The Night 'The Color Purple' Lost

March 30, 1986

BY ROGER EBERT

"The Color Purple" was nominated in 11 Oscar categories in 1986, and lost in all of them. The next day, Roger Ebert wrote this reaction.

LOS ANGELES--They caught up with Quincy Jones just as he was entering Swifty Lazar's big post-Oscar bash at Spago, the chic pizza joint up above the Sunset Strip. They asked him why he thought "The Color Purple" had been so completely shut out at this year's Academy Awards, why it didn't even get one single lousy Oscar for anything, not even in one of those obscure technical categories. And Jones, who composed the music for the movie and was its co-producer, said:

"That's the way it is."

He paused. "And." He paused again, then said, "And that the way it is. Someday we're going to have to change that." Then he went inside, where Swifty and several hundred pals were attending Hollywood's version of prom night.

That's the way it is.

A flat statement, concealing a multitude of possibilities. I cannot read Quincy Jones's mind, and so cannot tell you for sure what he meant. But I imagine he was making a quiet, almost dispassionate statement about a black film in a white society.

Nobody would say, or probably even believe, that the academy voters were being racist in their across-the-board rejection of "The Color Purple." After all, these were the same voters who gave the movie 11 nominations. A movie has to stand or fall on its perceived merits, and not on the race of its cast or the subject of its screenplay. Perhaps, all the same, there was a small irony in the fact that the academy passed over a movie about blacks in a white land to give seven Oscars to "Out of Africa," a film about whites in a black land.

Perhaps there was another irony in the fact that many influential black writers and leaders denounced "The Color Purple" for what they saw as a negative portrayal of black men, but none of them denounced "Out of Africa," with its vague portraits of tribal blacks who were trotted on screen for a touch of authenticity.

In a Hollywood world where blacks are hardly ever made the center of major films, why attack the film that tried to say something that gave attention and love to its unforgettable characters? Was it a certain provincialism on the part of those black critics, who saw the movie in terms of how it would present blacks to white audiences, instead of seeing it as a movie about certain black characters, some of them good people, some of them bad?

This much seems true: The controversy over "The Color Purple," which extended even to pickets outside Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Oscar night, did nothing to help the film. The typical academy voter is hard to characterize, but there are two generalizations we can make. He (or she) is not young, and not black.

This typical voter possibly enjoyed "Out of Africa" because it was a reminder of an earlier, simpler time in Hollywood, when stately epics were cast with major stars and cloaked in literacy respectability. Here was a film directed by Sydney Pollack, Hollywoods' idea of a true professional (and mine, too - I am not attacking "Out of Africa," only wondering why "The Color Purple" was snubbed). The film starred Meryl Streep, the reigning queen of great Hollywood actresses (she deserves to be), and Robert Redford, a modern leading man of mythic proportions, and Klaus Maria Brandauer, the sort of distinguished European actor Hollywood has always liked to import for a new face in a tricky role.

And then, over here, was a film starring names that most of the academy voters had never heard before: Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Avery and Danny Glover. It was directed, however, by a name they could quickly recognize, Steven Spielberg. And as we consider Spielberg more carefully, perhaps we can begin to understand some of the subtle reasons the academy turned away from "The Color Purple."

There has never been a Hollywood director more successful than Steven Spielberg. Not Cecil B. DeMille, not John Ford, not Frank Capra or Alfred Hitchcock or George Lucas or Francis Ford Coppola or any combination of two of those names. Steven Spielberg is the man, more than any other, who in the last decade has understood the sort of films that most people want to see, and has them, and made them well. His credits include "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," and "E.T.," which was the largest-grossing film in history. As a producer, he has made "Gremlins," "Poltergeist," "Back to the Future," and many other films, virtually every one of them successful. If a major Hollywood studio executive were to simply sign Spielberg to an exclusive contract, he would have done such a good things for his shareholders that he could then justifiably retire on full salary.

Hollywood admires success, and it admires Spielberg's success. He is not only a great professional, but a nice man, who is not known for tantrums or egotism or controversy. After the academy voters failed to nominate him as one of the year's best directors, he steadfastly refused to be publicly angry, insisting "I am not a belly-acher," and turning up at the Oscar cast just like all the other guests.

And yet, understand this. Spielberg achieves, over and over again, what so many people in the movie industry desperately wish they could do only once. Or half of once. He has good taste, technical mastery, artistic flair and popular charm. People kill themselves out here - literally work and worry and negotiate themselves to death - trying to turn worthless little pieces of crap into movies. Because you cannot be stupid and get far in Hollywood, the people who make bad movies are usually smart enough to know they are bad. Hollywood is such a competitive town that you need to be smart, gifted and luck to claw yourself up to the point where you can make bad movies. There is a lot of self-hatred involved.

Now here comes this kid who makes it look so easy. Who can't seem to fail. Who makes a movie like "E.T." that not only grosses hundreds of millions of dollars but is just as popular all over the world as here at home, and is even acclaimed as a masterpiece of popular art. There is something unfair about it. Nobody should get all the breaks.

In Hollywood, "The Color Purple" was widely seen, rightly or wrongly as Spielberg's bid for a different kind of acclaim. He deliberately set out (you can hear people say) to buy an important novel such as "The Color Purple" and make it into an important film, and show that he had political and social convictions to go along with his storytelling skills.

Hollywood gets perverse about situations like that. It understands very well why a man might spend a year making a movie that a 13-year-old would disdain as trash. But if a man blessed with great success tries to do something really wonderful, there is a tendency to slap him down. It is just too much of an affront to all the compromises and little ethical deaths that happen every day all over town.

Someday, Steven Spielberg will win his Oscar. This year he was rebuked and snubbed, and so Hollywood will provide the happy ending and give him an Oscar two or three years from now, and people will explain that it is "really" for "The Color Purple." That's the way the Oscar game has always been played.

But what about the people who made "The Color Purple?" What about Quincy Jones, quietly saying, "That's the way it is? Someday he will win an Oscar, too, and someday maybe Whoopi and all the others will win Oscars - you never know. But the moment has passed for "The Color Purple" and will never come again.

I don't think Jones meant, by his comment, that the movie lost for racist reasons, or that those who voted against it didn't like the black faces on the screen, the black voices on the soundtrack or the black story that was told. Here's what I think he meant: That in a society run by whites, and with white values and assumptions so deeply entrenched that sometimes they are invisible and unconscious - especially to those who hold them - "The Color Purple" got passed over for all the same old reasons of politics and jealousy and shabbiness and business as usual.

Spielberg made the first major movie in years that was entirely devoted to an aspect of the black experience in America, and the Hollywood establishment ignored the movie for reasons that had little or nothing to do with the movie itself! It's not even that the voters didn't like it. They probably did like it. But in the politics of Oscar (can't you hear them saying), "This just wasn't Steven's year." The black protests against the film did not cause it to lose, but they helped, by creating a climate in which the voters felt no obligation to honor the film.

Spielberg will get his Oscar.

Life will go on.

It will be a long time before another major, serious movie by an important director is made about black people.

That's the way it is.



girlbrosradioedit!!
[This message was edited Thu Apr 1 21:35:24 2004 by sosgemini]

I never saw that movie.

sosgemini said:

That's the way it ISN'T, is more like it.

Was this a Prince film?

bkw said:

And you get more posts per day than me.

ShutItYou said:

I have a certain "trusted" friend who can answer that for you.

bkw said:

Ooops! That reminds me! I never did that thing...

ShutItYou said:

idiot
[This message was edited Thu Apr 1 22:07:24 2004 by bkw]

you know, I saw The Color Purple for the first time when I was about 15, and I was blown away. it's one of the ones, at that age, that turned me on to a love of great film.


that said, i watched it again at 25, and was shocked at how average it was. it just didn't do it for me anymore. i still enjoyed it, but the flaws outweighed the brilliance. maybe it was just that viewing. maybe i wasn't in the right state of mind to watch it. but it has since slid pretty far down my list of favorite movies.

It's a sad state of affairs when Hollywood can't let a movie stand on its merits and acts on its personal vendettas.

I loves Harpo, Lord knows I do. But I'll kill him dead 'fo I let him beat me.


This movie is a classic.

It would be interesting to compare this movie with
the actual winners of those categories that night.
You know, hindsight n all...
Then, you might have an arguement.

GREAT movie, btw.

togdog said:

I agree and disagree with what you said...I watched The Color Purple a year or so ago and I was shocked at how cartoonish it was. The timing and direction is so manipulative, there might as well be someone standing on the set with cue cards for the audience..."CRY!!!"..."GET MAD!!!"...it had all the subtlety of a Road Runner cartoon.

Still, it's a fantastic story and one of the most quotable movies of the '80s. I guess that says more about Alice Walker than it does about Stephen Spielberg, though it would be unfair if I didn't also say that the performances have held up beautifully over the years.

I think it's a classic, no doubt about it. But I also think Walker's story was strong enough without Spielberg getting all leadfoot on the directing.

2the9s said:

me. neither. i've read the book and it's one of my all time favorites. everybody should read it at least once.

Academy Awards, USA: 1986
Oscar
Date: 24 March
Host: Alan Alda; Jane Fonda; Robin Williams (I)
Location: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, L.A. County Music Center, Los Angeles, California, USA

Best Picture

Winner:
Out of Africa (1985) - Sydney Pollack

Other Nominees:
Color Purple, The (1985) - Steven Spielberg; Kathleen Kennedy (I); Frank Marshall (I); Quincy Jones
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) - David Weisman (I)
Prizzi's Honor (1985) - John Foreman
Witness (1985) - Edward S. Feldman


Best Actress in a Leading Role

Winner:
Trip to Bountiful, The (1985) - Geraldine Page

Other Nominees:
Agnes of God (1985) - Anne Bancroft (I)
Color Purple, The (1985) - Whoopi Goldberg
Out of Africa (1985) - Meryl Streep
Sweet Dreams (1985) - Jessica Lange


Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Winner:
Prizzi's Honor (1985) - Anjelica Huston

Other Nominees:
Agnes of God (1985) - Meg Tilly
Color Purple, The (1985) - Margaret Avery (I)
Color Purple, The (1985) - Oprah Winfrey
Twice in a Lifetime (1985) - Amy Madigan


Best Director

Winner:
Out of Africa (1985) - Sydney Pollack

Other Nominees:
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) - Hector Babenco
Prizzi's Honor (1985) - John Huston (I)
Ran (1985) - Akira Kurosawa
Witness (1985) - Peter Weir


Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Winner:
Out of Africa (1985) - Kurt Luedtke

Other Nominees:
Color Purple, The (1985) - Menno Meyjes
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) - Leonard Schrader
Prizzi's Honor (1985) - Richard Condon (I); Janet Roach
Trip to Bountiful, The (1985) - Horton Foote

JasmineFire said:

agreed...

the book is amazing.

JasmineFire said:

I think I've read that book three times since I got it as an Easter gift when I was a kid (my mom thought a purple book would be pretty in my Easter basket I guess ), and it's one of maybe two or three books that I can say I feel like I know really well.

Anxiety said:

i know See Spot Run well...

Can someone tell me what the big deal is about Prizzi's Honor? I think that's about the only movie and can truly and really say about i did not 'get it'. For me it was a horrible piece of garbage with the worst performances like, ever. That alone is an indication something got lost on me, but i have no idea what or where. Anybody?

Another film that was nominated for 11 Oscars and lost all was Turning Point (1977) a film about the Ballet World with Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLain ....And with Mikhail Baryshnikov ...yes its the same Mikhail who plays Aleksandr Petrovsky in Sex and The City who was also nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Actor in a Supporting Role .....Anyway that same year Annie Hall won for best film....others include:




Academy Awards, USA: 1978Date: 3 April
Host: Bob Hope
Location: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, L.A. County Music Center, Los Angeles, California, USA

Best Picture

Winner:
Annie Hall (1977) - Charles H. Joffe

Other Nominees:
Goodbye Girl, The (1977) - Ray Stark
Julia (1977) - Richard A. Roth (III)
Star Wars (1977) - Gary Kurtz
Turning Point, The (1977) - Herbert Ross (I); Arthur Laurents


Best Actor in a Leading Role

Winner:
Goodbye Girl, The (1977) - Richard Dreyfuss

Other Nominees:
Annie Hall (1977) - Woody Allen
Equus (1977) - Richard Burton (I)
Giornata particolare, Una (1977) - Marcello Mastroianni
Saturday Night Fever (1977) - John Travolta


Best Actress in a Leading Role

Winner:
Annie Hall (1977) - Diane Keaton

Other Nominees:
Goodbye Girl, The (1977) - Marsha Mason
Julia (1977) - Jane Fonda
Turning Point, The (1977) - Anne Bancroft (I)
Turning Point, The (1977) - Shirley MacLaine


Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Winner:
Julia (1977) - Jason Robards

Other Nominees:
Equus (1977) - Peter Firth
Julia (1977) - Maximilian Schell
Star Wars (1977) - Alec Guinness
Turning Point, The (1977) - Mikhail Baryshnikov


Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Winner:
Julia (1977) - Vanessa Redgrave

Other Nominees:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Melinda Dillon
Goodbye Girl, The (1977) - Quinn Cummings
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) - Tuesday Weld
Turning Point, The (1977) - Leslie Browne (I)


Best Director

Winner:
Annie Hall (1977) - Woody Allen
- Woody Allen was not present at the awards ceremony. Co-presenter King Vidor accepted the award on his behalf.

Other Nominees:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Steven Spielberg
Julia (1977) - Fred Zinnemann
Star Wars (1977) - George Lucas
Turning Point, The (1977) - Herbert Ross (I)


Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Winner:
Annie Hall (1977) - Woody Allen; Marshall Brickman
- Woody Allen was not present at the awards ceremony.

Other Nominees:
Goodbye Girl, The (1977) - Neil Simon
Late Show, The (1977) - Robert Benton (I)
Star Wars (1977) - George Lucas
Turning Point, The (1977) - Arthur Laurents


Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium

Winner:
Julia (1977) - Alvin Sargent

Other Nominees:
Cet obscur objet du désir (1977) - Luis Buñuel; Jean-Claude Carrière
Equus (1977) - Peter Shaffer
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977) - Gavin Lambert; Lewis John Carlino
Oh, God! (1977) - Larry Gelbart


Best Cinematography

Winner:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Vilmos Zsigmond

Other Nominees:
Islands in the Stream (1977) - Fred J. Koenekamp
Julia (1977) - Douglas Slocombe
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) - William A. Fraker
Turning Point, The (1977) - Robert Surtees


Best Art Direction-Set Decoration

Winner:
Star Wars (1977) - John Barry (III); Norman Reynolds; Leslie Dilley; Roger Christian (I)

Other Nominees:
Airport '77 (1977) - George C. Webb; Mickey S. Michaels
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Joe Alves; Daniel A. Lomino; Phil Abramson
Spy Who Loved Me, The (1977) - Ken Adam; Peter Lamont; Hugh Scaife
Turning Point, The (1977) - Albert Brenner; Marvin March


Best Costume Design

Winner:
Star Wars (1977) - John Mollo

Other Nominees:
Airport '77 (1977) - Edith Head; Burton Miller
Julia (1977) - Anthea Sylbert
Little Night Music, A (1977) - Florence Klotz
Other Side of Midnight, The (1977) - Irene Sharaff


Best Sound

Winner:
Star Wars (1977) - Don MacDougall; Ray West (I); Bob Minkler; Derek Ball (I)
- Derek Ball was not present at the awards ceremony.

Other Nominees:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Robert Knudson; Robert J. Glass; Don MacDougall; Gene S. Cantamessa
Deep, The (1977) - Walter Goss; Rick Alexander (II) (as Dick Alexander); Tom Beckert; Robin Gregory
Sorcerer (1977) - Robert Knudson; Robert J. Glass; Richard Tyler (I); Jean-Louis Ducarme
Turning Point, The (1977) - Theodore Soderberg; Paul Wells; Douglas O. Williams; Jerry Jost


Best Film Editing

Winner:
Star Wars (1977) - Paul Hirsch (I); Marcia Lucas; Richard Chew

Other Nominees:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Michael Kahn (I)
Julia (1977) - Walter Murch; Marcel Durham
Smokey and the Bandit (1977) - Walter Hannemann; Angelo Ross
Turning Point, The (1977) - William Reynolds (II)


Best Effects, Visual Effects

Winner:
Star Wars (1977) - John Stears; John Dykstra (I); Richard Edlund; Grant McCune; Robert Blalack

Other Nominees:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Roy Arbogast; Douglas Trumbull; Matthew Yuricich; Gregory Jein; Richard Yuricich


Best Music, Original Song

Winner:
You Light Up My Life (1977) - Joseph Brooks
- For the song "You Light Up My Life".

Other Nominees:
Pete's Dragon (1977) - Al Kasha; Joel Hirschhorn
- For the song "Candle on the Water".
Rescuers, The (1977) - Sammy Fain (music); Carol Connors (I) (lyrics); Ayn Robbins (lyrics)
- For the song "Someone's Waiting For You".
Slipper and the Rose, The (1976) - Richard M. Sherman; Robert B. Sherman
- For the song "The Slipper and the Rose Waltz (He Danced with Me/She Danced with Me)".
Spy Who Loved Me, The (1977) - Marvin Hamlisch (music); Carole Bayer Sager (lyrics)
- For the song "Nobody Does It Better".


Best Music, Original Score

Winner:
Star Wars (1977) - John Williams (I)

Other Nominees:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - John Williams (I)
Julia (1977) - Georges Delerue
Message, The (1976) - Maurice Jarre (I)
Spy Who Loved Me, The (1977) - Marvin Hamlisch


Best Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score

Winner:
Little Night Music, A (1977) - Jonathan Tunick

Other Nominees:
Pete's Dragon (1977) - Al Kasha; Joel Hirschhorn; Irwin Kostal
Slipper and the Rose, The (1976) - Richard M. Sherman; Robert B. Sherman; Angela Morley



Best Foreign Language Film

Winner:
Vie devant soi, La (1977)
- France

Other Nominees:
Cet obscur objet du désir (1977)
- Spain
Giornata particolare, Una (1977)
- Italy
Iphigenia (1977)
- Greece
Mivtsa Yonatan (1977)
- Israel

Another movie i can mention with a lot of Oscar Nominations and did not receive even one :
Gangs Of New York (2002) nominated for 10 .....

Other major LOSERS :

Nominees with 12 Nominations :
Johnny Belinda (1948) only won 1 Oscar
Becket (1964) only won 1 Oscar
Reds (1981)only won 3 Oscars

Nominees with 11 Nominations :
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) only won 1 Oscar
Rebecca (1940) only won 2 Oscars
Sergeant York (1941) only won 2 Oscars
The Pride Of The Yankees (1942) only won 1 Oscar
Sunset Boulevard (1950) only won 3 Oscars
Judgement At Nuremberg (1961) only won 2 Oscars
Chinatown (1974) only won 1 Oscar
A Passage To India (1984) only won 2 Oscars

PusherMan said:

can you include "red" on this list? didnt it went best director or something like that? thats a pretty big award....

SpcMs said:

two words: JOHN HUSTON

sosgemini said:

Best Director -Warren Beatty
Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Maureen Stapleton
Best Cinematography -Vittorio Storaro

....Ans still it was nominated for 12 Oscars and wins only 3 !!!!!

The Color Purple STILL chokes me up to this day - great film

2the9s said:

You're not missing anything.