I spent two years of my life living in the American Deep South. In that time, I saw a lot that opened my eyes to the racial divide that still exists in this country to this very day. I saw remnants of the segregated drinking fountains and restrooms, I saw restaurants with signs in the window that proudly proclaimed “Whites Only”, and I saw churches that propagated this racial divide. This was back in the mid-1990s, long after Martin Luther King Jr. and anti-segregation laws were put into place. Even in those places, though, certain aspects of racial history just weren’t discussed anymore, such as the need for a Black person to possess a copy of the Green Book so that they would know what places in the South were accessible to their kind. When traveling down South back in the day, they needed to “know their place” and stick to it. It didn’t matter how lauded or famous they were in the world; there were no exceptions.
The 2018 film Green Book brought this to my attention in a way the school history classes and a few years in the South didn’t. For that, I am grateful. However, this is not a film that is considered to have aged well, though it is well-intentioned. In the years since it first released, it has been looked upon as heavy-handed and a little tone-deaf to the true issues of racism. It also falls back on the stereotype of the White Savior, a trope that is used far too often. While I acknowledge that this is a problem with the film as a whole, I can also look at it as something that works on a more simplified level. Sure, this is surface-level messaging, but it is also an enjoyable film on that level and has a good message about overcoming racial stereotypes and finding commonality between the races. It is heavy-handed, and the finale can be seen from a mile away, but it is far from being offensive and color-blind.
The film is inspired by true events. The difference between “inspired by” and “based on” is that when something is merely inspired by, it only has to bear a casual resemblance to the established facts. The family members of Dr. Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali in the film) have been outspoken about this in the years since the film’s release, especially highlighting that while there was a mutual respect between the two men, Shirley and Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), there was no deep friendship between them. Their relationship remained strictly professional. Things like Shirley’s isolation from his family and his culture were likewise fabricated or exaggerated for dramatic effect. Don’t learn history from the movies…etc.
But if you can forgive the embellishments and look at this as a piece of fiction, loosely tied into real individuals, then there is some enjoyment to be had here. Sure, it’s more of a “white man’s depiction of a black man’s life” per his family’s viewpoint, but it does accurately present the racial attitudes of the Deep South during this time period as well as the gradual lightening of Tony’s personal attitude towards black people, especially Dr. Shirley, over time. The film condenses the more than a year he drove Shirley around on tour into a couple of months, but that allows for more dramatic licensing and makes for an overall better ending.
The film opens with Tony Vallelonga, aka Tony Lip, an Italian-American bouncer who is out of work while the Copacabana is closed for renovations. With money tight and options few, he takes an invite to interview with Don Shirley, an African-American pianist in need of a driver for his eight-week concert tour through the Midwest and Deep South. After some negotiations, Don hires Tony based on the strength of his references with an agreement that they will return to New York City on Christmas Eve so he can spend the holidays with his family. Don’s record label supplies the two with a copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide for African American travelers that contains the addresses of motels, restaurants, and filling stations that will serve them in the Jim Crow South.
As expected, Tony and Don do not initially get along with Tony bristling against being told to act more dignified and disliking how little Don understands of his own race’s culture, such as popular Black music and even fried chicken. But Tony is determined to do his job and see to it that Don makes all of his performances on time, stepping in whenever Don gets into trouble with racists, troublemakers, or thieves. Don, for his part, helps Tony with his letters to his wife, helping him compose notes that become the envy of the other Italian housewives back home. Through the course of the eight weeks, the two develop a mutual respect for each other, helping Tony get past his initial racist feelings and become friendly with him.
Don’s lack of understanding about African American culture comes across as shallow. We first see this when he is staying at a motel in the South and stands out like a sore thumb, wearing his suit and being mistaken for a servant or butler. The other Black men at the motel find him too uppity when he refuses to join them in a game of horseshoes. Tony later buys him some Kentucky Fried Chicken and is surprised that Don has never had fried chicken before and doesn’t want any. Tony is also surprised that Don isn’t familiar with any of the popular Black musicians on the radio. Don has basically been raised on classical music and expected to live in a white man’s world while not being accepted amongst that circle. By doing so, he has alienated himself from his own people, too, feeling not a part of either race, isolated and alone. This isolation is worsened by his lack of familial bonds, too.
Tony’s stance on Don softens when he begins to see how much racism is leveled against the man the further south they get. Don is allowed to perform his music for white people but not dine with them or even use their restrooms. He’s basically treated like a trained animal, a curiosity but not an equal. Don knew things would be difficult and could have easily stayed in New York making more money than this tour pays, but he wanted to tour the Deep South for his own reasons.
Racism is always a tricky subject to portray, especially if your lead character is presented as such. Early on, Tony’s wife Dolores (Linda Cardellini) has two Black men over to do repairs on the apartment. She offers them drinks afterwards, and Tony takes the cups they use and throws them away like they are somehow infected. He doesn’t say a word to Dolores about this, but she sees the cups in the trash and knows it was him and why. By the end of the film, he is inviting Don up to their place for Christmas Eve dinner, something he would have never done two months prior. Dolores’ response to seeing Don being invited in by her husband tells us just how much of a changed man he is.
Changing a man’s heart is not something that happens overnight. It’s a gradual thing that comes from two people getting to know each other, seeing each other at their lowest, and realizing that there is more in common there than there are differences. This film may not be subtle, but it does get that message across in a way that is impossible to miss. This film came out after the infamous Oscars So White protests and benefited from voters who were being instructed to consider diversity in their votes as well as a heavy influx in voters of color. This was not the only reason Green Book won Best Picture that year, but it was a contributing factor. That is not to say it was not a worthy nominee, just that many consider its inclusion on the ballot—along with other films that featured African American casts or tackled the race issue like Black Panther and BlackKklansman—as a bid for inclusion and an attempt to avoid yet another year of racial controversy at the Oscars.
Is Green Book deserving of its Best Picture win, then? I would say so. There are other films nominated that year that are just as strong in their own ways, but Green Book stands out as an easily digestible film that tackles some tricky subjects while remaining entertaining. It has a feel-good ending that is reminiscent of films like Planes, Trains and Automobiles while at the same time throwing in a bit of moralizing. It may not be subtle, but sometimes you need to ditch the subtlety and play with a sledgehammer instead. It’s not the greatest film to win a Best Picture Oscar, but it is also not the worst. It’s definitely not deserving of the negative reactions it gets these days.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Jim Burke, Charles B. Wessler, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly, and Nick Vallelonga (won)
Best Actor: Viggo Mortensen
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali (won)
Best Original Screenplay: Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, and Peter Farrelly (won)
Best Film Editing: Patrick J. Don Vito
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Release Date: November 16, 2018
Running Time: 130 Minutes
Rated PG-13
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, and Linda Cardellini
Directed by: Peter Farrelly
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