Green Book

Watched it.

A very good story about how African Americans had to travel to be safe during the Jim Crow days in the South.

Based on real people and events, love this movie, its funny, serious and entertaining account of historical events and has a disney ending.

I really enjoyed this movie. Great, Great movie. Lessons taught, Lessons learned. 1st watch 03/03/2023.

Green Book will be notable in movie history if for no other reason than being the 2018 Best Picture winner at the Oscars. I stopped watching the Oscars years ago because they seem to delight in choosing the obscure or films that kowtow to popular fads, but Green Book is one of the rare exceptions that the Oscars got right. This film is the shared story of two disparate characters. The first is Don Shirley, an gifted African-American pianist, trained in Russia, connoisseur of languages, with an apartment above Carnegie Hall. The other was Tony Vallelonga, a rough-and-tumble Italian-American bouncer with connections to organized crime and a tremendous capacity to eat. When Shirley decides to undertake a tour of the Deep South in the early 1960s, he knows he will need protection. On the other hand, the nightclub Tony works at is closed for repairs and he needs a job for the next few months. After interviewing multiple people for the position of chauffeur, bodyguard, and bagman, Don eventually decides to hire Tony. At the beginning of their journey, there is a significant amount of friction between the two. Don is highly cultured, while Tony is salt of the earth; more notably, being of two different races leads Tony to make some insensitive, albeit not malicious, comments. Soon enough, however, Tony helps Don get out of tough situations and they bond. Some of the best scenes in the film are when Don performs. The piano work was actually done by Kris Bowers, but Mahershala Ali carries himself with confidence as he mimics the movements. Despite his obvious talent, Don is never fully accepted by white society. As Don himself notes, he feels too white to fit into black society and too black to join white society. This internal conflict reaches an emotional resolution in one of the final scenes of the film. There has been some criticism from Don Shirleys family that the film whitewashes aspects of his life. Leaving aside the question of whether Shirley was estranged from his kin (I get the impression he was), no story is able to incorporate every single perspective. Tony Vallelonga clearly held Don Shirley in high regard and viewed him as a friend, an attitude many white people fifty years ago were incapable of. More importantly, even if the story were entirely fictional, I think it offers a valuable lesson that we as human beings can learn from others whose experiences (and hence their perspectives) are different from our own. If nothing else, the film acquainted me with Don Shirley, who I had never heard of before, but whose music I now own on vinyl. The moments of levity, drama, and musical virtuosity in this film make it a great way to pass an evening. I highly recommend that everyone take the time to enjoy the performances of Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen.

I was aware of the Green Book, however the movie puts in real life perspective of how horrible the experience was for those restricted to certain motels and restaurants. Dr. Shirley, who was highly educated, did not receive the professionalism he deserved. I HIGHLY recommend this movie.

Good plot, good filming, good acting, just good all around.

I didn’t like the rough language. But it was a good story.