I am going to use the film 'The Colour Purple' to look at the way Steven Spielberg uses media techniques to look at the injustices faced by black people in South America in the 1930's.

Injustices faced by black people in South America

I am going to use the film ‘The Colour Purple’ to look at the way Steven Spielberg uses media techniques to look at the injustices faced by black people in South America in the 1930’s. I will be using evidence from the film to help support my answers.

The slave trade made the black people to come to America in the 17th and 18th century. But this was abolished in 1870 by the civil war which had broken out. However, what the white people had thought of the blacks did take a lot longer to change. The black people in South America in the 1930’s were treated terribly, especially the women, and were given no rights. Black people weren’t allowed the same rights as whites and had no rights over them. Black women had no rights over men and could be abused, beaten, raped and forced to do anything the black men wanted.

The film ‘The Colour Purple’ is about two black sisters named Nettie and Celie. Celie was raped twice in her youth and had two babies taken away from her dad and think her dad has killed them. Then Celie to a new home with Mr. (who’s name we do not know). But Mr. Prefers Nettie. Nettie then later moves in with Celie and Mr. Who then tries to rape Nettie on her way to school, but she fights back and stops him from doing so. When Nettie returns Mr. Kicks her out. She then promises to write to Celie but none of her letters reach her. Later on Celie meets Shug Avery who Mr falls in love with. When Celie grows up, Shug Avery helps Celie to find the letters when Mr went away. She then finds the letters hidden under the floor boards under a chest; she then becomes mad with Mr for hiding the letters. Celie reads all the letters, which leads up to Mr asking for a shave. This is when Celie gets the idea to slit Mr’s throat, but fails when Shug stops her just in time. A few years later Celie gets the house due to Mr dieing of old age. Celie then receives a letter from Nettie saying she is returning from Africa with Celie’s son and daughter. They soon return to America and end up living together.

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The film starts with credits written in purple on a black background with only the sound of birds fading into the background. This shows it is a serious film because there is no happy music or any sounds that relate to anything happy. The film starts and the first thing you see is a field of purple flowers on a sunny day with some happy music. The two girls are running around happy as Larry, singing and laughing and dancing through the field of tall purple flowers. Spielberg uses a crab shot to make us feel part of the film. As they come out of the field and you can see their whole body you immediately notice that something is wrong as one girl, Celie, seems to be pregnant. The dad then arrives and insults the pregnant girl by saying: “Celie you have the ugliest smile this side of the equator”. This shows that Celie is being treated badly and unfairly and also gives a bad impression of the dad.

Suddenly the scene goes into a dramatic form from a peaceful yet powerful form. You can now see Celie on a bed screaming and crying in pain on a bed in what seems to be a barn of some sort. The background outside is a windy and all together bad weather view, which really gives the emphasis of a dramatic scene. Her sister, Nettie, is there trying to calm Celie down as she soaks a blood covered cloth in a bowl of blood red water. Then we immediately realise Celie is giving birth. The shots of the camera are a lot of close up shots to show the feeling and emotion on the characters faces. The dad then comes in and shouts: “Ain’t you done yet?” which shows he is bored of waiting. When Celie is done giving birth her dad comes in and takes the baby way gives us an even worse impression of their dad. It also makes us feel sorry for Celie going through all that pain for nothing.

In the second key scene shows Celie and Nettie running around in the garden of Mr, who is reading his paper. He then looks up and blanks out Celie with his paper and watches Nettie.

The scene then changes to follow Nettie down a country road with books in her hand. The audience picks up the impression that Nettie is on the way to school. Then we see Mr riding up beside her on his horse. The road then splits into two and goes around a group of trees. Nettie goes around one side and Mr going the other side. They can just see each other through the trees. The shots used by Spielberg are more crab shots so we can see the view points of each of the characters eyes. Nettie can see Mr smiling through the trees and becomes scared so walks faster, almost to a jog. She looks over again and just sees the horse with no Mr as the rider.

The paths then meet up again and Mr is not on the horse or visible to Nettie. He pops out behind Nettie out of the trees laughing. He removes his hat and flower petals fall out. All these visual clues give us the impression that Nettie is going to be raped by Mr. The scene is made tenser by the silence of no music and only Mr singing to Nettie and the sound of the horse’ foot steps. He then grabs her, as she keeps repeating the line: “I gotta’ go to school!”

Nettie is then dragged out of view into the bushes by Mr. You then her screams making the scene very dramatic. Suddenly Mr is heard shouting and it is obvious he is hurt and is in pain. The next visual of Nettie and Mr we see is Nettie running and Mr falling to the ground holding his groin. He then says: “I’m gonna get you.” This shows a big injustice to black women and their rights in that Mr tries to rape Nettie in broad daylight. This shows us that Mr has a poor view towards women and doesn’t care if he is caught.

The third key scene is about whites having control over the blacks. Spielberg has started the scene with a cheery fashion with a guitarist playing in a happy town centre environment. It starts with Ms. Millie looking and complimenting Ms. Sofia’s children, as she kisses and hugs them. Ms. Millie cannot leave the children and starts the trouble by asking Ms. Sofia if she’ll be her maid as which she replies: “Hell no.”

This builds up the tension as the people turn and look. The mayor goes up to Ms. Sofia and slaps her. Ms. Sofia becomes angry and slowly clenches her fists. As she hits him a van drives past and blocks the view of the audience building up more tension. When the van has drove past you see the mayor floored. You can tell she has obviously hit him. All the town people crowd round and start shouting abuse at Ms. Sofia. This, again, builds up tension as you want to know how she will escape the situation. The camera scans round showing the emotion on the town folk’s faces and finally Ms. Sofia’s. She then spots the sheriff and shouts for help but instead he hits her with the handle of the gun and she lies on the floor. The wind then blows her skirt up showing her underwear. This has been done as it creates humiliation and lose of dignity. The camera shot here is a birds-eye view of things making Ms. Sofia look small and helpless.

The forth and final key scene is the scene in which Celie is reading the letters from Nettie she and Shug have found. This has been done to show the readings of the letters in corresponding lives. The scene is bright and sunny in different scenarios. The scene tells the story of the excitement of Nettie’s new life in Africa.

In Africa the white men are building a new road straight through the village of the black people in which Nettie is staying. The blacks don’t have a say in the matter. In Nettie’s story there has also been a tribal ritual in which children are given the scars of the tribe on their faces. The scene ends up being built into a very tense scene.

Celie is being forced to give Mr a shave and is sharpening the blade on the razor. Whilst this is happening Shug is applying red nail varnish. She is also wearing red. Red has been chosen to symbolise danger. Then Mr’s children run past and tell Shug, Celie is giving Mr a shave. She immediately realises the danger and runs back to the house in time to stop Celie from killing Mr.

Spielberg uses the techniques well by switching between the two countries; zooming in on both the tribe’s child’s face and Mr’s neck, and also Shug sprinting to the house in time. This technique is a excellent way to build the tension, and is doubled by the help of the music becoming quicker and quicker, until contact is made on the boys face.

The camera is then flicked to Mr’s still face, as if he has been killed. Then the camera is pulled out in order to see Shug holding Celie’s arm back with the razor in her hand.

In conclusion, I think Spielberg has created the drama and excitement needed to portray the injustices of black people in South America in the 1930’s, by using the camera angles and music to his advantage.

The injustices portrayed successfully are that of: