"I live in a castle, Tony! Alone. And rich white people pay me to play piano for them because it makes them feel cultured. But as soon as I step off that stage, I go right back to being just another ni--er to them. Because that is their true culture. And I suffer that slight alone, because I'm not accepted by my own people 'cause I'm not like them, either."
America in the 1960s was a drastically different place from what it is today. Not only did the segregationist Jim Crowe laws of the South kept white and black Americans quite literally divided in a physical sense, but all over America, there was a clear view of African Americans being lesser than white Americans. Of course, racism still exists nowadays in the United States, but the end to legally enforcable racism came about thanks to the efforts of three presidents: Dwight Eisenhower, who supported the integration of schools in the South by utilizing the military, John F. Kennedy, who attempted to push for an end to desegregation with his (ultimately failed) Civil Rights Act of 1963, and arguably the most importantly, Lyndon B. Johnson, who revitalized the failled 1963 Act to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and took a step further by passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to prevent racial discrimination in voting. Although of course presidents such as Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman aided in the effort to bring African Americans out of slavery to bring a more equal life for them, it was Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson who truly advanced the cause of civil rights seriously.
This historical context is ultimately irrelevant to the viewing of the movie, but it does provide important background context; the movie is set in 1962 American South, which means that legal segregation by the way of Jim Crowe is still rampant and strong. And because it was the 1960s, the common consensus was, even in the more tolerant Northn United States, that African Americans were second-rate citizens. This is all evident by simply watching the movie, but I thought this little historical lesson provides a fun little extra knowledge on the setting of this movie. But enough about the history lecture; let's actually talk about the movie itself.
The movie's title, Green Book, refers to an actual book called "The Negro Motorist Green Book" that existed in the early 1900s. It gives African Americans a "guide" to travel across America (mostly Southern U.S.) without running into trouble because of the colour of their skin. The book itself is referered to in the movie, and it serves as a reminder to how dangerous it could be in the early 1900s (and even after to some degree) to simply be of a different race from most Americans. All over United States, even in places with no segregation, black people simply were not considered equal, and the existence of a "Green Book" proves that. This fits into the whole idea of the movie, which mainly shows racism from white people to black people among other things.
The movie itself focuses around Dr. Don Shirley, an African American pianist of classical music and Tony Vallelonga, an Italian American middle-class worker. Tony is hired by Dr. Shirley to be his driver while he does a tour in the Deep South (the "Deep South" refers to the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, AKA the States that used to be the most pro-slavery part of the Confederacy). The film focuses on not only the bond between the two men that develop as they face a totally different world in the South, but also race relations and how one's surroundings can affect your personality more than the race you are and that stereotypes of your race don't neccesarily define you.
The film highlights the issues of race and stereotypes by characterizing Dr. Shirley and Tony as almost living each others' lives in a strange sense. Tony, the white man, is treated like a second-class citizen and is more in touch with stereotypical "black culture", having a better understanding of African American people than Dr. Shirley does. Dr. Shirley is upper class and is generally highly regarded and is much more familar with European-style culture and finds his interactions with other African Americans extremely jarring and foreign. Tony and Dr. Shirley comes from two totally different worlds, and they are completely unfamilar with the cultures that they should theoretically fit in the best.
The film also highlights the isolation Dr. Shirley faces on a daily basis. By nature, Dr. Shirley seems to generally be very aloof, living alone in his giant house and not very good in social situtations. However, (as shown in the quote above), Dr. Shirley is just completely alone. Although the Northern US was much less racist than the Southern US in general, African Americans were still largely seen as second-class citizens who recieved very little respect from a lot of people. As a result, Dr. Shirley talks about how although the rich white people accept him as a skilled pianist, they would never really associate with him due to him being black, and that because he was too "white" he didn't fit in with other African Americans at all.
I found this contrast very interesting. The movie's racism and isolation of Dr. Shirley on one hand is very obvious in the form of the segregationist Jim Crowe laws of the South. However, on the other hand, Dr. Shirley also experiences social segregation in the North as he is simply not accepted really by anyone and I thought that the movie did a great job bringing this idea full circle with Dr. Shirley finding proper acceptance with Tony and his family in the end.
While one might think that Dr. Shirley's discrimination based on race was bad enough, Dr. Shirley finds even more trouble along the way as he happens to be homosexual. While black people may have been generally tolerated in the Northern US in the 60s, homosexuals and other members of the LGBTQ community were not accepted by Americans (and still aren't by many) for a long time. To put things into context, the first state of legalize gay marriage was Massachussetts in 2004. So not only does Dr. Shirley face discrimination based on his race, but also on his sexuality, both of which were antagonized especially in the conservative Southern US.
Something that I really liked about the film was that it does have a message of being colourblind in a sense in matters of race issues. Tony, for example, never really cares that Dr. Shirley is black or gay and treats him as he would treat anybody else. Although there are certainly moments where Tony does say some crude things related to race, you can tell that his intents are never malevolent and that he was just saying what was widely acceptable at the time; not with any hatred, but just using regular language. In this way, Tony and Dr. Shirley really bond; while they are from two completely different worlds, they are in a way somewhat similar. Being Italian-American, Tony is also generally treated as being second-class citizen, and he embraces that lifestyle and enjoys it, helping Dr. Shirley (who is more self-conscious about his status in the public) loosen up and truly enjoy life and other people.
While of course it is completely impossible to be colourblind (everyone is always going to be of a certain race and culture and you can't just ignore that), I think it's a really good way to go through life; just treat everyone else as being the same and act with good intentions. I personally find that part of the reason why there are still racial conflicts is that people tend to see other people's differences far more than their similarities and I think that divides people up even more even when people's differences are pointed out with good intentions.
Overall, Green Book did an excellent job in many aspects. It highlighted well the racial issues in the 60s United States and portrayed very well how racism was ingrained into the lives of the people; in some cases, the Southern racism didn't seem personally malevolent (as in the racist person themselves didn't seem to be acting on hatred) but rather it just felt like a way of life in the sense that it felt so casual and ordinary. It also portrayed well how two completely different people could simply be brought together naturally; Tony and Dr. Shirley are almost polar opposite in personality and lifestyle, but they simply grow to enjoy each other's companies and grow by learning from each other. The movie often makes you wonder "why can't more people just get along nicely like this?".
On another note, the acting in this movie was top notch. Viggo Mortensen (best known as Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings movies) plays the role of Tony perfectly, and it's remarkable how he feels so natural in the role of this streotypical Italian-American man. Mahershala Ali was also very good as Dr. Shirley (winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), but I honestly do think that Mortensen just did a much better job.
Overall, this is a great movie for anyone interested in 1960s US race relations and history but it's a great movie for everyone because it carries a nice message about race and how (I know this sounds cliched but bear with me) the power of friendship can really overcome these boundaries that we often think exists if you just don't let the boundary be there in the first place. Dr. Shirley and Tony didn't really make race a big part of their friendship; Tony didn't really care that Dr. Shirley was a gay, black man and Dr. Shirley didn't really care that Tony was an uneducated Italian-American.
I think everyone (especially in these days of racial tensions) can really learn something valuable from Tony and Dr. Shirley's long lasting friendship (Fun Fact: Dr. Shirley and Tony actually died three months from each other in 2013).
For my next post, I will be doing an adaptation review of sorts as I review the greatest detective in fiction and how he was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch. As always, thank you for reading my blog, and I always will enjoy hearing from all of you, so if you have any comments, feedbacks, opinions, suggestions, etc., please feel free to comment, and I WILL respond to ALL comments!
