Peter Guber - Executive Producer

Jon Peters - Executive Producer

Carole Isenberg - Associate Producer (as Carol Isenberg)

Quincy Jones - Producer

Kathleen Kennedy - Producer

Frank Marshall - Producer

Steven Spielberg - Producer

Alice Walker - novel

Menno Meyjes - screenplay

Original Music by Quincy Jones

Allen Daviau

Michael Kahn

Amblin Entertainment

USA

English

Anson County, North Carolina, USA

Ansonville, North Carolina, USA

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA (near)

Kenya

Lilesville, North Carolina, USA

Marshville, North Carolina, USA

Newhall, California, USA

North Carolina, USA

Union County, North Carolina, USA

Wadesboro Courthouse - 114 North Greene Street, Wadesboro, North Carolina, USA

Wadesboro, North Carolina, USA

ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards


1987 Won ASCAP Award Top Box Office Films
Quincy Jones,Chris Boardman,Jorge Calandrelli,Andraé Crouch,Jack Hayes,Joel Rosenbaum,Fred Steiner,Rod Temperton


The Academy Awards


1986 Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Leading Role Whoopi Goldberg

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Supporting Role Margaret Avery

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Actress in a Supporting Role Oprah Winfrey

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Art Direction-Set Decoration J. Michael Riva,Bo Welch,Linda DeScenna

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Cinematography Allen Daviau

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Costume Design Aggie Guerard Rodgers

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Makeup Ken Chase

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Music, Original Score Quincy Jones,Jeremy Lubbock,Rod Temperton,Caiphus Semenya,Andraé Crouch,Chris Boardman,Jorge Calandrelli,Joel Rosenbaum,Fred Steiner,Jack Hayes.Jerry Hey,Randy Kerber

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Music, Original Song Quincy Jones (music/lyrics),Rod Temperton (music/lyrics),Lionel Richie (lyrics) For the song "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)".

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Picture Steven Spielberg,Kathleen Kennedy,Frank Marshall,Quincy Jones

1986 Nominated Oscar Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Menno Meyjes


Awards of the Japanese Academy


1987 Nominated Award of the Japanese Academy Best Foreign Language Film


BAFTA Awards


1987 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Screenplay - Adapted Menno Meyjes


Black Movie Awards


2005 Won Classic Cinema Hall of Fame


Blue Ribbon Awards


1987 Won Blue Ribbon Award Best Foreign Language Film Steven Spielberg


British Society of Cinematographers


1986 Nominated Best Cinematography Award Allen Daviau


Casting Society of America


1986 Won Artios Best Casting for Feature Film, Drama Reuben Cannon


Directors Guild of America


1986 Won DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures
Steven Spielberg,Gerald R. Molen (unit production manager) (plaque),Pat Kehoe (first assistant director) (plaque),Richard A. Wells (first assistant director) (plaque),Victoria E. Rhodes (second assistant director) (plaque)


Golden Globe Awards


1986 Won Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama Whoopi Goldberg

1986 Nominated Golden Globe Best Director - Motion Picture Steven Spielberg

1986 Nominated Golden Globe Best Motion Picture - Drama

1986 Nominated Golden Globe Best Original Score - Motion Picture Quincy Jones

1986 Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture Oprah Winfrey


Image Awards


1988 Won Image Award Outstanding Lead Actress in a Motion Picture Whoopi Goldberg

1988 Won Image Award Outstanding Motion Picture


Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards


1986 Won KCFCC Award Best Director Steven Spielberg


National Board of Review, USA


1985 Won NBR Award Best Actress Whoopi Goldberg

1985 Won NBR Award Best Film


Writers Guild of America


1986 Nominated WGA Award (Screen) Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Menno Meyjes

[ View All Images ]

Danny Glover

Whoopi Goldberg

Margaret Avery

Oprah Winfrey

Willard E. Pugh

Akosua Busia

Desreta Jackson

Adolph Caesar

Rae Dawn Chong

Dana Ivey

Leonard Jackson

Bennet Guillory

John Patton Jr.

Carl Anderson

Susan Beaubian

James Tillis

Phillip Strong

Laurence Fishburne

Peto Kinsaka

Lelo Masamba

Steven Spielberg’s first attempt at a totally serious film was The Color Purple. The man who had won fame as a director of action, fantasy and super-natural films made a beautiful piece of cinema based on a difficult-to-film book - Alice Walker’s diary-style, Pulitzer Prize—winning novel about the metamorphosis of a young black woman. The movie was breathtaking, from the first opening shots, to the well-integrated music, to the splendid tone and texture it established. Spielberg brought Celie, Mister. Shug Avery and all of Alice Walker's characters to life with a good deal of faithful attention to the novel.

Not surprisingly, The Color Purple was showered with Oscar nominations, 11 in all, yet not one was offered to the film's director. Rarely is a film nominated for Best Picture without the director being nominated in his category as well: after all, pictures don't put themselves together. Word of Spielberg's snubbing generated an audible response throughout the Hollywood film community the day after the The Academy Awards were announced. Spielberg could not be reached for comment, but Warner Bros. wasted no time in buying an ad in the trades proclaiming that "the company is shocked and dismayed that the movie's primary creative force Steven Spielberg—was not recognized." Spielberg did, however, win the Director's Guild Award, viewed by many as a consolation prize. Ironic, too, since it is directors who nominate directors in the Academy. His peers failed to reward him in one organization, while lauding him in another.

The film was noteworthy in another area too. Both first-time actresses Whoopi Goldberg (nee Caryn Johnson) and Oprah Winfrey were nominated for Oscars. Whoopi was best known as a stand-up comic, and many doubted she could handle the role. (She's been disproving such talk ever since). And Oprah Winfrey was most noted as a talk-show host who had started with a small morning show in Baltimore and had only recently moved on to Chicago. She would soon hit the big time with a top nationally syndicated TV talk show.

More disappointment followed on Oscar night. With 11 Award nominations, The Color Purple received not a single Oscar. Although the NAACP accused the Academy of a deliberate shut-out, this is highly unlikely, due to the strict controls of secret balloting. Financially, the film wasn't a true blockbuster, but at least there was some compensation in its success at the box office.

Whoopi Goldberg's first feature film.

Oprah Winfrey's first movie.

Shooting for town scenes frequently had to be put on hold due to freight trains passing by the edge of the set.

Steven Spielberg admits that his greatest mistake in directing this film was his lack of courage portraying the lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug. At the time of filming, Spielberg feared that overt sexuality between the two characters would alienate audiences, a decision he now regrets.

Oprah Winfrey was at a "fat farm" to lose weight when she learned she got the part of Sofia. She had to leave immediately, as the role required her to be heavy.

Patti LaBelle auditioned for the role of Shug Avery.

Steven Spielberg's baby was born during the filming of this movie, and in the scene where young Celie gives birth to the baby, the sound of the baby crying is the actual sound of the Spielbergs' baby crying.

Lola Falana and Diana Ross turned down the role of Shug Avery.

No, not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off when you walk by the colour purple in a field and don't notice it.

Who you think you is? You can curse nobody. Look at you. Your black, you're poor, you're ugly, you're a woman, you're nothing at all!

After Celie looks out of the door of her pants shop and sees Mister, a person walks by. When the person walks by, you can see the reflection of a camera and a crew member in the glass.

In the scene in which Celie has on Shug's dress in Shug's bedroom, Shug makes Celie look in the dresser mirror. There is another mirror on the dresser in which a crew members head is visible.

When Sophia is in the field telling Celie "If you want a dead son in-law, Miss Celie, you keep on advising him like you're doing." Actually, Harpo is Celie's step-son, not her son in-law.

When she is returning from Memphis on the train, Celie is sipping wine in the dining car. An African-American person could not eat in the dining car in the late 1930s, especially on a Southern run.