Continuity mistake: When the mayor slaps Sofia her two children change positions between shots. When she knocks him out the girl disappears. (00:06:10)
Continuity mistake: Mister's tie changes from red to blue when he asks for Nettie, and back to red when he inspects Celie. (00:07:25)
Continuity mistake: When Mister asks for Nettie and is told he can have Celie, Celie and Nettie are watching from behind him through a window on which a window lock is obvious. When the camera shows him on the porch, there is only an opened door behind him and no window. (00:08:15)
Continuity mistake: When Sofia comes to her in-laws' house for the first time Celie offers her a glass of lemonade. She empties it completely, but when she gives it back to Celie it's almost full again. (00:37:55)
Continuity mistake: After Harpo and Sophia are married, Harpo leans in to kiss Sophia but she is whisked away by relatives and he turns away. In the next shot we get a side view of Harpo and he is still leaning in to kiss her after he had already turned away in the previous shot. (00:38:35)
Continuity mistake: When Celie imagines throwing chocolate dollars from the train platform they scatter around, but the imagined Nettie finds them all in one place. (00:47:25)
Continuity mistake: When Celie is combing Shug Avery's hair while she is in the tub, you see Albert creeping up the stairs looking to see what is going on. In the background you hear his father shouting at the house, wondering if anyone is home. At the time Albert is at the top of the stairs he is wearing a reddish shirt. The next shot shows him walking out the door to meet his father, but now he is wearing a green shirt. (00:55:00)
Continuity mistake: Before Squeak hits Sofia she hands a tray with a bottle to Harpo. He hardly catches the bottle before it falls down, but when the camera angle changes he is holding the bottle upright. (01:07:50)
Continuity mistake: When Celie tries on one of Shug's dresses a record is playing. While the song is still on we see the record player again and the label has changed. Then Shug turns the record around, and now the label is the one from the beginning. (01:09:30 - 01:12:10)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Shug and Celie start kissing Celie covers her smile with one hand in a wide shot but with both hands in close-up. (01:14:30)
Continuity mistake: While Albert is throwing Nettie out of the yard, the sky changes. First, you can see the sun, then the sun is covered by a bunch of clouds, then the clouds are gone.
Continuity mistake: The letters that spell "sky" on the piece of waxed paper change throughout the whole movie.
Continuity mistake: In the scene when Celie offers Albert's father a glass of water, and she spits in it, in some shots it's ice cold, but in others it is transparent. Cold or warm? It seems we have two options.
Continuity mistake: When Celie is shaving Albert, the "patterns" of cream on his face change from shot to shot.
Continuity mistake: When he first brings Celie home to his family, Mister'shouse is a two-story plantation-style house with grand pillars, a front porch that does not span the whole width of the house and and an upper porch. Then, suddenly, his house is a farm-style house with a full-width front porch, and a full garden in front (the one with the mailbox across the dirt road from the house) and it's completely different from the first house.
