The Color Purple (12A)

★★★✭ Blending elements of the popular 2005 Broadway musical with Steven Spielberg's 1985 powerful adaptation of Alice Walker's classic 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, this bold new screen-musical delivers everything you would hope for from a production dream team of Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Quincy Jones and Scott Sanders. ~ ManchesterTheatres.com.

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A musical adaptation of Alice Walker's novel about the life-long struggles of an African American woman living in the South during the early 1900s.

Directed by Blitz Bazawule ("Black Is King," "The Burial of Kojo"), this bold new take on the beloved classic about the extraordinary sisterhood of three women who share one unbreakable bond, is based on the musical stage play, book (of the musical stage play) by Marsha Norman, itself based on the novel by Alice Walker.

Music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.

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★★★★ Remakes are often inferior to the originals, with authors frequently and incorrectly seeming to feel that CGI, modernization, or popular actors are sufficient to tell a new story. This film is an exception. ~ AllMovie.

★★★★ A new musical film version of Alice Walker's classic 1982 novel is a big brash spectacle that leans into the hope and triumph of its heroine. ~ BBC.

★★★★ A sanitised version of Spielberg’s film, let alone Walker’s novel. But bravura musical sequences and a top-notch cast ensure smiles and tears come the end credits. ~ Empire.