The Color Purple Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Color Purple Blu-ray Movie Review

Southern (in)hospitality.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III March 15, 2024

Originally brought to the big screen as Steven Spielberg's 1985 melodrama (recently restored on 4K UHD to coincide with this film's theatrical debut), Blitz Bazawule's The Color Purple takes its cues from a successful Broadway musical that opened in 2005. All three iterations are based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about overcoming physical, sexual, and emotional abuse as well as other adversities, with this musical take attempting to deepen the novel's potent narrative with songs that fittingly run the gamut of emotions, from somber to celebratory.

For a synopsis and critique of the main feature, please see either my recent review of the 4K UHD disc as well as our own Brian Orndorf's similarly lukewarm theatrical review. Nonetheless, fans of the source material -- which may as well include both Walker's original novel and the 1985 film -- will at least want to give this musical adaptation a fair shake, and anyone who enjoyed it in theaters will be mostly pleased with WB's separate home video packages.

The Color Purple Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As always, please see my review of the 4K UHD disc for details about the film's visual aesthetic, which looks noticeably different depending which format you choose. As that linked review suggests, this Blu-ray's color is generally more pronounced -- sometimes at the expense of a bit of bleeding -- but in a manner that feels more expressively appealing than the 4K disc's surprisingly more subdued appearance. There are trade-offs to this downsampling, of course -- some of them are unavoidable due to the smaller amount of disc real estate and less efficient AVC codec, arriving in the form of light banding and macro blocking in darker and more visually complex scenes. Generally, though, this is a pleasing image that should hold up decently well on small to mid-sized displays, so anyone with that type of setup will probably be more initially impressed with the Blu-ray. Whether or not it holds up to eagle-eyed inspection is perhaps a different matter, but format stalwarts will find it to be on par with the studio's other recent A-list title releases.

The Color Purple Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For my thoughts on the Blu-ray's default Dolby Atmos audio, please my review of the 4K UHD disc.

Optional subtitles, including English (SDH), are offered during the film and all bonus features listed below.

The Color Purple Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with poster-themed cover art and a Digital Copy slip. The bonus features are lightly entertaining and touch upon other adaptations too, but I feel as if something more substantial could've been made out of them. For more details about each one, please my review of the 4K UHD disc.

• Creating The Color Purple: A Bold New Take on the Beloved Classic (6:21)

• Hell Yes! The Iconic Characters of The Color Purple (7:00)

• In the Flow: Creating The Color Purple's Biggest Musical Moments (8:03)

• A Story for Me: The Legacy of The Color Purple (6:38)

• Musical Moments (18 clips)

The Color Purple Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Blitz Bazawule's The Color Purple is a big-screen adaptation of the Broadway show based on Alice Walker's original novel (which was itself already adapted in Steven Spielberg's famous 1985 film), and was marketed as "a bold new take on the beloved classic". That's certainly true... but aggressive confidence doesn't always equate success and, as such, its (unavoidably?) showy performances result in musical numbers that routinely compete for attention with the narrative. Some viewers may be a bit more receptive to their lyrical and melodic charms, but I often couldn't wait for the songs to be over so its more straightforward narrative could continue. It's still emotionally effective at key points and the core drama remains solidly conveyed, but the end product is as uneven as its disparate parts might suggest. Warner Bros.' 1080p transfer surprisingly holds up against its 4K counterpart (more so in the area of color than fine detail and disc encoding). The Dolby Atmos audio and bonus features are identical on both releases.