Warner Brothers

PG 13. 130 min

Well gang welcome back to Oscar season. As you know every few days Variety magazine updates their predictions for best picture nominations. At the very least I like to see all 10 before the awards Whether they look appealing to me or not. Had it not been for the high-ranking on all of those lists I may not have seen the latest incarnation of Oprah Winfrey ‘s classic THE COLOR PURPLE. Not that I didn’t enjoy the original but it’s obvious from trailers the new version will be substantially changed And I feared it would be brought in line with today's uglier vision of race in which good and evil are based on skin color. Thankfully that was not the case! This, like the original, is a story of sorrow, joy, struggle and redemption; even good and evil during the early 20th century in the pre integration South. And beyond the bittersweet feel good story from the original as I said this is also a musical and the production numbers harken back to the bedrock influence that African Americans have had on dance, jazz and rhythm and blues.

THE COLOR PURPLE will definitely be among the top three or four contenders for best picture.

Like one of my fellow patrons said with a big smile to me after the film “Damn, Oprah did it again!” Bless her soul.

A

WSs