A decades-spanning tale of love and resilience and of one woman's journey to independence. Celie faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds extraordinary strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.
The article focuses on Blitz Bazawule’s 2023 film adaptation of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and analyses how it reconfigures the novel’s original political message. The musical, heavily influenced by the novel’s previous adaptations, erases and introduces scenes that alter the womanist, queer, and anti-racist spirit of Walker’s text.
The 2023 reincarnation of The Color Purple is a remarkable departure from Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning novel and its polarizing 1985 adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg. Above, Sofia (Danielle Brooks) and Celie (Fantasia Barrino) in the new film. Eli Adé/Warner Bros. Pictures. A key to understanding what director Blitz Bazawule might have envisioned for his retelling of The Color Purple , an adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway production (itself an adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning novel), might lie in a brief moment during the pivotal dinner table scene.
