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Critical Comparison of 'The Color Purple' Novel into film.
The Color Purple is a novel which deals with many black moral issues such as the treatment of black women within the black family, the differences between whites and blacks and the position of black women in society. These issues have all been dealt with by a black female, Alice Walker, about the black experiences and culture. It has been felt that the transition into film has taken away the true intentions of the novel, and therefore the meaning changed, due to a different reading and perspective taken by an 'outsider', a white male, Steven Spielberg. 'Everyone reads a novel differently and depending on whether you are a feminist, African American, Civil rights activist, a folklorist or a religious believer might read with different attentions to the novel.'
Therefore the style of adaptation which Spielberg has taken is one without direct transposition, but comes in Wagner's' category of 'commentary'. This is 'Where an original is taken and either purposefully or inadvertently altered in some respect … when there has been a different intention on part of the film maker, rather than infidelity or outright violation.' This means that there is a critical engagement with the original novel; however there are some major differences.
I am concentrating on the final letter in the novel and seeing how Spielberg has chosen to adapt it.
One of the major differences Spielberg has made to the ending of the film is by portraying Mr.- as a hero. At the end of the novel Mr.- and Celie become friends and the search for Nettie involves Celie, Mr.- and Shug and Mr.- was actually there at Nettie's return. However in the end of the film you see Mr.- go the 'State Department of Immigration and Naturalization' and then looking onto the scene when Nettie returns. The viewer never truly knows if it is Mr.- who alone brought around Nettie's return, as there is no dialogue involving Mr.-, however by what the camera concentrates on and the use of editing, the viewer is directed through a set of events which leads to this decision of Mr.- being seen as the hero, reuniting the family he broke up. However gaps are prominent and there is possibility for a completely different reading.
Mr.- throughout the novel and film has been portrayed as the 'baddie' and although in the novel he is redeemed by Celie, it's a gradual process. 'Now us sit sewing and talking and smoking our pipes.' However in the film it all appears at the end and his way of apologising to Celie is by finding Nettie. Celie however doesn't know that it is him and only Shug realises that Mr.- is responsible. This however is another gap, as there is no dialogue between them, the camera just moves back and forth between each of their faces suggesting a silent conversation, where the viewer uses their facial movements to determine the outcome to be one of acknowledgement, understanding and forgiveness.
This major change in the ending, where Mr.- is made to appear a hero by initiating Netties return could be seen as one of Barthes Cardinal Functions, which are risky moments or alternatives within the narrative. 'When a major cardinal function is deleted or altered in the film version (e.g. to provide a happy rather than sombre ending), this is apt to critical outrage and popular disaffection. The film maker bent on faithful adaptation must, as a basis for such enterprise, seek to preserve the major cardinal functions'. Because Spielberg changed this moment in the film, it changes the whole outcome of the ending. This is one moment where I feel Spielberg should have kept to the original novel but he appeared to want a hero a saviour of the day, possibly to attract a wider audience and to make a much happier ending. This also emphasises Mr's.- change from 'baddie' to 'goodie' which isn't otherwise seen.
Spielberg uses conventions from the Western genre, possibly to appeal to a more diverse audience. This is seen with Mr.- as the big hero, and the way he watches the reunion scene by his white horse, which could possibly symbolise surrender, and emphasise his transformation, from bad to good. As well as him walking off into the sunset, in the foreground of Celie and Netties reunion. The diagetic sounds of birdsong and the wind, emphasises more western conventions along with the non diagetic playing of the harmonica.
'Walker's utopian ending was adapted by Steven Spielberg in 185 in a way which allows Mister to become the saviour of the film he alone arranges for Celie's family reunion which he witnesses in the style of a Hollywood western. On the edge of the family gathering, he slowly turns away and, with his horse, heroically walks into the sunset.'
Spielberg, in the film has added a scene just before this final one, where Shug is redeemed by her father in his church. This in some way mirrors the exchange made between Celie and Mr.- in the novel, where she forgives him for the wrongs he has done in the past. The same music is carried over from the scene with Shug and her fathers reconciliation to when Mr.- is at the state office, again possibly emphasising the fact that this is Mr's.- apology to Celie. However some may question why Spielberg decided to add a scene concentrating on Shug and her father rather than concentrating on the redemption between Celie and Mr.-, who are the characters who have been at the forefront of the novel. I and many others believe that this could have been done in order to again romanticise the ending and make it more appealing for 'Hollywood' at the time of production. It could appear that he is more intent on reaching a mass generalised audience than staying true to the end of the novel.
'His sensibility informs almost every frame, turning an intimate tale into a large-scale, overblown Disneyesque Victorian melodrama, full of big moments and simplified characters (who can neatly be defined in terms of good or bad).'
Spielberg was well known as a director when he took on the Color Purple. He was known for directing big action packed, Hollywood block busters and therefore wanted this film to appeal to the audiences he had already attracted. Because Spielberg was a such well known director, it is hard to believe that there was such a lack of continuity in the film, this is seen with Tashi and Adams scars not being visible even though the audience were previously told in the film they had been done and the fact that Adam and Olivia don't speak English even though they were brought up by Americans.
The major changes may also be necessary due to the film being made in a different time period to when the novel was based. Although the novel was only published three years prior to the film, the actual events happened a long time before, so he was directing for a different audience, who possibly held a different set of ideological values to those that the novel was originally intended. He could be seen as trying to give the novels subject matter a wider reach so it appealed to the wider audience he required. As Christopher Orr remarks 'Within this critical context (i.e. of intertextuality), the issue is not whether the adapted film is faithful to its source, but rather how the choice of a specific source and how that approach to that source serves the films ideology.'
The film also cuts out the final scene in the novel where the whole family are celebrating 4th July. Spielberg just ended on a note of reunion between the sisters, playing in the purple field which mirrors the beginning of the film. The music helps the audience realise its Nettie who has returned before Celie calls out her name, as the music is the same as the beginning of the film. The music helps the viewer link previous events as well as evoking emotion and feeling. Music is one of Metz five signifiers, which he uses to try and analyse film. However the whole 4th July scene is where all Celie's friends are there, and is there to show the unity between the black men and women, which was one of the main themes concentrated on throughout the novel.
'The novel was a fable ending on a note of reunion, not only between the sisters but symbolically also between black men and black women. I the film Mr.- undergoes a transformation. But one hardly understands it; one is merely puzzled by it.' The unity between black men and women is shown in the film in the end scene where the camera focuses on Harpo holding a tray of drinks, something you would never have seen previously. The transformation does puzzle the viewer as it goes unnoticed by all except Shug, and that is one aspect which should have been shown in the film, the reunion between Celie and Mr.-.
Overall Spielberg has adapted the ending of the film in various ways to make it more appealing to a 'Hollywood' audience. Many feel he has taken away the true meaning of the novel by his use of flashy editing, dramatic close ups and inflated musical sequences. However, I believe that Spielberg has got across the main theme of the novel, the treatment of women amongst the black family, but has taken away the positive side, the unity which comes out of it between the black men and women, by characterising Mr.- as a hero. These are the main changes he has made to make this novel suitable for a different, wider audience and for the time it was made.
Word Count = 161
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