just ugly, black grease, need to be wiped away

On Precious:

If Crash is the Do the Right Thing of my generation, that makes Precious the The Color Purple of my generation. Precious gives us the same character of Celie from The Color Purple. She is a poor, ugly, black woman, but she is resilient. All of her life has been oppressive, but this movie is the story of her redemption. Precious finally breaks through in this movie. The similarities between Precious and Celie are blatantly obvious. Both are mothers to their father's children, both have been separated from their children and both live in a prison of a home. Another distinct similarity is a prettier, black woman helps both of them break away.

The main difference between the two stories is the setting. The Color Purple takes place about a hundred years ago and a few hundred miles away from Harlem. Precious shows that this story is still going on. It paint a picture of the same tragedies that Celie endures in The Color Purple, but in the viewer's backyard. That is part of the reason that the movie hits so hard, it shows the viewer that this is still happening today and it is happening in New York. The other reason that this movie hits so hard is because nothing goes unsaid in Precious. The abused from both parents, the extent of the mother's hate for her daughter and her jealousy, the everyday violence that Precious puts up with. It can only be assumed that the whole story is told here, but that may not be the case. There may be horrible things written in the book "Push" that Precious was based off of, that were omitted in the movie. Maybe even things that never made it to the book to begin with.

The most amazing part of the story of Precious is how resilient love is. In American History X it is shown that hate is baggage, but Precious tells a different story with a similar message: love is resilient. Even though she does not know it herself, Precious is full of love. The love of a mother that is endless, even though that is a love she never knew for herself, she has it to give to Abdul and Mongo. She also has love for her sisters and Ms. Rain, who took her in when no one else did.