Film

The Color Purple

Name: The Color Purple
Genre: Drama
Released: 2023
Cast: Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins

Other titles called The Color Purple: the 1985 film.

Drama

Bleak and then radiant. A woman abused and silenced for decades finds her voice through letters, music, and the love of other women. It's devastating and then transcendent—a film that trusts you with grief before it earns the right to joy. For anyone ready to feel everything.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a big-hearted musical melodrama where singing carries heavy emotion, and a story of hard-won solidarity between women lands through performance more than through plot.

Skip it if you find big, sweeping sentiment hard to sit through, or you want a grittier, more restrained telling; its stage-bright gloss can soften the harshness of what it depicts.

What it asks of you: Around two and a half hours, with long stretches given to feeling over momentum, and songs arriving often, so settle in for sustained feeling rather than a brisk watch.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Beloved1998

Another adaptation of a beloved novel about Black women surviving trauma and reclaiming dignity. Sethe's journey mirrors Celie's in its scope, pain, and ultimate defiance. Oprah produced and starred in both.

But Slower and more fragmented in its storytelling, which some find distancing rather than intimate. The film itself is sometimes criticized as not matching the book's power.

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a life shaped by love, longing, and the search for self in a world that doesn't make space for you. Like The Color Purple, it's quiet and devastating, built on glances and silences rather than exposition.

But Minimal plot by conventional standards. It's poetry, not narrative—if you need clear conflict and resolution, this might feel like watching water.

Hidden Figures2016

Black women finding their power and voice in an institution designed to erase them. It has The Color Purple's warmth and humor alongside its anger, plus the satisfaction of earned triumph and genuine friendship.

But Sometimes leans toward uplift and palatability in ways that sand down its own edges. Less willing than The Color Purple to sit in darkness.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Color Purple

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Dreamgirls2006

Both center on women's bonds fractured and reformed by circumstance; both use music as a language deeper than dialogue; both ask what women owe each other when survival is at stake.

A woman's rise to stardom and the cost of ambition. Sung-through musical where sisterhood is tested by success. The Color Purple's thematic cousin—Black female solidarity, performance as survival, the complexity of women supporting each other through pain.

But 1981 production values are visible. The melodrama is intentional but doesn't match contemporary storytelling taste. Some scenes feel overwrought.

Selma2014

A woman at the center of history, learning to lead from pain and conviction. David Oyelowo is extraordinary, and like The Color Purple, it understands that spiritual and political liberation are inseparable.

But Very focused on a specific historical moment rather than a lifetime. If you're looking for the personal-over-political approach, this swings the other way.

The Underground Railroad2021

A miniseries about a woman's journey to freedom and selfhood across impossible terrain. It's surreal, visually stunning, and unafraid of magical realism. The same unflinching look at American brutality, softened by moments of beauty.

But Deliberately anachronistic and abstract. If you want historical realism, this deliberately dismantles it. Some found the tone unsettling.

Harriet2019

A woman's transformation from voicelessness and victimhood to power and purpose. Cynthia Erivo is luminous, and the film doesn't shy from showing the cost of that transformation, or its spiritual dimension.

But Biopic conventions sometimes flatten the character into heroism. It's more straightforward and less complex than The Color Purple's emotional terrain.

I Will Follow2010

Ava DuVernay's meditative film about a woman processing grief and the women who hold her through it. Intimate, visual, and about the quiet, everyday forms of love and survival. Less known but beautifully made.

But Very experimental in structure. It's more like a poem or prayer than a conventional narrative. Could feel slow or opaque if that's not your language.

Daughters of the Dust1991

A visually extraordinary film about a family of Gullah women at a crossroads, choosing between old and new. It has The Color Purple's investment in female community and spiritual life, told through gorgeously impressionistic filmmaking.

But Abstract, non-linear, and deliberately difficult. It demands your full attention and doesn't offer easy resolution. Many find it beautiful but frustrating.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco2019

A meditation on belonging, inheritance, and trying to build something beautiful in a world determined to erase you. It shares The Color Purple's poetic sensibility and its belief that beauty and defiance are acts of survival.

But Deliberately paced. More interested in mood and metaphor than plot. If you want narrative momentum, you'll find it frustratingly still.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco poster

TÁR2022

Both films are about earning a voice and learning to use it. Both understand that voice—literally sung or spoken—is about power, survival, and the right to take up space.

A masterwork about power, performance, and the chasm between the self the world sees and the self that suffers. Completely different genre and setting, but the same investigation of voice—how we use it, what silences us, what it costs to be heard.

But Three hours. A woman director in absolute command of form, which some experience as cold or abrasive rather than moving. Requires active attention throughout.

The Eternal Memory2023

Both films locate transcendence and grace within suffering. Both trust silence and presence. Both understand that love—whether romantic, familial, or communal—is the most radical and resilient force available to us.

A documentary about a couple in Chile, the man losing his memory to Alzheimer's while the woman loves him unflinchingly. Shot like a poem; devastatingly intimate. Love and endurance rendered with unflinching honesty and absolute tenderness—The Color Purple's emotional core, no narrative required.

But A documentary, not narrative fiction. No plot, just the accumulation of moments. If you need story structure, this will seem to meander. Some find the intimacy too exposing to watch.