spielberg love the smell of sentiment in the morning . but sentiment at the expense of narrative honesty . nobody should love that . lucius shepardthe color purple take place in the deep south during the early 1900s and and tell the story of celie and nettie and two african american sister . the film open with the girl play in a field of purple flower and an idyllic haven which be promptly shatter by the appearance of their stepfather . this motif innocence interrupt by men permeate the entire film . the film then launch into a series of short sequence . celie be reveal to have be twice impregnate by her stepfather and give birth in a dirty barn and have her newborn child take away and be force to marry a local widow name albert johnson and a violent oaf who rap her repeatedly and force her to cook and clean and look after his child . all these horrific scene be give little screen time and and be instead surround by moment of pixie dust cinematography and a meddlesome symphonic score and incongruous comedy and overly exuberant camera work . the cumulative effect be like the merging of a disney cartoon and a rape movie and a jarring aesthetic which cause stanley kubrick to remark that the color purple make him so nauseate that he have to turn it off after ten minute . ten minute . he last a long time . the film be often say to deal which racism and sexism and black culture and but this be not true . alice walker and the author of the novel upon which the film be base and claim to be a bisexual but be actually a closet lesbian . her book be a lesbian fantasy and a story of female liberation and self discovery and which paint men a violent brute who stymie woman . for walker and the only way out of this maze be for woman to bond together in a kind of lesbian utopia and black sisterhood and female independence celebrate . spielberg film and however and re frame walker story through the lens of comfort american mythology . this be a film in which the salvific power of christianity overcome the natural cruelty of men . a film in which albert find himself in various ridiculous situation and moment of misplaced comedy insert to make him look like a bumbling fool . a film in which all the character be derive from racist minstrel show and the cast comprise of lecherous men ( always beam with devilish smile and toothy grin ) and stereotypical fat mammy and jazz band and gospel choir . this be a film in which black people be naturally childlike and readily and happily accept their social condition . a film in which black people be over sexed and carnal sensualist dominate by violent passion . a film in which poverty and class issue be entirely invisible ( albert live in a huge house ) and black men be completely inept . this be not the old south and this be the old south a derive from go with the wind and mgm muscals and song of the south and warner cartoon and halleluha . and ban disney movie . in other word and it the south a see by a child raise on 50 tv . it all so cartoonish and so racist in the way it reduce these human being to one dimensional ethnic stereotype and that black novelist ishmael reed famously liken it to a nazi conspiracy . of course and in typical spielberg fashion the film end with family bond be heal . this reconciliation be in walker novel and but spielberg go far by have every character in the story reconcile with their kin . beyond walker hate letter to black men and spielberg bizarre caricaturing of black life and we be show nothing of the black community . we have only the vague idea a to how any of these character make a living and no insight into how they interact with others in their community . instead and spielberg camera jump about and desperately fight for our attention ( one of celie kitchen contraption seem like it belong in a home alone movie ) and every emotion over play and the director never stop to just observe something or to allow a little bit of life to simply pass by . couple this with quincy jones ridiculously white music and and you have one of the strange film in cinema history represent an angry feminist tract film by a white jew in the style of disney and griffith and score by a black man try to emulate john williams . problematic too be the lack of white character . consider this represent the men in this film aren not portray a be rough to each other and nor do they dominate woman because they be brutalise by a racist society which reduce their manhood . no and they be cruel by nature . and the woman and whether quietly suffer like celie or rebellious and tough like her sister and persevere and survive only because the men be too stupid to destroy them . a good film would not have focus solely on the oppression of woman a it occur among the oppressed and rather and it would have show that it be societal abuse which have lead to spousal abuse and that enslave black woman be force to perform the very same task a their male counterpart ( whilst still fulfil traditional female role ) and that african american domestic violence occur largely because of economic factor and woman unable to support themselves and their child alone . and so there a hidden ideology at work here . late in the film one character tell another that since he do not respect his wife and she wind up get severely beat and imprison by white . the implication be that black need to return to their african root to restore their own dignity and that it be their fault that white unjustly crush them . ie respect one another in your poor minority community and you would not run afoul of the dominant white culture . negative a failure to confront sex and lesbianism and inappropriate musical number and countless sequence load with extraneous visual pizazz and incongruous comic business and emphatic music cue and and wildly hype emotionality and all contribute to render the color purple worthless .