Filmmaker Blitz Bazawule announced April 1 on Twitter that post-production has ended for his adaptation of The Color Purple, which is set to be released in December 2023. Immediately, I felt a sense of apprehension and distrust because of how close I hold the 1985 version close to my heart. Before I ever read the book, I knew almost every line from the film by heart. My grandma, my mother, and I would watch it all the time.
We would always sing the hand-game song that Celie and Nettie sing throughout the film:
Me and You
Us Never Part
Makidada
Me and You
Us Have One Heart
Makidada
Ain’t No Ocean,
Ain’t No Sea
Makidada
Keep My Sister
Away From Me
The Color Purple is a film adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel of the same name. It follows the story of Celie Harris, a dark-skinned Black girl living in the rural South in the early 1900s. So much of her story is shrouded in pain—physical pain, emotional pain, mental anguish—at the hands of others. For much of her life, she succumbs to the abuse. Yet, when she meets Shug Avery, a freewheelin’ Blues singer, she’s reignited with a new sense of purpose. It’s a beautiful film that has taught me a lot about reclaiming my power and agency from harmful situations and people in my life.
The Color Purple is also a celebration of relationships between Black women, and the liberation they can bring. In the novel, Shug Avery and Celie are lovers for a short while. Their affair is hinted at in the film in the scene where they kiss. That kiss was the first time I’d ever seen representation of Black lesbian attraction on screen.
This film is more than a favorite. It reflects so many similarities between my own family history. My family migrated from rural South Carolina to Washington, DC in the 1940s. As a child, I spent summers in rural SC, running barefoot on red clay roads, eating scuppernong grapes, and picking pecans from my nana’s pecan trees. I saw my grandma’s beautiful deep Brown skin reflected in Celie’s. And I also recognized, and deeply related to, the wounds of abuse on the bodies and minds of Black women by the hands of Black men. The Color Purple is not a perfect story—it’s hard to watch, it’s complicated. At the core of the film, is the message: you are not your trauma and you are mightier than those who’ve harmed you.
Mid-point in the film, Celie realizes that her husband/abuser Mister has been hiding letters from her sister Nettie, the only person in her life who ever truly showed tenderness and kindness to her. During Thanksgiving dinner with family, she finally confronts Mister and leaves him. At Mister’s taunting, she pulls a knife on him.
“I curse you. Until you do right by me, everything you think about is going to crumble.”
“Everything you done to me, already done to you.”
This scene feels cathartic for me. I’ve been abused and harmed by so many in my life. As a Black disabled queer person, I’m mistreated regularly and disregarded. When I was a kid, I lived in an abusive household where I wasn’t couldn’t always speak back to those who abused me. And, this scene reminds me of my power, of the importance of leaving situations that are harmful to me. And so this scene, fills me with a sense of righteous anger and vengeance.
The scene doesn’t end in murderous rage, but Celie leaves Mister in a type of weary delight. She doesn’t need to fight him. She knows that God, the Universe, Karma will bring things into balance. This is enough for her. She doesn’t succumb to the trauma Mister has given her—it’s there, it may always be there. But, she recognizes her power. She reclaims her agency to leave him.
And so, as a proclamation of liberation, she says:
“I’m poor. Black. I may even be ugly. But dear God, I’m here. I’m here!”
I hope that the 2023 adaptation of The Color Purple gives me emotional reactions as the 1985 version does. I know it will not be the same film, and will not have the magic that the previous one does. I hope that Blitz does this story justice. I hope he recognizes that the most powerful narrative thread in this film is Black Women and femme’s Rage, Liberation and Relationships.