Harry Li (li.10203)
The movie Green Book told the story of a doctoral African American pianist Donald Shirley who hired an Italian American bouncer Tony “Lip” Vallelonga as his driver for his touring shows in the segregated South of America in 1962. The movie’s name was from The Negro Motorist Green Book which was a guidebook for African American travellers in the US to find places that would accommodate them during the mid-20th century. Green Book came out in 2018 and won Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award for Writing, and so on. Green Book mainly depicted how Tony Vallelonga turned from implicitly racist to anti-racist after spending two months with Dr. Shirley, and how Dr. Shirley’s courage and dignity shown during the trip to the South moved Tony and made them eventually close friends. The ending of the movie was warm and delightful to most of the audience as it showed how people from different socioeconomic levels and races could form strong bonds and understand each other.
At first, Tony would directly throw the cups at his home that were offered to two African American plumbers by his wife and refer black people with impolite words when he was with his family or friends. However, Tony was willing to work for Dr. Shirley as long as he was paid gratefully. This reflection in the movie vividly showed how racist people could appear to be nice to people from minor racial groups for their own interest due to human nature–need for money. To a broader context, this scene showed the existence of racism lying under “apparent kindness”. Therefore, it reminds of the audience how the society could be actually uglier than how wonderful and united it appears to be. The Black Lives Matter protests ripped off the “peaceful and equal” coating of the contemporary American society to reveal the darkness and inhumanity of some human hearts and demand for real changes inside people’s heads.
There are a lot of scenes in the movie that reflected the wide-spread of racism in the Mid-West and South of America in the 1960s. In Hanover, Indiana, the staff of the music hall that invited Dr. Shirley provided a low-quality piano with litters on it at first. Then in Raleigh, North Carolina, Dr. Shirley was not allowed to use the toilet in the mansion where he played. In Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Shirley was not allowed to dine in the restaurant where he was going to perform. Besides, along the way, there were unreasonable injustices towards Dr. Shirley from police officers. All these scenes could make the audience feel uncomfortable, sympathetic, and indignant for Dr. Shirley who could have stayed in New York and got all kinds of worship.
The movie was based on the true story of Donald Shirley and Frank Vallelonga. Even though there are criticisms of the movie saying that Green Book whitewashed white racists at that time and the real relationship between Frank Vallelonga and Dr. Shirley was not truly close like in the movie, it did provide an ideal vision where people from different social and racial backgrounds could be friends with each other as long as they try to communicate and understand each other. Since the movie was not produced by Don and Frank themselves, there is always deviation to some extent from the truth, but the value of the movie was how it could bring up people’s kindness and love within their heart to reduce racism in the world. At the end of the movie, when Tony’s relative referred Dr. Shirley as “tootsoon” at the Christmas Eve dinner, Tony rebutted seriously, “Don’t call him like that”. This scene manifested the appeal for standing up against injustices and racism regardless of the occasions and I believe this is how the movie encourages us to be like willingly.