Commentary: For all of its joy, ‘The Color Purple’ is also a chance to talk about Black women and intimate partner violence
by Marissa Evans, Los Angeles Times
Dec 27, 2023
4 minutes
LOS ANGELES — While seeing “The Color Purple” earlier this month, I noticed the audience members gasped at the thwack sound when young Celie is first struck across the face after getting married and coming into Albert “Mister” Johnson’s home.
It was a momentary gasp, but still was one of the early moments that showed what Celie would endure for decades to come. But years after Alice Walker’s book was published in 1982, the first film came out in 1985, and the theater productions, hearing those gasps — even though many of us knew what was coming — showed how unbelievable it can still feel to see those flashes of violence right
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