Movie Reviews #71: Green Book…
Green Book. Peter Farrelly, dir. Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) is a classically trained black pianist who is the lead in a trio based in NYC that plays classic jazz and stylized popular tunes. He lives over Carnegie Hall back during the sixties. He wants Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) to be his driver on the trio’s tour south. Tony thinks Shirley means Atlantic City, but the pianist corrects him: he means the Deep South, not a good place for a black to be in the sixties.
This begins this road trip story based on real events. It’s a trip through the southern bastions of bigotry and hatred that still exist today. Shirley’s motivation is to prove a point, that no matter how much white men and women like his music, he’s still considered inferior, a person who can’t eat in a white restaurant or even pee with whites. Tony’s job is to protect the gifted pianist from those who can’t get past the color of his boss’s skin.
What’s great about this story is that two men from two different worlds come to understand each other and each other’s worlds enough to become fast friends. I think Dr. King would approve of that message. Lately we don’t hear it enough, though. On the contrary, we have backtracked in many ways, becoming an us-versus-them society where politicians exploit racist attitudes, hatred, and bigotry for their own ends, and voters, like lemmings, follow them over the cliffs these pols create.
The movie has some funny moments too (it’s called a comedy, but the general theme is serious). Tony’s from the Bronx, so the movie plays off the contrasts between the suave and sophisticated musician and Tony’s good-hearted street smarts. And there are also plenty of warm moments too where we can enjoy our common humanity.
The movie had some pre-Oscar controversy. Some people stated that it follows the Hollywood norm of Driving Miss Daisy of painting the black man as having to be better than others to be treated equal. I can understand where these critics are coming from (most notably Spike Lee), but historical treatments always benefit us by putting the present in context. I also thought it was a bit inaccurate. In the sixties, the South was fighting the Civil War again, but that green book covered many cities north of the Mason-Dixon line. Racism can be found everywhere. And should we write the stereotyping of an Italian thug from the Bronx as unfair too? My take: the movie told Dr. Shirley and Tony Lip’s story. Period.
Maybe more of us should see this movie to discover what coming together is all about. It was nominated for five Oscars—for best picture, Mortensen for best actor, Ali for best supporting actor, best original screenplay, and best film editing. Oscar favored the movie and Ali, as he spread his magic touch around the nominees. Mortensen can be happy, though, because the movie was a team effort. It was on my list of must-see movies for a while, even before the Oscar nominations (holidays, edits for my new book, and taxes got in the way). I’m glad I could finally experience it last week when I told myself, “Geez, this movie should get something.” It’s definitely one of the best movies of 2018, if not the best as the Academy would have it. I saw many good ones–Black Panther, for example, even though it avoids the hard reality that Green Book treated.
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Comments are welcome.
The Secret Lab and The Secret of the Urns. On a lighter note, consider these two young adult sci-fi mysteries from A. B. Carolan.
The first novel takes place in the future on the International Space Station where Shashibala Garcia and her friends try to discover the origins of a mutant cat that keeps disappearing on them. They uncover much more.
The second novel takes place much later and follows Asako Kobayashi’s dream for studying the natives of Hard Fist, a satellite of a Jupiter-like planet. She has to fight bigotry and hatred to follow her dream.
Both novels are available in ebook versions from Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers (iBooks, B&N, Kobo, etc), as well as print on Amazon.
And another young adult sci-fi mystery from A. B. is coming soon! It’s called Mind Games.
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
