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Author	Topic: The Color Purple

lind Oscar® Nominee	Hey there! Can anyone tell me why John Williams didn't score The Color Purple? It is the only film of Spielberg that he didn't score, why?
posted 07-26-2000 04:01 PM PT (US)

Mark Olivarez Oscar® Winner	Quincy Jones was the producer of the film and had assigned himself as composer before Speilberg joined the film. Am I right?
posted 07-26-2000 07:27 PM PT (US)

Scott Oscar® Winner	Funny, I was just thinking about this. The Color Purple was a piece of sad history as far as movies is concerned. So many desicions in that movie were based on PC, race and politics. It's just a darn shame. Scott
posted 07-26-2000 07:35 PM PT (US)

Chris Kinsinger Oscar® Winner	The "Race Card" entered into this decision as I recall. There was a lot of negative press hoo-hah about a whitey like Steven Spielberg directing Alice Walker's novel, but then on the other hand nobody wanted the most successful and influential film director of all time to walk away from it either... It's the same sort of crap that surrounded Martin Ritt's Sounder back in 1972. Many African-Americans don't want any Caucasians (or Jews) working on cinematic representations of Black History. And let's face it, John Williams ain't got dat RHYTHM, man! Let's just say that there was pressure applied to put as many people of color behind the cameras as there were in front.
posted 07-26-2000 07:46 PM PT (US)

H Rocco Oscar® Winner	Quincy Jones was trying to establish himself as a film producer. He bought the rights to the novel and went straight to Spielberg, the one director he could think of who might be able to "universalize" this rather eccentric novel. He managed: the picture was a hit. Jones probably insisted on doing the score from the get-go, although he shared his Oscar nomination with a whole pile of orchestrators that possibly had more to do with the score than he did (the absurd number of orchestrators -- eleven! -- covered a wide range, from Fred Steiner to Jack Hayes to Chris Boardman.) In any event, it was widely observed that Jones' COLOR PURPLE theme was an obvious paraphrase of Georges Delerue's OUR MOTHER'S HOUSE -- the temp-track, yes. Jones and Spielberg remain friendly, so I can only imagine that the collaboration was considered to have gone well on both sides. I do not remember it as one of Spielberg's better efforts, though -- a clear and early bid for Oscar on his part, and far less worthy of the award than several of the "less serious" pictures he'd already made. I've always found something terribly dishonest about the movie, although the preposterously overrated source material -- the novel by the pretentious Alice Walker -- is no help at all. And then again, there ARE some amazing scenes -- badly betrayed by others so poorly thought out, one can only think Spielberg was trying to make what he hoped people would think was a "serious" movie. EMPIRE OF THE SUN is like this too, but finds Spielberg somewhat more in his preferred element (WW2). I'd never say an artist shouldn't TRY something, but I always felt Spielberg made THE COLOR PURPLE for all the wrong reasons, and it really shows.
posted 07-26-2000 07:57 PM PT (US)

Scott Oscar® Winner	Chris, well spoken. Your assesment is right on the money. I am reminded how many people demonstrated against the movie and the fact that Spielberg was its director and that the movie portrait African Americans in a bad light. Suddenly the movie was nominated for a whole bunch of Oscars. Suddenly, it was a good movie. Then it didn't win any. Suddenly people were demonstrating again, calling the non-win racist although some of the same people priviously called the whole movie racist. Amazing. Simply amazing. So, John Williams lost a gig here because of his race. That is the bottom line. Oh well, that's Hollywood and PC for ya. Scott
posted 07-26-2000 08:48 PM PT (US)

H Rocco Oscar® Winner	It got nine or ten Oscar nominations, I believe -- but NOT one for Best Director. The Directors Guild nominated him, however, and voted him the award, presumably as a rebuke to the Academy. After the film failed to win a single Oscar, the same activists protesting a white director making the film then turned around and complained about how none of the nominees got anything. Same old same old.
posted 07-26-2000 08:56 PM PT (US)

joan hue Oscar® Winner	Political correctness or not, I very much liked this movie. Whoopee can be a serious dramatic actress when she wants to be. I just wish she’d choose better scripts. Parts of the script and a few arenas are flawed, but these are counter balanced by amazing scenes. I knew this was a Spielberg movie when I watched the scene where Glover, while on horseback, tries to separate the sister from Goldberg during their walk. This is a scene that perfectly captures the helplessness and fear almost any female feels at some point in her life. I immensely admire Spielberg for tackling, even though awkwardly at times, issues demonstrated in Amistad, The Color Purple, Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler’s List. And I adore the fact that he still migrates back to the KID in all of us who wants a rousing, pure entertainment flick now and then like Jaws, ET, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, etc. He has made a few average movies which seem to pulsate and resonant loudly because of comparisons made to his great movies; however, when he does topple, he still falls with some grace in any movie he has directed. I very much like the music in The Color Purple, but I did not realized that it was a rip off of Delerue. How sad. NP Toy Story II [This message has been edited by joan hue (edited 26 July 2000).]
posted 07-26-2000 11:21 PM PT (US)

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