1 Day til ARC Who Goes There? Contest

Oh my Gahd, it's like only like one day until the So Not The Drama ARC contest on Teens Read Too. Like, if you don't check it out you're so...not gnarly.

Oops, sorry. I had a serious Valley Girl flashback. The 80's are still living strong in my head. And what really got those old 80's memories simmering was seeing The Color Purple, yesterday. It came out in 1985.

One thing I'm starting to appreciate about period movies is, they don't age. Since the movie took place in the early 1900's, you look at it and the only way you know the movie wasn't just filmed a few years ago, is how young Whoopie Goldberg and Danny Glover look...oh and how fat Oprah was (no disrespect, O).

It's not like watching Fastimes at Ridgemont High, which for some inexplicable reason is being re-released on DVD. Now that movie, with its young Van-wearing Sean Penn and innocent Phoebe Cates, screams old. Still fun to watch. But will never have that classic aura of The Color Purple.

Well, now, since we're down to one day, my list is very short. So, today, I choose:
The Best Book To Movie

Drum roll please....

Uhh, yeah, it's The Color Purple.

Can't fool you people, can I?

1. The Color Purple (1985)

I read The Color Purple back in 1983, which would put me at an innocent, so sweet and cute thirteen years old. This says two things: 1) geez, I am old as dirt, right now and 2) I began reading "up" very early.

By the time I was thirteen my mom and I were reading the same books, sharing a love for V.C. Andrews, Alice Walker and Gloria Naylor.

It took watching the movie, again, to realize just how complex and rich Alice Walker made the characters of The Color Purple - which, by the way, has probably sold about a bazillion copies. Go Alice!

What I loved most about The Color Purple (the movie) was that Steven Spielberg came in and didn't change much at all. For a book lover, a good adaptation is nirvana. I believe The Color Purple (the movie) is the perfect storm of, great director, wonderful actors and a story that was so well and vividly written that the screen play was probably as easy as opening the book.

Spielberg may have even stayed too true to the book. There were a few times I winced because the dialogue, which probably flowed well when reading, came off a little cheesy on screen. Like when Squeak, Harpo's girlfriend played by Rae Dawn Chong, says, "You just a big ol' heifer. Ha, ha." And she literally says "Ha, ha."

That same line may have kept me reading to see how Oprah's character, Sophia, would react. But in the movie it took me out of the action for just a second because it sounded ridiculous coming out of Rae Dawn Chong's mouth.

Oh, another way I know Spielberg stayed very true to the book. There's a scene where Danny Glover is getting chewed out for having Shug Avery in his home. And the father says, "She's black as tar."

Well, Leslie Uggams, who plays Shug is not black as tar. She's more of a dark caramel.

Still, those are minor minor things. And only a lover of the book could pick them out, in the first place.

Hands down, The Color Purple, is the type of movie that should move you to read the book if you hadn't before seeing it. Ironically, it's also so well done, watching the movie is like reading the book.