The Color Purple

The Color Purple (1985)

5 commented-on entries since 26 Jul '19, 00:00

(5 votes)

Corrected entry: 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?

Correction: When Nettie delivered Celie's 2nd child she says out loud that it is a girl. That is how she know the sex of the child to give her the name Olivia.

Yes, but the embroidery work on the diapers would've been done before the baby arrived and she said he took the diapers with the baby right after birth so the diapers were definitely embroidered before the birth. I agree with OP, the movie didn't explain how she knew it was going to be a girl before the birth to embroider the diapers beforehand.

Corrected entry: The kids and the men are decorating Easter eggs and Ceilie is stuffing a turkey. Shug gets the mail and takes Ceilie upstairs and hands her the letter. When she turns the letter over the date is July 10. But when she reads the letter she says the date is April 18, 1935. So if it's July, how is it Easter?

Nephanie

Correction: That is how long it took for the letter to get from Africa to Celie in rural Georgia.

Yes, it would take months for the letter to arrive which is the point OP is making. It was written in April, received in July, so why is the family painting Easter eggs in July? It's either Easter and the prop department made an incorrect postmark, or it's July and the director choose to have them painting Easter eggs for no apparent reason.

Corrected entry: Early in the movie Celie is giving birth to her first child, Olivia, and we are told it is winter 1909. The next scene it is revealed that Celie has now given birth to 2 children, a girl named Olivia and a boy named Adam. In a later scene Celie encounters the preacher's wife in town, and we are told that it is Spring 1909. The wife says the baby is 7 months old. Not only are the years off, but if Celie had given birth to a second child already, the little girl would've been a lot older.

Correction: Celie had Adam before Olivia. We only see her giving birth to Olivia because she has previously given birth to Adam before the opening scene of the movie.

Yes Adam was born before and we see Celie giving birth to Olivia, her second child in Winter 1909. So how can Celie then go to town in the Spring of 1909 and bump into baby Olivia and her adopted mother? It's 6 months before she gave birth.

Winter 1909 could be anywhere from January 1, 1909 to March 19, 1909, and Spring could be from March 20 to June 21. If we assume, due to the weather in the scene, Olivia was born in early January, then she could feasibly be 6 months old in late Spring, and Corrine could have mixed up the age due to Olivia not having been born from her.

Corrected entry: Whoopie Goldberg writes notes to herself on waxed paper. She's not shown actually writing, but the medium is obviously felt-tip marker, which was invented decades after the action takes place.

Correction: If she is not shown writing, then we can't be sure a felt-tip marker was used. It looks more like a thick pencil lead.

Ral0618

Or it could have been a black crayon.

Corrected entry: When Celie is giving birth to Olivia it says Winter 1909. Later on in the movie when she is in the cloth store and thinks she sees her daughter, Olivia, it says Spring 1909.

Correction: That's wrong. Adam was born first and taken while Celie was sleeping. Olivia is the second born.

It was probably in January (winter) 1909. However, if it was spring, the baby wouldn't be more than 5 months old.

Correction: No, in 1909 she gave birth to her son Adam. Olivia had already been born and given away.

Other mistake: 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 leaves 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. (00:51:10)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: There absolutely were 2 things on the plate that would have left those colors. When you see the plate up close, you see a red sauce (presumably ketchup or tomato sauce) on the side of the plate, and the yellow comes from the yolks from the sunny-side up eggs he made for her (which he mentions it as he takes the tray into the room). Look more closely at the plate next time. Also, just because the clip mainly shows him TRYING to make grits and biscuits, doesn't mean he didn't make anything else to go with it. The plate he carries up shows several things he made (mostly burnt) but the red sauce was definitely on the plate as well as the eggs. So this is incorrect.

More mistakes in The Color Purple

Shug: You sho is ugly.

More quotes from The Color Purple

Trivia: The Color Purple tied an Oscars record (with 1977's Turning Point) for a film having the most nominations without actually winning any. This was a result of a pressure campaign by the NAACP, which objected to the film's portrayal of Black men.

More trivia for The Color Purple

Question: Shug and Celie found the hiding place in the floor in the bedroom looking for the letters. They found naked pictures, money, and of course the letters from Nettie. There were also some vials of something. What was inside of the vials?

Just4cee

Chosen answer: They appear to be illegal drugs.

raywest

Answer: Colognes.

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