Keep my sister away from me
Makidada.
Me and you, us never part
Celie! Nettie! Come back to the house now.
Girls, your mama got supper.
Celie, you got the ugliest smile this side of creation.
Ain't you done yet?
A girl!
I want it.
You better not tell nobody but God.
It'd kill your mama.
Dear God...
...I'm fourteen years old.
I've always been a good girl.
Maybe you can give me a sign.
Let me know what's happening to me.
One day, daddy come and say, "You got to do what your mama wouldn't."
Now, I got two children by my daddy.
A baby boy called Adam, he took while I was sleeping...
And a baby girl called Olivia...
...that he took right out of my arms.
Then my mama died...
...cursing and screaming...
...because her heart been broke.
Dear God, he act like he can't stand me no more.
I don't think he kilt my baby boy.
I heard he sold it to a preacher and his wife.
I keep hoping he'll find somebody to marry.
I seen him looking at my sister.
She's scared.
But I say, "I'll take care of you, with God help."
Dear God, he come home with a girl from around the town called Gray.
She be almost my age, but they getting marry now.
My little sister, Nettie, got a man always looking at her.
His wife dead. She was killed by her boyfriend coming home from church.
He got three children.
He seen Nettie in church.
Now every Sunday evening, here come Mister.
I want to marry your Nettie.
I got to have somebody right now.
I got nobody to watch over my young'uns.
They be fighting and bleeding and throwing up on the floor...
...while I got a farm to run.
I'll take right good care of your Nettie.
I can't let you have Nettie.
She too young.
But I tell you what. I can let you have Celie.
She oldest and should marry first.
She ain't fresh, but I expect you know that.
She's spoiled...twice.
Celie's ugly...
...but she works hard, and she can learn.
And God fixed her.
You can do what you like. She won't make you feed or clothe it.
But Nettie, you flat out can't have. Not now, not never.
Well, I ain't never looked at the other one before.
Let me see her again.
Celie, Mister want another look at you.
Move up. He won't bite.
Turn around.
What you doing that for?
Your sister's thinking of marriage.
Why y'all standing out here waiting?
This here's your new mammy.
She ain't my mammy.
I don't cry.
I laid there thinking about Nettie, while he on top of me.
Wonder is she safe.
Then I think about that pretty woman in the picture.
I know what he doing to me, he done to her.
And maybe she like it.
Jesus.
Harpo, didn't I tell you to clean my saddle?
I did do it, Pa.
Look at the mold on the side.
Look at the dirt on it. This don't look like it's clean.
The new mule, Joey, had it. I couldn't get it from him.
He was kicking on it.
When's the last time their hair was combed?
Not since their mammy did.
I'll have to shave it off.
No! It's bad luck to cut a woman's hair.
This'll take all day.
Shut up!
I can't. It hurts her.
Don't talk back to me.
You do what I tell you.
Dear God, I seen my baby girl.
I know it was her.
She looked just like me and my daddy.
Like more us than us is ourself.
My little girl looks like she fretting over something.
She got my eyes, just like they is today.
Like everything I seen, she seen.
That's real pretty.
I'm making me and my little girl a new dress.
Her daddy will be so pleased.
Who her daddy?
Mr. Samuel.
Mr. Samuel...who he?
The Reverend Mr. Samuel.
You want that cloth or not? We got other customers.
Yes, sir. I want five yards, sir.
You want something?
How long you had your little girl?
She be seven months on the 15th.
Can I hold her?
If you like.
I think she mine.
My heart say she mine.
But I don't know she mine.
If she my baby, her name Olivia.
I stitch "Olivia" on all the seat of her diapers.
I stitch a lot of little flowers and stars, too.
He took all the diapers when he took her.
What's her name?
Pauline.
But I calls her Olivia.
Whys you call her Olivia when that ain't her name?
Don't she look like an Olivia to you?
Just look at those eyes.
Only somebody old would have eyes like that.
So I call her Ole Livia.
Nice talking to you.
My husband's waiting.
You buying anything or not, gal?
Give these to Mr. Johnson.
I'm so glad to see you!
I just couldn't keep him off me. Could I stay here with you?
Can Nettie stay with us for a spell?
Sure. She be kin now.
What happened with you and Pa?
I just couldn't keep him off me.
He'd try everything. You know how he is.
I ain't never going back there!
You hear what I say? I'd die first Celie.
Don't let them run over you. Show them who's got the upper hand.
He got it.
You got to fight, Celie. You got to.
I don't know how to fight.
All I know how to do is stay alive.
You sure look pretty, Nettie.
Celie, my boy may be needing his supper.
Sure is a pretty dress you have on.
Oh, Nettie, you have such nice skin...
...and such soft, beautiful hair.
And you smell so good when I sit close to you. And your teeth...
He talk about your teeth?
Yeah, about how bright they shine.
My boy wants supper. The kitchen needs cleaning. The cow needs milking.
My shirt need mending. My pants need fixing. My shoes need shining.
My children need feeding.
And when you're tired...
...I'm gonna climb on top of you and do my business...
...before you can say, "Amen".
You're gonna have to leave here soon...
...before he makes his move on you.
What would I do if I couldn't talk to you?
We could write.
-Can you read good? -I can't say that I do.
I'll go to school for both of us.
We'll both learn real hard before he breaks us apart.
Aypples.
Apples. A-P-P-L-E-S. Apples.
Irun.
Iron. I-R-O-N. Iron.
Kettle. K-E-T-T-L-E.
Eggs. E-G-G-S. Eggs.
Shelf. S-H-E-L-F.
Honey. H-O-N-E-Y.
Jar. J-A-R. Jar.
Window. W-l-N-D-O-W. Window.
H-A-l-R.
A-R-M. Arm.
Sleeve. S-L-E-E-V-E.
Stocking.
What's it say, Celie?
Mister.
M-l-S-T-E-R, period.
You got nothing better to do?
"For the next eight or ten months...
...Oliver was the...
...vicinet, victim of a sesum...
...systematic..." What's "systematic" mean?
It be like when you have a way of doing stuff the same way all the time.
Like how we hang the sheets first so we can put the socks in the cracks.
Now us never be apart.
Me and you us never part Makidada
Me and you us have one heart Makidada
Ain't no ocean, ain't no sea Makidada
Keep my sister away from me Makidada
I got to go to school.
What you doing?
No! Please!
I'll get you!
Let her stay! Please let her stay!
I'll do anything for you!
Now get the hell out of my house!
You ain't never coming back here!
Get off my land!
Why? Why?!
Write!
Nothing but death can keep me from it!
Please...
...don't go.
You and me us never part.
Me and you us have one heart.
Ain't no ocean, ain't no sea...
Get off my land!
Nothing but death can keep me from it!
Two days.
My Shug's coming, and everything gonna be the way it should.
Come on, girl. I'm waiting for you.
You cut me and I'll kill you.
The mail.
Shug, I'm coming.
Harpo, saddle my horse!
Is there a letter from Nettie?
Ain't nothing for you.
I don't never want you messing with that mailbox!
I fixed that mailbox so I can tell if it be messed with! Understand?!
Harpo! Ain't you saddled that horse yet!?
I'm getting to it.
I'm going out, and I want my supper when I get back!
"For the next eight...
...or ten...
...months...
...Oliver was the victim of a...
...systemitic...
...course of treechery..."
"For the next eight or ten months...
...Oliver was the victim of a systematic course...
...of treachery and deception."
"The hungry and destitute situation of the infant..."
Come help me get ready! Come on! I'll be late!
You hear me call you?
Celie, ain't my good comb...
...with my other brushes?
Ain't that horse saddled?!
Yes, sir, pa. Yes, sir. I's getting to it.
Too much grease.
I don't use this kind of grease!
You gonna make me late! I'm gonna get you if you make me late!
Where's my other black sock?!
Don't forget to iron my shirt.
Where's my black tie? I mean the yellow one with black in it!
It's in there.
I don't see it! Where's my suit pin?
In the drawer.
Is it on the shelf?
Is it the right side or the left side?
The left.
Is this the right vest for my suit?
Where's my blue--
The black one or the blue one?
The black one.
I hate this tie! It don't match what I got on!
I had a blue one--
Damn!
She say she write, but she never write.
She say only death could keep her from it.
Maybe she dead.
Sofia, slow down!
Harpo, I declare, you is slow today!
Dear God, Harpo be in love with a girl called Sofia.
Now she be a big girl.
Mr. say he want to have a look at her.
I seen 'em coming way up the road.
They just be marching, like going to war.
This here is Sofia.
Sofia is a pretty name, huh? Sofia, Sofia, Sofia!
Us getting married.
Looks like you got yourself in trouble.
I ain't in no trouble.
Big, though.
Who the daddy?
Harpo.
How does he know that?
He knows because he the only one!
Get me some lemonade.
Young women no good these days.
Got their legs open for every Tom, Dick and Harpo.
Don't think I'll let my boy marry you 'cause...
...you in the family way.
Not cold enough.
He young and limited. Pretty gal like you could put anything over on him.
Why I need to marry Harpo? He living here with you.
What food and clothes he get, you buy.
I know your daddy throwed you out. Ready to live in the street.
No, sir, I ain't living in no streets.
I'm living with my sister and her husband.
I can live with them the rest of my life if I want.
Don't tell me how to take care of me and my baby.
I can take care of it myself.
Nice visiting.
You stay right here, Harpo.
When you free, me and the baby will be waiting.
At least somebody here know how to treat a visitor.
Don't you move...
...one step.
Don't make me wait too long.
I won't!
I will!
I do.
I do!
I do.
Do you take this man to be your lawful wedded husband?
To love, honor and cherish? Forsaking all others for him alone...
...you will perform unto him all duties owed a husband...
...until death shall separate you.
I do!
You may now salute the bride.
I's married now! I's a married woman!
I been needing so many curtains, but I ain't had time.
You children go on home!
Harpo, come on down. I need you to hold this baby.
I'm busy.
Busy making a racket. Now come on down here!
Damn, I'll come down when I'm good and ready!
Child, we're going to get you a little milk.
A little milk for the baby, yes, indeed.
Here. Go to your daddy.
What should I do with it?
Feed her, then fix up the mess you done.
I can smell the rain coming.
Miss Celie, we got some new curtains I want to put in the bedroom.
What you staring at?
It's gonna rain on your head!
You ever hit her?
No, sir.
How do you expect her to mind?
Wives is like children.
Let them know who got the upper hand.
Nothing can do it better than a good beating.
Sofia thinks too much of herself.
Needs to be taken down a peg or two.
Got a new baby and it cry all night long.
Kept him up so he said he wasn't going to work.
She got all upset but I said, leave the man alone.
Men need to be left alone.
I want some food!
Pie's in the pantry. Women need to be left alone, too.
I tell Harpo, when I'm fussing, leave me alone!
Get it for me!
What's the matter with you?
That's my own baby crying.
Make yourself useful.
What should I do about Sofia?
Beat her.
You told Harpo to beat me!
It was that mule, Old Joey. Old Joey, the mule.
I was plowing the north field and the mule went crazy.
He started kicking. Busted my eye and my lip.
All my life I had to fight.
I had to fight my daddy, I had to fight my uncles.
I had to fight my brothers.
Girl child ain't safe in a family of mens.
But I never thought I had to fight in my own house!
I loves Harpo.
God knows I do.
But I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me!
That's a hoof print.
It's a fist print.
No, sir. Ain't no fist touched my face.
You want a dead son-in-law, Miss Celie?
You keep on advising him like you're doing.
This life be over soon. Heaven last always.
You should bash Mister's head open and think about heaven later.
Sofia beat on Harpo.
Then Harpo beat on Sofia.
And then, Sofia beat on Harpo some more.
In between the beatings, the children keep coming.
And then one day, Sofia can't take it no more.
Good riddance!
Nettie.
I brung you some fresh-baked cookies, made in my stove!
Have a fine day, Mr. Huntley! And keep the plate!
Anything come for me?
Dear God, today was a peculiar day.
I was sitting on the porch reading to the kids...
...when suddenly, something struck me.
I got up and looked at the sky.
It was dark and there wasn't nothing moving.
I got down off the porch...
...to see what was coming. It felt like twister weather.
I didn't see nothing. But I know something's there.
Yes, indeed, Lord. I know something's coming.
Who that, Pa? Who this?
Pa, who this?
The woman that should have been your mammy.
Shug Avery?
Give me a hand and get her in the house.
Celie! Help me get her in the house.
Celie! Get here!
This Shug Avery, a family friend. Fix the spare room.
I can't move.
I can't move! I need to see her eyes.
I feel once I see her eyes, my feets can let go...
...of where they're stuck.
You sure is ugly!
Turn loose my goddamn hand!
What's the matter with you? You crazy?
I don't need no weak little boy...
...can't say no to his daddy, hanging on me!
I need me a man! You hear?!
A man!
And I don't want to smell no goddamn stinking pipe, Albert!
Get that thing to make me something to eat.
No, I'll make it myself.
Albert?
Shit!
Eggs. Skillet. Why are the pots up here?
You can't get to them.
Butter, butter, butter.
On the shelf in the cooler.
Butter? Butter!
In the cooler, on the shelf.
Albert.
How do you work this stove?
Ain't hot enough.
Can't even keep a stove burning good all day.
She can't even keep her oven hot!
You're useless sometimes!
Wood. Wood.
Did you ever cook on this?
It still ain't hot enough!
I'll get it hot. I'll show you how to make it...hot.
Baby, look what I done brought you.
Have I got a surprise for you. This'll make you all well.
This is burnt, but the eggs are the way you like them.
Are you trying to kill me?
Now, baby, don't be that way!
I told you, I don't want nothing!
I just stand back, and wait to see what the wall will look like.
See what kind of colors Shug'll put on there now.
What you staring at? Never seen a naked woman before?
You got any children?
Yes, ma'am.
"Yes, ma'am"? I ain't that old.
Two.
Where they at?
I don't know.
Who are you?
Celie, ma'am.
You ain't well.
Mind your own business. I feel fine. Just had to eat.
Now, put some more bubbling oil in this tub.
You got kids?
Yeah.
They with my ma and pa.
Never knowed a child to come out right without a man around.
Children...
...got to have a pa.
Your pa love you?
My pa loved me.
My pa still loves me...
...except he don't know it.
He don't know it.
Hey, boy! Here, boy!
Nobody here to greet your Pa?
Sure ain't nobody in the fields.
Just couldn't rest till you got her in your house, could you?
Cool drink?
Take your hat?
What is it with this Shug Avery?
She black as tar...
...nappy-headed....
She got legs like baseball bats.
Her own daddy won't have nothing to do with her.
Old Mr. talking trash about Shug.
Folks don't like nobody being too proud or free.
She's no more than a jook joint Jezebel.
She ain't even clean.
I hear she's got that nasty women's disease.
You ain't got it in you to understand.
I love Shug Avery.
Always have, always will.
Should've married her when I had a chance.
And throwed your life away. And a right smart of my money with it.
I hear all her children's got different daddies.
It's all too trifling and confused.
All Shug's children got the same daddy. I can vouch--
You can vouch for nothing!
Shug Avery done set the population of Hartwell County a new high.
You just one of the roosters, boy.
You has my sympathy.
Ain't many women's allow they husband's whore to lay up in they house.
Hand Pa his hat.
Next time, I put a little Shug Avery pee in his glass...
...and see how he like that.
I ain't heard so much racket since before Sofia left.
Every evening after he leave the field...
...he knocking down and piling things up.
Sometime his friend, Swain, come by to help.
Harpo!
Two of them worked long way past supper.
Mr. have to call and tell them to shut up the racket.
What you doing?
Building a jook joint!
Way back here?
Jook joints supposed to be way back in the woods.
You never seen this before.
I know what a cow looks like.
You ain't never seen a cow like this.
Welcome to Harpo's! I'm Harpo.
Hell, I'd drink your bath water!
Oh, sugar dumpling, let me taste some!
You can catch a fish without a hook, girl.
Looks like Albert brought his maid.
Last time I saw that kind of hat was at my mama's funeral.
There are only two kinds of children in this world...
...God's children and Satan's!
Babylon ain't no far-off place in the desert.
It's right here! Just a few hundred yards from this holy place.
The song I'm about to sing...
...is called "Miss Celie's Blues."
Because she scratched it out of my head when I was ailing.
Sister
You been on my mind
Oh, sister
We're two of a kind
So, sister
I'm keeping my eyes on you.
I bet you think I don't know nothing
But singing the blues.
Oh, sister
Have I got news for you.
I'm something.
I hope you think that you're something, too.
Oh, scuffling
I been up that lonesome road
And I seen a lot of suns going down
Oh, but, trust me
No low life's going to run me around.
So let me tell you something, sister
Remember your name
No twister
Going to steal your stuff away
My sister
We sure ain't got a whole lot of time
So shake your shimmy
Sister
Because, honey, this Shug is feeling...
Fine!
I used to live here.
This used to be my living room. That was my kitchen.
Harpo run the doors and windows from the creek to here.
Now, somewhere is my dining room.
Look at who's here. It's Miss Celie.
Miss Celie, it sure is good to see you.
Pull up a chair. Have a cold drink.
I believes I want me some of this here.
I want to introduce y'all to my friend. Henry Broadnax is his name.
Everybody call him Buster. He's a good friend of the family.
How you doing? How you feel?
-Where are your children? -At home. Where are yours?
What you doing here?
I came to hear Miss Shug sing and to see what a nice place you built.
This is scandalous! A woman with children in a jook joint!
A woman need to have a little fun, Harpo.
A woman need to be at home.
I don't fight my woman's battles.
My job is to love her and take her where she want to go. Right?
Let's dance.
First time I ever been knocked out without a punch.
Be nice now.
Who this woman?
You know who this is.
She best leave you alone.
Fine with me.
Stay. This is my jook joint.
You said it's our jook joint!
Can't a man dance with his wife?!
Not if she left him.
And not if he my man. You just a big old heifer!
Like I said, fine with me.
Time to go.
Oh, shit!
This is my place!
Get off my boy!
What about me?
Come on, I don't want to come in after you.
Lord have mercy! Firemen ain't gonna get it, somebody call the law!
You can light a fire without a match.
You can catch a fish without a hook. You can make a blind man see.
Now do your shimmy.
Shake your shimmy, girl! Come on! Show me your stuff!
Miss Celie, why you always covering up your smile?
Show me some teeth.
Show me that pretty smile.
Oh, girl, you need...
...a smiling lesson.
Made him stout. Wasn't satisfied till he made him a snout.
Made him a snout as long as a rail.
Wasn't satisfied till he made him a tail. Made him a tail--
You see, Miss Celie, you gots a beautiful smile.
Well, Miss Celie, I do believe it's time for me to go.
September. Yeah, September be a good time to go off in the world.
What's the matter?
He beat me when you ain't here.
Who do?
Albert?
Mister.
Why he do that?
He beat me for not being you.
I know he a bully...
...but there's some things I love about him.
You still love him?
I got what you call a passion for him.
If I was ever going to have a husband, he'd been it. But he weak.
Tell me the truth.
Do you mind if Albert sleep with me?
You like sleeping with him?
I have to confess, I love it. Don't you?
No, most time I pretend I ain't even there.
He don't know the difference.
He don't never ask me how I feel.
He never ask me about myself.
He just climb on top of me and do his business.
"Do his business"?
You sound like...
...he going to the toilet on you.
That's what it feel like.
Then, Miss Celie...
...that mean you still a virgin.
-Yeah, because don't nobody love me. -I love you.
-You think I's ugly. -No, I don't.
"You ugly. You sure is ugly."
"You still ugly."
Amen.
Oh, Miss Celie, that was just the salt in the sugar.
Me being jealous of you and Albert.
I think you beautiful.