Ep650: ORPHANS OF THE STORM / THE COLOR PURPLE with Armond White

The Color Purple had such a profound impact on film critic Armond White (and, to his mind, the pop landscape of 1985) that he marked it as an era in his latest book, Make Spielberg Great Again.

Today, Ian and Armond look at Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated drama, and the movie that both inspired and mirrored it, D.W. Griffith's Orphans of the Storm. Despite having been released more than a half-century apart, and despite focusing on two distinctly separate worlds (the Jim Crow South and Revolution-era France, respectively) both stories center on young sisters ripped apart by oppressive cultural forces--eventually reunited by a love that transcends geography, violence, and treachery.

This spoilerific discussion includes thoughts on the changing attitudes about race and representation in film; how Spielberg, in adapting Alice Walker's novel for the big screen, channeled a grand narrative legacy that includes Griffith, Ford, and Dickens; and Armond's eye-popping pick for the heir to the Spielberg/Griffith throne!

Show Links:

• Watch The Color Purple trailer.

• Watch Orphans of the Storm free on Amazon Prime (no trailer available).

• Follow Armond at The National Review.

• Order the book that inspired this discussion, Armond's Make Spielberg Great Again.

• Subscribe to, like, and comment on the Kicking the Seat YouTube channel!