Chapter 7 of 10 · 2'59"
On the surface he is explaining a turn at forty and calls the film "a very sobering journey." Underneath is the mirror scene he never shot. "I just didn't go for the full monty the way the book did" means the book went further, and the reason he gives is that he was timid.
❝ Monologue · 5 lines Taking On a Sobering Journey
❝ Monologue · 7 lines Admitting he stopped short
He starts with the critics, names the skipped scene, and ends on timid, not technique.
Spielberg talks about choosing The Color Purple near forty, less optimistic and ready for a sobering journey. Clips show a woman who will kill a man dead before he beats her, then a line about climbing on to do his business, which the reply hears as a toilet. He admits the mirror scene stayed out of the film because he was timid.
He frames the choice as maturity near forty: humanistic subject matter, and a sobering journey he was willing to take on. One line says, "I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me." Someone calls the material a really big deal, "messing in some territory where if you get it wrong, then you get a lot of people upset," and says he wanted to stretch himself. The next voice says he pushes himself, but not too far ahead of the audience or his core inclination. Sex is passed over with "Just climb on top of me, do his business," and the reply hears a toilet. He answers critics who disliked that he shied away from Shug and Celie. The mirror scene "would've really changed the entire nature and tone of the film," yet "I just didn't go for the full monty the way the book did." He was timid and embarrassed: "wasn't the right guy." Someone else says: "He could never go where Alice went with that book."
A1–C2 is the CEFR scale. Cards above the level you pick fade, and playback will not auto-pause on them.
“I was turning 40 and I was looking at life perhaps less optimistically.”
A birthday and a dimmer outlook land together without turning into a speech.
Neutral
“A girl child ain't safe in a family of mens, but I ain't never thought I had to fight in my own house!”
The danger shrinks from the whole family into her own house, and that shock is the line.
literary
“God knows I do, but I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me.”
Love is said first, then a limit: death before she takes another beating.
Informal
“I just didn't go for the full monty the way the book did.”
Slang does the confessing, so the shortfall sounds human instead of technical.
Informal
“I was just timid. I was just a little embarrassed.”
The repetition strips the excuse and leaves only timid and embarrassed.
Informal
“He could never go where Alice went with that book.”
Never closes it: not a delay, a limit in the person telling the story.
Neutral
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. A girl child ain't safe in a family of mens, but I ain't 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.
Spielberg: I got in trouble with several critics who didn't like that I shied away from the love story between Shug and Celie. And the scene where Shug Avery shows Celie, with a mirror, her vagina, that that did not go into the movie, which would've really changed the entire nature and tone of the film. I just didn't go for the full monty the way the book did. I might've done that had I made the movie 10 years later. I was just timid. I was just a little embarrassed. I just wasn't the right guy to do that.
Up next · 08pariahThe scene: Spielberg Denies the Name ShmuelHe says Shug shows Celie her vagina with a mirror, and that scene did not go into the movie because it would have changed the entire nature and tone. He was timid, a little embarrassed, and says he just wasn't the right guy. He adds he might have done it had he made the movie ten years later.
He was turning 40 and looking at life perhaps less optimistically. He knew it was going to be a very sobering journey, and he was willing to take it on. He is talking about making the film, not about going on a trip.
The line before is "Just climb on top of me, do his business." The reply repeats "Do his business" and says "you sound like he going to the toilet on you." The light wording comes first. The toilet is the other person's reading of it.
No. He says he just didn't go for the full monty the way the book did. His reason is that he was timid and a little embarrassed. Someone else adds that he could never go where Alice went with that book.
