Green Book

We watched this movie several times on TV. Its such a great movie, I wanted to share it with my mother when I went for my monthly visit so I bought the cd. I highly recommend this show.

Unless you have been turned away from entering a business you cannot know how it feels to be degraded. Unless you were only offered the table by the kitchen door when the room was almost empty you will never know how it feels. But this movie takes a naive man that is not well educated and puts him in situations that he has never had to deal with before. The other brilliant men have all his life dealt with the ignorance of people, the hate, the stupidity. The Green Book is a must-see movie to remind us that we are no better than the men crossing the same street we are crossing. I will never play a piano like Don Shirley, but I can enjoy the mans works of art. What are you waiting for? Watch this movie!

This is a fantastic tail.

I have been wanting to watch this movie for so long, but I was hesitating because the level of racism in the South (and Im from LA) at that time was unfathomable. Its still not great, but this movie made the past so real to me. When I was teaching, I fought it on many levels because prejudice of any kind just boils my blood. However, would I have had the courage to fight it back then when it could have meant my life? Id like to hope that I would have been. The two main characters in this movie are both heroes and are so superbly portrayed by Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen. Linda Cardellini is, as always, so full of depth, emotion and vulnerability that she too adds to the overall dramatic impact of this beautiful film. I watched it for the first time three days ago, and I have watched it every day sense then. Once it starts playing, Im transported. The computer, the phone, everything just disappears, and it feels as if I too am taking a journey.

Loved watching this movie

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

Great movie

Excellent movie. I had all of my friends and family watch it also

Loved how 2 completely different people can become lifelong friends. Good portrayal of a turbulent time in our history. Reinforces that we should only judge a person by their actions.

The general story line is based on a true story of Dr Don Shirley, a prodigious pianist who hires an Italian bouncer to drive him into the “deep south” on a musical tour in the early ‘60s, in an age of segregation. Coming from an Italian heritage, I can confess that my culture is guilty of having had a history of exclusivity that still lingers to this present day. It’s nothing personal, it’s an Italian thing. Didn’t matter if you’re Black or White, it was if you were or were not a ‘Goomba’. Some of the terms used in the ‘60s are pejoratives today, particularly the n-word, which I’m relieved was refrained from use. The now derogatory term is derived from a reference to folks who hail from Niger. Instead, the script substitutes ‘Black’, a term yet unused in that generational time period, but is the English equivalent for the Latin word negro — which, incidentally, is still used as a nickname by some Latino families (pronounced: nay’-gro) Spoiler alert, there is an interesting scene where Tony drives into Kentucky for the first time and discovers a Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurant and he gets a bucket, to the dismay of the proper Don Shirley. I can personally vouch that I myself remember the first time eating fried chicken and being schooled by my family that it is fully appropriate, and not considered bad manners, to eat chicken without utensils. It’s the one main course that we are permitted to eat using our fingers themselves. Even so, the bigger story here is that as they toured further into the south, there were interesting lessons in the distinctions of venues. For example, Don Shirley was perfectly welcomed at the culturally blended dinner table where the host served up what was thought to be something Don Shirley must like. Even so, Shirley might have been offended of their stereotypical presumptions for this menu selection without having the earlier exposure to the Kentucky Fried Chicken incident prior in the storyline. Later in the film, this becomes more poignant as they learn that in the deeper south, the Virtuoso pianist wasn’t welcomed to sit and to simply eat in the same dining room with everyone. It’s unconscionable and bewildering that identity politics still haunt us today. We shy to speak of varying strengths or weaknesses that tend to accompany different people groups. Personally, I don’t like the term ‘race’ which is misleading since we are all a part of the only one human race on the planet. There are different nationalities, cultures, creeds, and complexions, but there is not a second race existent on God’s green earth, to borrow a phrase used in the film. A good film uses the feature time to build the background story of the characters. It makes sense to me to begin in this worldview of the driver’s background, Tony the Italian, as he is a prototype of the ethnocentric world that they lived in of various migrants in America. That world gets enchantingly swept into the world of the story’s main subject, Don Shirley, an accomplished Black pianist who is the benefactor and employer of a recent layed-off bouncer, Tony, to drive him on a musical tour into the southern countryland of the U.S... which leads to my favorite scene. The movie poster shows our two stars sitting in the Cadillac, almost as if posing for a promotional billboard advertisement. In fact, we find that it’s actually a scene from the film, and maybe the most phenomenal moment, without a word of dialogue. After Tony refills water into an overheated engine and then opens the door for his impeccable employer, both their gazes fall onto the eyes of Black harvesters looking back from the fields. It’s as if time stops! Maybe this explains why the piano maestro, it is reported, actually did not want the biography shared while he was still living. When we as individuals begin to open up and expose our vulnerabilities, we find that we are really more alike deep down than we are different. We are all trying to ease our sufferings, only to find that there are others in the community who are facing even greater inequities. Tony isn’t particularly skilled in any trade, so he’s reduced to being a bouncer without much of a retirement program. Don Shirley is a financially independent and one-of-a-kind, successful pianist, but faces reprehensible discrimination. Then there’s the ethnic workers tilling the land: men and women, young and old. Looking into those eyes, the two main characters in this biographical movie ultimately realize their own multitude of ethical deviations, like Tony’s temper and total disregard to steal or toss waste out into the streets; and for Don Shirley those ethical challenges include finding solace in a bottle of scotch and not reaching out toward his estranged brother, the only surviving family member of his family.