The film director Steven Spielberg (1947~) is a master of American entertainment films and the highest grossing film director in Hollywood today. Among the 10 most-grossing films ever made in Hollywood, he directed only one person. Four titles were published: "Jaws" (1975), "Indiana Jones" (1981), "Aliens" (1982), "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Magic" (1984). But he has always missed the Oscars, and was never nominated before making this film. In 1985, Spielberg was determined to try his talents in different ways, making a Spielberg film that was not like Spielberg. He adapted the novel "Purple", which was published by modern black female writer Alice Walker in 1982 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983, into the film of the same name.
In the 58th Oscars competition, although "Purple" received 11 nominations, the results of the selection fell short and did not win a single award. "Out of Africa", which also received 11 nominations, won 7 awards including best film. Winning 11 nominations and not winning the first prize is a rare phenomenon in the history of the Oscars. Not only that, there is no best director award at all in the 11 nominations for this film, which is even more an anomaly.
This film is completely different from Spielberg's previous films. It shows that the director is equally talented in dealing with serious themes, shaping images, portraying characters and revealing the inner world. This novel by Alice Walker is composed of letters written by the heroine Celie to God and sister Netty. It describes the joys and sorrows of a black family from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of the 1930s. The time span is as long as 40 years. The main roles are all black and played by unknown black actors. This is a multi-clue, multi-theme, multi-meaning, plot and dramatic film. The clues of Celie and her stepfather and husband reveal the human evil of black men and their oppression and ravages of black women; the clues of Celie and Sager depict the loneliness, pain, and awakening of black women, who strongly pursue love and Be loved and developed into homosexuality; Sophie’s clues expose the persecution and bullying of blacks by whites; Netty’s clues express religious compassion and love and the customs of African blacks; the difference between Netty and Celie both strengthens the tragedy of the film Sex, pave the way for the ending of the reunion comedy. In this film, it is not white men who cause the heroine, Celie’s suffering and misfortune, but black men. This is different from the general black-themed works in which all black people are good people and all bad people are white. Some black groups protested, accusing it of "Gone with the Wind" in the 1980s, distorting the image of black people, and none of the black protagonists are in favor, and so on. However, the female writer herself applauded the adaptation of the film. She watched the filming of the scene where the two sisters were forced to separate and was moved to tears. The director himself also mentioned that what he wanted to shoot was not a film like "Uncle Tom's Cabin", because the novel "Purple" describes the life of the female writer's grandparents, who are wealthy blacks. As for the black protagonists in this film, except for Shag, they are all ugly, especially the adult Celie played by Goldberg. Goldberg was originally a comedian on the theater stage and never acted in a movie, but her natural and sincere performance made the audience fully penetrate into the prescribed situation, gradually forget her external ugliness, and found her internal beautiful. Indeed, where are these unknown black actors in this film the rivals of the most popular Hollywood stars Meryl Streep and Robert Redford in "Out of Africa"? This is undoubtedly one of the reasons why the film lost the Oscars.
In this film, the bizarre and mysterious plots, thrilling suspense, excitement and thrilling adventures inherent in most of Spielberg's films have been replaced by charming stories, distinctive characters, and delicate and profound psychological descriptions. . In this regard, the best examples are the two scenes in which Celie shaves her husband. The first scene appeared after Albert cruelly drove Natti away: her husband sat in an armchair on the veranda in front of the house, and Celie, who dared to be angry but did not dare to speak, walked tamely behind her husband with a razor in hand, Ai Burt threatened: "If you hurt me, I'll kill you!" Feature: The sharp razor slowly slides on Albert's shaving cream face, Celie's slightly trembling hands and her panic Her facial expression reveals her nervous inner activity. The idea of killing him flashed in her mind, but she dared not do it. The second scene appeared after she and Sage found a lot of letters from Netty. Albert was sitting in the background at the end of the veranda, and Celie was standing in the foreground, slowly and over and over on a belt, as if she was delaying time on purpose in order to gather enough courage. Albert waited in a hurry, urging loudly, and Celie walked behind her husband unhurriedly. The close-up moves back and forth between the shimmering sharp razor and Albert's dark and shiny neck. This time Celie was no longer nervous and fearful, but calm and confident. Suddenly, she raised the razor high...Albert did not see any movement, and suddenly turned around, seeing that Sage, who was flying back from the field, caught Celie's hand holding the razor in the air with both hands, panting for compensation. She laughed and said, "Her razor hasn't been polished yet." Albert scolded, "Idiot, Idiot!" got up and went away. These two sets of images do not require any dialogue to reveal Celie's psychological and emotional changes.
Spielberg is very good at using details and gimmicks to give serious subjects a relaxed sense of humor. Once, Albert's father came to visit. Albert asked Celie to give her father-in-law a drink. The father yelled at Sage in front of his son, saying that she lived a slutty life and was notorious. Albert was just one of her concubines... Celie poured a cup of cold water, spat in the cup, stirred it with her fingers, and brought it out to her father-in-law. The father-in-law drank it and burped. Celie turned her back, pursed her mouth and smiled, and said to herself: "Next time I will mix Sage's urine in coffee for you to drink." Another example is that Sage and Seely are rummaging through the cabinets, looking for Natty. Letter from. When Celie turned around, she suddenly saw the hanger with Albert's hat and suit hanging on it, as if Albert was standing there, frightening her.
The film’s photography, tone, color, music and sound processing are all excellent. A large number of panoramic and moving shots depict the vast and fertile pastures and fields of the American South, and a large number of close-ups and mid-to-close shots reveal the inner world of the characters, showing the customs and customs of the blacks. The set of moving shots that Albert followed Netty was particularly expressive: the innocent, white and flawless Netty was ecstatic, bouncing on the ground to school, her white dress looming in the lush woods and grass. . Albert's appearance casts a shadow on this poetic scene, his evil is in sharp contrast with the beauty of nature. The opening and closing scenes are also very beautiful: the endless green pastures, large tracts of purple flowers, and the big and round golden sunset give people a feeling of vitality. However, the tone of the film's music and songs is sentimental. The song "Miss Celie's Sorrow" dedicated to Sealy by Sager confides their common destiny: a lonely and lonely life. Sage sang in the song: "I'm walking a lonely road, sister, how similar you are to me, despicable people can't make me hesitate, sister, how can the storm make goodness disappear..."
In the original book and the film, purple is a symbol of nobility and dignity, and it is also Celie’s favorite color. However, in the house of her stepfather and husband, Celie, who has lost her dignity, cannot wear purple. Only at the end of the film, she is in the economy. After being self-reliant, you can wear purple at will.
This film is not only the most outstanding one of Spielberg's films, but also one of the best Hollywood films in the 1980s. The American "Time" magazine used "comparable peers" to explain its failure in the Oscar competition. When Spielberg received six nominations for "Empire of the Sun" in the 1988 Oscars, he said the same thing to the reporter of American Film magazine: "When the film gets a huge amount I never dreamed of. When it came to the effect, I was surprised like everyone else. When those films became so widely popular, people began to doubt your intentions. Let’s put it this way, for all of my hugely successful films, everyone in the first few months I like it, and later, when it starts to break the box office record, some people will say: "Oh, wait a minute, I was deceived. There is some kind of evil temptation there. I don't believe that Spielberg , He is manipulating me now. I know, I admire this movie, I watched it four times, but that little bastard manipulated me!'” Although these words contained strong personal emotions, they were to a certain extent It also reflects the judging criteria of the American film critics and the Academy Award judges who are influenced by European modernist film criticism: the more popular the film, the less good it is. In the past two years, Spielberg has begun to receive the attention of the American critics. In 1989, 54 judges participated in the "Best of the 80s" selection activity, Spielberg and Woody Allen Tied for the second place in the "Best Director". "Purple" ranked 58th out of 100 blockbusters, and "Out of Africa" ranked 69th. According to the above comment criteria, the latter naturally cannot compete with the former.
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