In the confrontation between Squeak and Sofia, Shug Avery can be clearly seen behind Squeak (wearing a red sequin dress), but changes position, and even disappears in one shot, then reappears.
The girl with a ribbon in her hair is sitting next to Sofia at the dinner table, but quickly disappears and then reappears a couple of times whenever the scene cuts away and then goes back to Sofia.
When Sofia first meets Harpo's father, she drinks an entire glass of lemonade. However, she is shown handing back the glass almost full.
The letters of the word "Sky" on the wax paper change constantly throughout the movie.
The shaving cream on Mister's face changes between shots as Celie is sharpening the razor and Shug is seen running to the house.
When she is returning from Memphis on the train, Celie is sipping wine in the dining car. An African-American person could not eat in the dining car in the late 1930s, especially on a Southern run.
A large round Coca Cola button sign is shown when Sophia says "Hell No." This scene is set in the 1920's, and these particular Coke signs were not produced until the 1950's.
At the beginning of the scene when Shug returns to Miss Celie and Albert after being married it says it's Spring 1936 on the screen. When Celie opens the letter from her sister it's dated April 1935, but it's more then possible, that the letter was traveling for this whole time and April 1935 is the header date that Nettie wrote.
After Sofia is knocked unconscious by the sheriff, her right hand starts to reach out for her wind-blown skirt.
When Mister finds Celie out in a field reading one of Nettie's letters and strikes her, the letter, her glasses, and the book she was carrying (to hide the letter while she read) all scatter while falling to the ground. In the next shot, we see a close-up of the book, letter, and her glasses all neatly stacked on top of each other as they land on the ground.
When Celie holds Olivia immediately after giving birth, she is obviously holding a doll, as the hands are sticking straight up and not moving (although the baby is crying).
When Shug is opening the letter from Nettie to Celie, she runs her finger underneath the flap of the envelope, although the flap is shown to be already open.
When Squeak hits Sofia in the nightclub, Sofia moves her head before she is hit.
Albert puts on a clip-on tie in 1916. The clip-on tie was not invented until 1928.
The Johnsons' mailbox, featured as early as 1906, is a Joroleman mailbox. This style mailbox was not available until 1915 when it was designed by U.S. Post Office employee Roy J. Joroleman.
When Cele attends the funeral of the man she has discovered to be her step-father rather than her father, there is snow on the trees in the background; however, one can see that the trees' leaves are green under the snow which shows that they have been intentionally covered with snow and it was probably summer rather than winter during the time of shooting.
During the church scenes with the "God's Trying To Tell You Something" track, a Hammond organ is audible, being played through a Leslie rotary speaker in the left channel. However, the Leslie (then known as Vibratone) rotary speaker wasn't introduced until the mid to late 1940's and it certainly was not marketed alongside a Hammond organ. The Hammond Organ Company and Electro Music, the company which manufactured Leslie speakers, were involved in a bitter dispute over the popularity of the Leslie versus Hammond's own line of stationary tone cabinets.
When Celie has on Shug's dress in Shug's bedroom, Shug makes Celie look in the dresser mirror. There is another mirror on the dresser in which a crew member's head is visible.
After Celie looks out of the door of her pants shop and sees Mister, a person walks by. When the person walks by, you can see the reflection of a camera and a crew member in the glass.
When Sophia is in the field telling Celie "If you want a dead son-in-law, Miss Celie, you keep on advising him like you're doing." Actually, Harpo is Celie's step-son, not her son-in-law.