Why Steven Spielberg’s black drama The Color Purple remains controversial 40 years on

This is the latest instalment in our From the Vault feature series, in which we reflect on culturally significant movies celebrating notable anniversaries.

When Steven Spielberg was announced as the director of The Color Purple (1985), which turns 40 this month, few thought he was the right person for the job. Not even, it seems, Spielberg himself.

Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1982 novel concerns the plight of poor African-Americans in early 20th-century Georgia.

“You need a black director for this,” Spielberg told producer Quincy Jones. The response? “Did you have to be an alien to direct E.T.?”