Caesar, Adolph

The Color Purple (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Steven Spielberg, proving he's one of the few modern filmmakers who has the visual fluency to be capable of making a great silent film, took a melodramatic, D.W. Griffith-inspired approach to filming Alice Walker's novel. His tactics made the film controversial, but also a popular hit. You can argue with the appropriateness of Spielberg's decision, but his astonishing facility with images is undeniable--from the exhilarating and eye-popping opening shots of children playing in paradisiacal purple fields to the way he conveys the brutality of a rape by showing hanging leather belts banging against the head of the shaking bed. In a way it's a shame that Whoopi Goldberg, a stage monologist who made her screen debut in this movie, went on to become so famous, because it was, in part, her unfamiliarity that made her understated performance as Celie so effective. (This may be the first and last time that the adjective understated can be applied to Goldberg.) Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and actress (supporting players Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were also nominated), it was quite a scandal--and a crushing blow to Spielberg--when it won none. --Jim Emerson

The Color Purple

Steven Spielberg, proving he's one of the few modern filmmakers who has the visual fluency to be capable of making a great silent film, took a melodramatic, D.W. Griffith-inspired approach to filming Alice Walker's novel. His tactics made the film controversial, but also a popular hit. You can argue with the appropriateness of Spielberg's decision, but his astonishing facility with images is undeniable--from the exhilarating and eye-popping opening shots of children playing in paradisiacal purple fields to the way he conveys the brutality of a rape by showing hanging leather belts banging against the head of the shaking bed. In a way it's a shame that Whoopi Goldberg, a stage monologist who made her screen debut in this movie, went on to become so famous, because it was, in part, her unfamiliarity that made her understated performance as Celie so effective. (This may be the first and last time that the adjective understated can be applied to Goldberg.) Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and actress (supporting players Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were also nominated), it was quite a scandal--and a crushing blow to Spielberg--when it won none. The digital video disc requires flipping to play the whole movie. --Jim Emerson

A Soldier's Story

Director Norman Jewison's (In the Heat of the Night) 1984 adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play explores the ramifications of racism and loyalty through the prism of blacks in the military, revealed through a murder mystery set in the 1940s deep South. Howard E. Rollins (Ragtime) plays a military investigator assigned to the murder of a drill instructor (Adolph Caesar) in charge of a black platoon. Under pressure from his superiors to wrap his investigation up quickly, Rollins instead delves deeply into the relationships between the despised drill instructor and his men, uncovering lies and animosity, and confronting the question of what it means to be black in a white man's world. Rollins is a riveting, stoic, and emotional lead, and Denzel Washington makes an early appearance as a soldier with a deep grudge against the drill instructor and a deep mistrust of Rollins' investigator. A powerfully written story that makes the most of its large and impressive ensemble cast, A Soldier's Story is a deeply affecting and worthwhile film. --Robert Lane

Club Paradise

Robin Williams went through a period in the mid '80s when he looked like he'd turned into the next Richard Pryor: yet another brilliant standup comic neutered by the script mills of the Hollywood studios. Indeed, Williams seems almost like a spectator in this film, reacting to a supporting cast extremely deep in talent doing what they can with the mediocre script by Brian Doyle-Murray and director Harold Ramis. Williams plays a heroic Chicago fireman, who is injured and retires after saving several lives in a fire. He takes his insurance settlement and buys a resort on a poor Caribbean island (the film was shot in Jamaica). He spends the rest of the time playing straight man to a gaggle of guests that includes such SCTV alumni as Rick Moranis, Andrea Gross, Eugene Levy, and Robin Duke, as well as Jimmy Cliff and Peter O'Toole. Occasionally rising to the level of mild amusement, Club Paradise is, disappointingly, little more than a series of hit-and-miss sketches strung together by the feeblest of plots. --Marshall Fine

Pack your bags for Club Paradise the Caribbean resort where the good times and laughter come at you in waves. Academy Award (R) Winner Robin Williams steers their crazed course of this tropical romp as an ex-Chicago fireman who uses a sizable disability settlement to transform a remote island watering hole into a lucrative tourist waterland. Peter O'Toole Twiggy Rick Moranis Andrea Martin Eugene Levy and other comic cohorts cheerfully cavort (and Jimmy Cliff musically riffs) under the breezy direction of Harold Ramis (National Lampoon's Vacation Caddyshack) for a lark that The New Yorker's Pauline Kael judged "as pleasant as can be."Running Time: 95 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569734029 Manufacturer No: 73402

The Color Purple