Green Book Review

Based on a true story about an inter-racial road trip film set in the ’60s Deep South Green Book is one of the leading awards contenders for the 2018/2019 season.

Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) was a bouncer at the Copacabana nightclub in New York. After the club shuts for renovations Tony has to find alternative employment for two months. He gets headhunted to act as a driver and bodyguard for Doc Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a black pianist who plans a concert tour of the Deep South. The chalk-and-cheese pairing have to deal with their clash of personalities, cultures and the Segregation policies of the region.

The 88th Academy Awards was met with controversy because no black filmmakers or actors were nominated for any awards. Since then the Academy has made a point about nominating films with a focus on black themes. This year’s Academy Award has four films earning nominations – Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, If Beale Street Could Talk and of course Green Book.  Green Book is the type of film that the Oscars love, focusing the theme of prejudice – it’s one of the main reasons Clash beat films like Brokeback Mountain and Good Night and Good Luck at the 78th Academy Awards.

Whilst Green Book looks at a heavy subject matter it is for the most part a light-hearted film that has a lot of mainstream appeal. Peter Farrelly, one-half of the Farrelly brothers, directed and co-wrote the film and it is a change for a filmmaker known for making films like Dumb and Dumber and There’s Something About Mary. Green Book‘s humour comes from it’s the dialogue and character interactions instead of the outlandish situations and it was solidly humorous.

The key for Green Book was the relationship and chemistry between its two main characters. Mortensen and Ali have both received acting nominations for their performances. They have great chemistry together as they verbally spar and debate with each other. Green Book is a classic story about a clash of personalities and cultures. As well as their different skin tones both men were from different classes, have different personalities and contrasting outlooks on life. Don was middle class who has intelligential pursuits whilst Tony was working class who doesn’t have much decorum. Tony has no problems with stereotypes associated with Italian-Americans – he freely admits that he lives up to them. Don knows he faces an uphill struggle and if he lived up to any African-American stereotype it would be a stain against him. However, Don does not have much affinity with other black people who have to do manual labour and he does not like to partake in physical activities.

Green Book was a character study. There was an obvious journey that despite the two main characters’ differences they learn from each other and becomes friends and it was done very well in this film. Tony and his family start out with prejudices  – they hang around when a couple of black repairmen out of fear and Tony throws away a couple of glasses they drank from. Don was the most interesting character because he is a lonely figure who’s trying to do his own bit for the Civil Rights Movement – he refuses to the bow to the segregation policies of Deep South. As he puts it ‘never surrender your dignity’. Tony had a more practical outlook which means he has to do any action to get Don out of trouble and leads to conflict between the two.

The film does a fine job at showing segregation in the Deep South. Throughout the region Don is treated as a second class citizen – he is refused service in stores, the hotels he has to stay at are rundown holes and even when he’s the guest of honour at venues he is treated poorly like having to use different facilities to the concert goers and even his own co-performers. When he tours the Deep South places like restaurants – black people are hired despite people from their communities would be refused service.

Green Book has a running time of 130 minutes which is long for this type of film. Green Book is a simple road trip that takes place over a short window of time. It’s the type of film that could have lasted 105 minutes because it’s a film that is obvious with its themes and it does repeat some of the same points and situations. It could have mashed up some incidents to reduce the running time.

Green Book has been criticised for its historical accuracy. Don Shirley’s brother has stated that Don and Tony’s relationship was simply employer-employee and that they weren’t really friends. Tony’s son, Nick Vallelonga, co-wrote the screenplay so he would have put his father in the best possible light. Certain situations in the film do seem fictionalised to maximise the drama.

Green Book is an accessible film about Segregation and racism due to being a more comedic film. It is able to entertain whilst being able to look at a serious subject.