Cleansing/Destroying the Temple
  - "All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my uncles. I had to fight my brothers. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men, but I ain't never thought I'd have to fight in my own house! I loves Harpo. God knows I do. But I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me."
- Endurance, Determination, Courage
  - Celie's survival and endurance despite the cruelty around her
- Father Figure
  - There is a wonderful scene in "The Color Purple" where a prodigal jazz singer returns to her estranged father in an act of repentence and reconciliation. (Bruce T. Jones)
- Friendship
  - The developing friendship between Celie and Shug
- Reconciliation
  - Traveling blues singer Shug Avery has been estranged from her pastor father for decades, because of her decision to sing secular music. One morning, while she's visiting her hometown, she decides that she feels like singing. She opens the local "juke joint" and begins singing her signature song. As a crowd gathers around the singer, the scene cuts to her father's church. As he is preaching, sounds from the juke joint drift in through the open windows. Someone in the congregation prompts the choir to begin singing "God Might Be Trying to Tell You Something." As the choir gets louder, Shug hears and begins singing along. As the song progresses, she leads everyone from the juke joint (band and all) to the church. She walks up to her father and puts her arms around him. She whispers, "See, daddy, even sinners have soul." He returns her embrace as tears fill her eyes. (David K. Miller)
  - There is a wonderful scene in "The Color Purple" where a prodigal jazz singer returns to her estranged father in an act of repentence and reconciliation. (Bruce T. Jones)
  - Just before the choir begins singing, Shug's daddy is preaching on the prodigal "son" text. Also, Shug walks across a bridge that goes over a creek which separates the juke joint side of the creek from the church side. Might be stretching it a bit, but the juke joint was a hell of sorts and the church is heaven in comparison! (Sandy Chace)
- Sisters/Sisterhood
  - Celie discovers that her sister has been writing to her all along.

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