Steven Spielberg directed a film.
Steven Spielberg . Spielberg 's early science-fiction and adventure films , such as Jaws ( 1975 ) , Close Encounters of the Third Kind ( 1977 ) , Raiders of the Lost Ark ( 1981 ) , and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ( 1982 ) , were seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood escapist filmmaking . The Color Purple is a 1985 American period drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Menno Meyjes , based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Alice Walker .