Surprisingly good

The Color Purple is an oddly touching film. While I don't usually find these epic/Oscar bait films all that interesting, this one seems different for some reason. Perhaps its the absence of huge movie stars...maybe its the small scale of the epic quality...maybe its the surprisingly flowing adaptation from book to movie. Whatever it is, The Color Purple is a great movie; a mega-tear jerker...if you haven't seen it, you should, and then follow up with the book...I think that the two kind of go hand in hand, rather than one being better than the other (since the formats are so different, the same story is refreshingly different in the two...FYI: the book is written all in letters from one character to another, the movie doesn't really use this to relay the story). And as far as Spielberg goes...I have kind of lost interest in him lately, but movies like this really prove that he knows what he is doing. Schindler's List was trying to be the Color Purple, but came out to calculated an pristine...like all of his movies these days...check out Purple and Close Encounters of the Third Kind for a less refined Spielberg...I think they are more enjoyable in a way. PS> You have to love the scene when Shug busts through the doors of the church to embrace the preacher...and of course the very memorable finale: reunion in a field of purple flowers...{sob} Sidenote: not looking forward to Munich...if you couldn't tell... [check flickr for photos of the BT...and maybe facebook too!]