History YMMV / TheColorPurple

%%* IronWoobie: Sofia's the meta example.

* AwardSnub: The film version was nominated for eleven [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Awards]], but won none of them. Even worse, Creator/StevenSpielberg didn't get nominated for Best Director. There was a lot of speculation that it was a deliberate snub out of pure spite, after he showed he could make an OscarBait movie and still make just as much money as his previous work. [[note]]Industry insiders have also pointed out that as one of the director’s most important jobs is getting the right performances out of the actors, a movie with three acting nominations should have meant an automatic directing nomination as well.[[/note]] Regardless, it's tied with ''Film/TheTurningPoint1977'' for most Academy Award nominations without a win. The consensus view these days is that ''The Color Purple'' has aged a lot better than the big victor ''Film/OutOfAfrica''. Whoopi Goldberg is still convinced that the boycotts by the NAACP for the depiction of rape and Black men as abusive scared Academy voters into the snub in the hopes of avoiding controversy. She herself was competing with Geraldine Page, who'd been nominated eight times without a win, and her collecting the trophy for ''The Trip to Bountiful'' was seen as a ConsolationAward.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** "The Dirty Dozen"
** "Miss Celie's [[SomethingBlues Blues]]"
** "[[EpicRocking God Is Trying To Tell You Something]]"; truly a GospelRevivalNumber
*** Shug busting in the church singing as loud as she can, makes you [[TearsOfJoy tear up something fierce]].

* HollywoodHomely: Celie is supposed to be ugly, and, while maybe not as conventionally attractive as most examples, is played by Creator/WhoopiGoldberg. This may be a case of ValuesDissonance, since in the 1930s (and, still currently in some forms) darker skinned girls with 4c textured hair were seen as unattractive.

* RetroactiveRecognition:
** Creator/LaurenceFishburne appears as extra in the film.
** Gayle King cameos as a background parishioner in the church scene. Gayle had met Creator/OprahWinfrey on the set and became friends.
* SugarWiki/SheReallyCanAct: Whoopi Goldberg was only known as a stand-up comedian at the time and, although she'd received rave reviews for her comedy, audiences were astonished at her powerful performance as Celie. Even to this day, viewers who know her better as a presenter are shocked to see her in this light.
* TearJerker: THE Eighties example. To the point where's become MemeticMutation how it's the one film that is 100% likely to make a black person cry. Parodied in shows like ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks''. In an interview with ''People'' magazine, Creator/JesseLMartin noted that his first date was to see this movie; he still isn't sure whether he was crying because of the movie, or the fact that he was stood up.
* TheWoobie: Celie goes through hell within the first half-hour of the film.

* AwardSnub: The film version was nominated for eleven [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Awards]], but won none of them. Even worse, Creator/StevenSpielberg didn't get nominated for Best Director. There was a lot of speculation that it was a deliberate snub out of pure spite, after he showed he could make an OscarBait movie and still make just as much money as his previous work. [[note]]Industry insiders have also pointed out that as one of the director’s most important jobs is getting the right performances out of the actors, a movie with three acting nominations should have meant an automatic directing nomination as well.[[/note]] Regardless, it's tied with ''Film/TheTurningPoint1977'' for most Academy Award nominations without a win. The consensus view these days is that ''The Color Purple'' has aged a lot better than the big victor ''Film/OutOfAfrica''. Whoopi Goldberg is still convinced that the boycotts by the NAACP for the depiction of rape and Black men as abusive scared Academy voters into the snub in the hopes of avoiding controversy. She herself was competing with Creator/GeraldinePage, who'd been nominated eight times without a win, and her collecting the trophy for ''The Trip to Bountiful'' was seen as a ConsolationAward.

* TearJerker: THE Eighties example. To the point where's become MemeticMutation how it's the one film that is 100% likely to make a black person cry. Parodied in shows like ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks''. In an interview with ''People'' magazine, [[Series/LawAndOrder Jesse L.]] [[Theatre/{{Rent}} Martin]] noted that his first date was to see this movie; he still isn't sure whether he was crying because of the movie, or the fact that he was stood up.

%%* DancingBear: The book at least is of arguable quality, but is used extensively for its subject and not its content.

* AwardSnub: The film version was nominated for eleven [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Awards]], but won none of them. Even worse, Creator/StevenSpielberg didn't get nominated for Best Director. There was a lot of speculation that it was a deliberate snub out of pure spite, after he showed he could make an OscarBait movie and still make just as much money as his previous work. [[note]]Industry insiders have also pointed out that as one of the director’s most important jobs is getting the right performances out of the actors, a movie with three acting nominations should have meant an automatic directing nomination as well.[[/note]] Regardless, it's tied with ''Film/TheTurningPoint1977'' for most Academy Award nominations without a win. To this day, Whoopi Goldberg is convinced that the boycotts by the NAACP for the depiction of rape and Black men as abusive scared Academy voters into the snub in the hopes of avoiding controversy. She herself was competing with Creator/GeraldinePage, who'd been nominated eight times without a win, and her collecting the trophy for ''The Trip to Bountiful'' was seen as a ConsolationAward.

* AwardSnub: The film version was nominated for eleven [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Awards]], but won none of them. Even worse, Creator/StevenSpielberg didn't get nominated for Best Director. There was a lot of speculation that it was a deliberate snub out of pure spite, after he showed he could make an OscarBait movie and still make just as much money as his previous work. [[note]]Industry insiders have also pointed out that as one of the director’s most important jobs is getting the right performances out of the actors, a movie with three acting nominations should have meant an automatic directing nomination as well.[[/note]] Regardless, it's tied with ''Film/TheTurningPoint1977'' for most Academy Award nominations without a win.

* CompleteMonster: Alphonso, better known as "Pa", is Celie's [[WickedStepfather stepfather]]. Having taken advantage of Celie's mother's mental deterioration to marry her and gain access to her mother, Alphonso savagely mistreats Celie, regularly [[AbusiveParents beating her for real or imagined reasons]]. Worse still, he also regularly [[VillainousIncest rapes her]], resulting in two pregnancies by the time she is 14, with him simply selling the children. Tiring of Celie, Alphonso sells her in marriage to a widowed man, even citing the damage he's done to her as a selling point, before continuing to mistreat others as he will, even a new teenage [[DomesticAbuse wife]] later.

** Creator/LaurenceFishburne and [[Series/OrangeIsTheNewBlack Danielle Brooks]] both appear as extras in the film.