--- title: "The Color Purple: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-color-purple/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-color-purple" critics_score: 58 critics_reviews: 11 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Color Purple (1985): what the critics said Critics' score 58 from 11 reviews: 5 positive, 2 mixed, 4 negative. The reviews split almost down the middle. What nearly everyone agrees on is the cast. Whoopi Goldberg’s Celie is singled out repeatedly, with Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery and Danny Glover close behind, and even the harshest notices allow that the performances carry the film. The warmer critics see a dignified, emotionally generous attempt to bring a radical book to a mainstream audience, and The Hollywood Reporter goes further, ranking it among the loveliest parables it has seen on screen. The reservations cluster around what Spielberg does to Alice Walker’s novel. Most critics note that the lesbian relationship and the feminism are toned down, and that hard material about abuse and racism is offset with broad comedy and a swelling score. The Independent and Slant find this fatal; Variety and The New York Times find it a flaw in an otherwise stirring film. The spread is wide, from warm praise to real anger. ## The Hollywood Reporter — Arthur Knight Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 17 December 1985. The critic praises the film's tenderness and love, Spielberg's convincing direction, and the cast's performances, calling it a lyric ode to the goodness in mankind and one of the loveliest parables ever created for the screen. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-color-purple-1985-steven-spielberg-oprah-winfrey-review-1235722468/) ## Radio Times — Sue Heal Rating 4/5. It was once fashionable to criticise Spielberg for a glossy, sugar-coated take on Walker's hard-hitting novel, but this is an impressive, dignified attempt to adapt a radical book into mainstream entertainment with a message. Whoopi Goldberg is wonderful in the lead, with strong support from Danny Glover, Margaret Avery and a pre-fame Oprah Winfrey. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-ufjzfk/the-color-purple/) ## The Telegraph — Tim Robey Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 3 September 2013. The 1985 film is a sober and impassioned prestige literary adaptation with emotional generosity to spare. It stands out for its strongest gallery of female characters in any Spielberg work. [Read the review](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/recommendations/10217101/Tim-Robey-recommends...-The-Color-Purple-1985.html) ## Time Out — SJo Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 10 January 2012. Spielberg's adaptation of Alice Walker's novel could be seen as a glossy, Oscar-baiting effort that softens the book's radical elements and employs flashy, emotional style, but it succeeds as a powerful, honourable attempt to bring an unusual story to mainstream audiences, thanks especially to a superb cast led by Whoopi Goldberg. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-color-purple) ## The New York Times — Janet Maslin Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 18 December 1985. Spielberg has fashioned a grand, multi-hanky entertainment that is as pretty and lavish as the book is plain, combining rapturous and stirring parts with hugely improbable ones. The film lacks the realism and grit of the novel but manages momentum, warmth and staying power through its upbeat, affirmative fable style. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/18/movies/moviesspecial/the-color-purple.html) ## Variety — James Greenberg Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 18 December 1985. There are some great scenes and great performances but it is not a great film, marred by overblown production that threatens to drown in its own emotions. The characters from the novel remain vivid enough to carry the film despite the script's clutter and the director's smoothing out of rough edges into a fairy-tale fantasy. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1985/film/reviews/the-color-purple-1200426436/) ## Empire — Andrew Collins Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic views the film as a beautifully shot but overlong piece of schmaltz that tones down explicit elements from the source novel, such as the lesbian relationship, while enraging some groups with its portrayal of black characters; it features strong performances but lacks impact overall. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/empire-essay-color-purple-review/) ## Slant Magazine — Chris Cabin Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 4 February 2011. The critic finds the adaptation frustrating and disappointing for embellishing the novel with stereotypes, generalities, and condescending attitudes while adding an overblown score and sentimentality that undermines its complexities. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-color-purple/) ## The Independent — Quentin Curtis Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 22 May 1993. Spielberg’s adaptation is seen as too earnest and too soft, losing the gutsy narrator and toning down the book’s lesbianism and feminism; the soupy score and lack of dramatic pulse are criticised, though Oprah Winfrey’s performance stands out. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-raider-of-the-lost-heart-at-his-best-spielberg-can-sweeten-a-disturbed-child-s-view-into-an-uplifting-epic-quentin-curtis-assesses-the-output-of-the-director-who-never-grew-up-2324666.html) ## The Playlist — The Playlist Staff Rating C-. 23 December 2011. The critic finds Spielberg’s first serious film overly sentimental and saccharine, with most characters reduced to one-note caricatures except for Whoopi Goldberg’s revelatory turn as Celie. It tests patience with an overwrought tone, bloated runtime, and an Africa-set second act that strains for historical importance, feeling like affected Oscar-bait. [Read the review](https://theplaylist.net/the-films-of-steven-spielberg-part-two-the-serious-fare-20111223/) ## /Film — Lee Adams Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 17 June 2025. The critic calls it a handsomely made but very flawed prestige picture hampered by Spielberg’s sentimentality and twee approach, which offsets the dark themes of abuse and racism with broad comedy and cloying elements. Strong performances from Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Margaret Avery carry the story despite the flaws. [Read the review](https://www.slashfilm.com/1878945/steven-spielberg-drama-the-color-purple-banned-book/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-color-purple.md