Mister has a son, Harpo ( Willard Pugh), by his first marriage, and one day the misery is shaken up when Harpo brings home Sofia ( Oprah Winfrey), the woman he loves, who is unapologetically great with child. The biggest local crop seems to be fields of purple flowers. There is a stream, and winding dusty lanes, and although farm work apparently gets done, Mister is seen only once on a tractor and spends most of his time playing the villain in Celie's life. Nearby is a church that could pose for a greeting card.

Mister lives in a handsome two-story house with a broad porch and a deep lawn. The movie takes place in a landscape that seems more inspired by set decoration than real life - more 'Green Pastures' than 'Grapes of Wrath.' Although there are whites in the nearby town, and they are racist to one degree or another, they and their racism have only walk-on roles, and the greater part of the story takes place in a bucolic farm landscape populated by African Americans. Thus begins a long separation between the two sisters Nettie, through a rather improbable coincidence, goes to Africa with the missionary couple who have adopted Celie's children. When their father tries to assault her, she flees to Celie for safety, but then Mister comes after her, and when she fights him off, he throws her off of the land. There is one beautiful thing in her life: Her sister, Nettie ( Akosua Busia). Told she cannot have more children, she is given to a brutal farmer named Mister ( Danny Glover), who beats her, uses her as a servant and as a receptacle for his lust, and convinces her she is ugly. As a young teenager, she is raped by the man she takes to be her father, and both of her babies are taken away from her.

Steven Spielberg's movie is based on a novel by Alice Walker, darker and more complex than the movie, although Celie's life could hardly be more painful. Her eventual flowering provides one of the most joyous experiences I have had at the movies the scene where she is coaxed and persuaded and finally teased into smiling is the turning point of the story, and one of those moments when we see humanity shining out of the screen upon us. Celie is a woman cruelly treated by the world, a shy, frightened little creature whose life consists mostly of eluding the men who want to rape and beat her.

Sold girl town purple