The Color Purple | 2023 | PG-13 | – 5.5.4

Why is “The Color Purple” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “mature thematic content, sexual content, violence and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a sex scene between an older man and a teen girl, an implied sex scene between two women, two women kissing, suggestive dancing and song lyrics, teen pregnancy, several discussions of men taking teen wives, discussions of women standing up to men that abuse them, many scenes of teen girls and women being beaten by men, a fight scene between two women that leads to a bar brawl, and arguments and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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Sisters (Fantasia Barrino & Ciara, Phylicia Pearl Mpasi & Halle Bailey) separated by the men controlling them search to rebuild their connection and their family through many painful years. Also with Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo, Corey Hawkins, H.E.R., David Alan Grier, Deon Cole, Jon Batiste, Louis Gossett Jr., Tamela J. Mann, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Elizabeth Marvel, Stephen Hill and Adetinpo Thomas. Directed by Blitz Bazawule. [Running Time: 2:21]

The Color Purple SEX/NUDITY 5

 – We hear bedsprings squeaking and a man moaning rhythmically before grunting and going to sleep next to a teen girl in his bed. A man enters a room where a teen girl is sleeping, he nudges her awake and she panics, moves away from him, he grabs her and she kicks him in the groin; he carries her out of the house and throws her in the mud during a loud thunderstorm, cocks a shotgun and shoots it in the air and then toward her as she runs away in the night. Two women watch a movie in a movie theater: one woman imagines performing a song and dance number with the other woman that ends with a kiss and we see the two women in the balcony kissing; they are later shown sleeping in bed together (sex is implied).
► A man and a woman kiss and caress each other, he pulls her hips close to his and they thrust and sway, and he takes her dress off and slaps her on the clothed buttock (she is wearing a full slip that reveals bare shoulders and cleavage); he then pulls her close and wraps her leg around his waist and she giggles as his wife walks by, sees them and glares. A man and a woman kiss. A husband and his wife kiss. A woman sings a song while reminiscing about her husband’s touch and caresses herself suggestively. A man pats a woman on the clothed buttock.
► A woman in a juke joint shimmies and thrusts while singing about a “special spot” and people repeat, “find the button,” and others dance along with her (we see cleavage, bare shoulders and her skirt lifts to reveal her underwear and upper legs when she is lifted off the floor); when the power is turned off we see in silhouette men and women striking sexual poses (all are still clothed). A woman asks another woman to wash her back; we see the first woman seated in a tub covered with bubbles (her partial bare breasts are seen). A woman wears a low-cut dress that reveals cleavage and a man peeks over her shoulder at her cleavage and smiles. A woman sings and shimmies her shoulders and hips. Women wear low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage in a few scenes. Several men are shown shirtless in a scene in Africa and we see bare chests and abdomens; women are seen wearing wrapped tops that reveal bare shoulders and cleavage.
► A teen girl tells her sister, “Pa tried to touch me. I can’t stay there anymore.” A man approaches another man and says that he wants to take one of his daughters as his wife (they are teenage girls); the second man refuses the man’s first choice saying that that daughter is too smart, but offers his other daughter because she will work hard. A man riding on a horse talks to a teen girl and tries to flirt with her; she is not interested and runs off. People sing and dance to a song describing a woman and she is referred to as “loose.” People sing about a woman wearing “skirts so short.” Women sing about their men being taken by another woman’s spell. A woman puts lipstick on another woman and tells her that a man “won’t be able to keep his hands off her,” and the woman recoils.
► A teen girl gives birth with a midwife and her child is taken away shortly after birth; we see the delivery and we see the newborn with a bit of goo on its flesh. A teenage girl is shown to be pregnant.

The Color Purple VIOLENCE/GORE 5

 – A man hits a teen girl hard in the face and she falls to the floor with tears on her cheeks. A man enters a room where a teen girl is sleeping, he nudges her awake and she panics, moves away from him, he grabs her and she kicks him in the groin; he carries her out of the house and throws her in the mud during a loud thunderstorm, cocks a shotgun and shoots it in the air and then toward her as she runs away in the night. A man slams a woman hard in the face, knocking her to the floor and we see blood in her mouth; he tells her to shave him, which she does, and he grabs her hand roughly when she holds the blade to his throat. A young woman confronts another woman about dancing with her boyfriend and calls her a name; she punches the woman in the face and the second woman hits her back starting a brawl among many people in a juke joint (one person is thrown through an open window and onto a walkway without injuries seen). A man grabs a woman by the arm roughly after throwing her plate of food on the floor. A woman berates a man at a table where others are also seated and she lunges at him with a knife in her hand; the others pull her away before causing injury. A woman tells another woman that her children are “so chocolate you could just eat ’em,” and then tells her that she should come work for her as her maid; when the woman refuses in no uncertain terms, the first woman’s husband slaps her in the face, she punches the man in the face and she is surrounded by several men and struck hard in the head with a tire iron (we understand that she is held in a cell for 6 years).
► A woman is shown in a jail cell and we hear that she hasn’t been eating; she has a bruise on her face and she pleads for a woman visiting her not to leave her when an officer forces her to go. A teenage girl is shown to be pregnant and a man says that he will “give it to God, like he did the other one,” she fears that he will kill the child and asks, “How come God don’t give ’em back?” We hear that a woman was shot by the man “she had on the side.” A young woman asks, “If God loves me why did he take my babies.” A teen girl tells her sister, “Pa tried to touch me. I can’t stay there anymore.” A teen girl says of her sister, “She must be dead,” since she hadn’t heard from her. A teen girl asks, “What kind of God are you?” A young woman tells a man that she and the man’s son will be getting married and that they are having a baby; the man becomes upset and yells at his son saying, “She ain’t worthy of you.” A woman yells at another woman and is dismissive to her in a few scenes.
► We hear in a letter, accompanied by a re-enactment, that a village in Africa was bombed to make way for a cocoa field and the British colonial army invaded and threw the residents out. A woman picks another woman up from jail and takes her to her home saying that she will be working and living with her now, to the shock of the woman’s family. As an insult, a man calls out to a woman that she is, “Black, poor, ugly and a woman.” A woman says that a man “can’t even stand up to his own daddy.” A man tells his adult son that he should be ashamed of himself and that a woman he is having an affair with is cursed. A woman says of a man, “He ain’t no good.” A man tells another man that his daughter will work hard like a man. A teen girl tells a man that her feet are not pretty, that she has blisters, bunions and corns on them. Two teen girls tell a story about a young girl that returned to the fields to work for an abusive overseer. Song lyrics include phrases like, “No lip from a woman,” and “Sippin’ on the beer.” A teen girl talks about the pain of not having her babies. A man says that he is “as full as a tick on a big old dog” after a meal.
► A man tells his teen daughter to pack her things and go with a man to be his wife; the teen walks behind the man carrying her belongings. A man hides mail that arrives for a young woman. A young woman enters a gambling and drinking establishment and men inside are upset because women are not allowed on the premises. A man is shown passed out on a bar and a young man wakes him and helps him walk out of the establishment; he stumbles through a field and collapses in the mud, being awakened the next day by the postal delivery person.
► A wife packs her belongings and leaves her husband after he threatens to beat her. A man is seen with a bump and a bruise on his forehead and we understand that his wife hit him in the head with something. A teen girl sees an infant in a stroller and realizes that she is her child, and tries to speak to her as her father yells at her to get back to work. A woman throws a plate of food against a wall and yells at a man, “Are you trying to poison me?” People are shown grieving at a man’s funeral.
► A field of plants is discovered to be infested with beetles and the field is shown in flames later. A work gang is shown hammering large sledgehammers into hard ground while grunting and kicking up dust. A teen girl is shown having to clean up a house in a deplorable state while also taking care of a man and his three children. Thunder and lightning crash and flash in the sky and rain pours down in a few scenes. Many birds swoop through the sky as people watch and talk about a plague.
► A woman spits in a man’s water glass and he drinks the water. A teen girl’s water breaks (we hear a splash of water) and she gives birth yelling and pushing, with the assistance of a midwife and her child is taken away shortly after birth; we see the delivery and we see the newborn with a bit of goo on its flesh. A woman burps and collapses in a man’s arms (she’s inebriated).

The Color Purple LANGUAGE 4

 – 3 sexual references, 3 scatological terms, 2 anatomical terms, 26 mild obscenities (additional in song lyrics), 2 derogatory terms for African-American people, name-calling (slow as mud, Tomboy, that thing, devil, stupid, inch of a man, skinny, stout, snaggle-toothed heifer, cockroach, foolishness, ho, smelly swamp, don’t have no brains, sack of dead horse [scatological term deleted], toothless goat, loose, mean as a train), exclamations (watch your mouth, what in tarnation, shut-up, live a little), 15 religious exclamations (e.g. the good Lord works in mysterious ways, oh Lord, Lord, mercy to glory, dear God, Lord have mercy, God, God is in everything, Amen, God knows I do). | profanity glossary |

The Color Purple SUBSTANCE USE

 – Song lyrics include “sippin’ on the beer,” men in a saloon drink and smoke while gambling, people drink a clear liquor from large glasses (someone calls it jungle juice), people drink in a juke joint, a man is shown passed out on a bar and it is implied that he drinks a lot, people drink shots of liquor, an inebriated woman collapses in a man’s arms, and a woman drinks from a flask. A man smokes a pipe on a porch, and people smoke in a juke joint.

The Color Purple DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Sisters, family, racism, lies, gender roles, faith, power, fear, physical abuse, teen pregnancy, incest, shame, death of a parent, forgiveness, mercy, jealousy, vanity, admiration, fighting back, hope, trouble.

The Color Purple MESSAGE

 – Life can never break your soul. Loving who you really are can take some effort, but it’s worth it in the end.