The film Green Book
won three Golden Globe awards this year in the Motion Picture category: Best
Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali, and Best Musical or Comedy.
That last category is a strange one. Although this film had comedic elements,
it is first and foremost a truthful look at race relations in America in 1962. It
is rated PG-13 for thematic content, language including racial epithets, smoking,
some violence and suggestive material.
Based on a true story, Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), an
Italian-American from the Bronx, accepts a position as a driver for Dr. Don
Shirley (Mahershala Ali) an African-American pianist who heads a musical trio that will
be touring in the Deep South. What Dr. Shirley really needs is a bodyguard, as there
remains a great deal of prejudice and danger in the South for him. Tony turns out to be the right person to see that he is safe. As they drive
across the U. S. in a beautiful new Cadillac and get to know each other, their developing relationship shows how even people of widely different upbringings and social environments can find commonalities in just being human, each deserving of respect and compassion.
I never give a spoiler, and to tell you what the Green Book
is would give away something. So you go see it and discover it for yourself.
The performances are spot on, and the settings of the early 1960’s brilliantly
staged and filmed.
Green Book is
likely to be nominated for several Academy Awards, and it is still in theaters.
This is one film you shouldn’t miss. Octavia Spencer, Academy Award winning
actress, produced the film, and I’m glad she saw fit to help bring this important story to
life for us.
Have you seen Green
Book yet? Please comment below on how you liked it.
Yeah for Octavia for producing a film....she is a powerhouse! I really would like to see this film since I love Viggo and heard nothing but great things about this film. There would be smoking in This film since everyone smoked at that time. I just watched Some Came Running with Sinatra, Martin and Shirley McClaine and everyone had a cig in their hand....thank God that time of life is gone. Both my parents smoked and I hated cleaning the walls because it would drip golden brown which is why I hate amber.
ReplyDeleteI love your powers of description, Birgit! Particularly in your last sentence! You will enjoy Green Book. Great film.
DeleteHi Sue - this is one film I definitely want to see ... I must have missed it earlier. I'd like to see it ... re the setting; I read 'Killers of the Flower Moon: the Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI' - which was really informative and interesting ... bearing in mind I was trying to get my head round some aspects of the First Nations peoples of Canada and North America.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this ... if I can't see it down here ... I'll get to see it in London one time - cheers Hilary
The book you mention sounds very interesting. I will look it up. I think you would enjoy Green Book very much. Thanks for visiting!
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