The Color Purple (1985) - 22 mistakes

Revealing: Oprah Winfrey's character is supposed to be knocked unconscious, but as she is lying on the ground, the wind blows her skirt up and she reaches down, pushing her dress back down.

Other: Mister cooks Shug Avery a breakfast of grits, biscuits and ham, and takes it to her room. She throws the breakfast against the wall. The breakfast leave a bright yellow and bright red stain on the wall. There was nothing on the tray that could have left those colors on the wall.

Plot hole: It doesn't make sense that Celie's children can't speak a word of English when they come back from Africa. They had been with Nettie all the time and with the missionaries for many years, and even if they had eventually resorted to speaking the local language exclusively there should be enough English left that they could greet their mother.

Continuity: When Celie is combing Shug Avery's hair while she is in the tub, you see Albert creeping up the stairs looking to see what is going on. In the background you hear his father shouting at the house, wondering if anyone is home. At the time Albert is at the top of the stairs he is wearing a reddish shirt. The next shot shows him walking out the door to meet his father, but now he is wearing a green shirt.

Continuity: Mister's tie changes from red to blue when he asks for Nettie, and back to red when he inspects Celie.

Factual error: When Celie is leaving Albert, she is riding in the back of the car with Shug. As the car drives away down the dirt driveway you can see the telephone pole and electricity wires at the end of the driveway. Not unusual now, but in rural Georgia in the 1930's, it would have been impossible.

Continuity: When the mayor slaps Sofia her two children change positions between shots. When she knocks him out the girl disappears.

Continuity: Before Squeak hits Sofia she hands a tray with a bottle to Harpo. He hardly catches the bottle before it falls down, but when the camera angle changes he is holding the bottle upright.

Revealing: Right after young Celie gives birth, take a look at the baby after it is handed to her. It is obviously a stiff doll.

Audio problem: In the scene where Albert tries to make a move on Nettie she tells him that she has to go to school. Her mouth isn't moving the whole time.

Continuity: When Celie is shaving Albert, the "patterns" of cream on his face change from shot to shot.

Continuity: The letters that spell "sky" on the piece of waxed paper change throughout the whole movie.

Continuity: In the scene where Shug and Celie start kissing Celie covers her smile with one hand in a wide shot but with both hands in close-up.

Continuity: When Celie tries on one of Shug's dresses a record is playing. While the song is still on we see the record player again and the label has changed. Then Shug turns the record around, and now the label is the one from the beginning.

Continuity: While Albert is throwing Nettie out of the yard, the sky changes. First, you can see the sun, then the sun is covered by a bunch of clouds, then the clouds are gone.

Continuity: When Celie imagines throwing chocolate dollars from the train platform they scatter around, but the imagined Nettie finds them all in one place.

Continuity: After Harpo and Sophia are married, Harpo leans in to kiss Sophia but she is whisked away by relatives and he turns away. In the next shot we get a side view of Harpo and he is still leaning in to kiss her after he had already turned away in the previous shot.

Continuity: In the scene when Celie offers Albert's father a glass of water, and she spits in it, in some shots it's ice cold, but in others it is transparent. Cold or warm? It seems we have two options.

Plot hole: When Celie sees her baby in town with the Reverend's wife, she says that she stitched the baby's name (Olivia) on all her diapers. But at the beginning of the movie, the baby is taken from her right after she's born (Celie even states that at her mother's funeral). How could she have known the baby's sex to have stitched 'Olivia' on her diapers?

Continuity: When Sofia comes to her in-laws' house for the first time Celie offers her a glass of lemonade. She empties it completely, but when she gives it back to Celie it's almost full again.