Green Book - Segregation in the Deep South

Green Book

Green Book is an American movie directed by Peter Farrelli.

The whole story is based on a real story about the relationship between Tony Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen) an italian bouncer who is looking for a job and Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) a famous Afro-American pianist who has decided to go on a tour with his band in the deep South of the USA in the 60's.

During this movie we can see that they finally put an end to the confrontation imposed by society because of the Jim Crow laws, saying that a Colored and a White man do not belong to the same human kind, by helping each other in their personal life.

The title of this movie makes reference to "The Negro Motorist Green Book".  It was a guidebook that helped black people to find a motel or  a restaurant in a time when America was divided in two according to the color of the people's skins; white people on a side and black on the other. It was segregation.

This film is based on the true friendship that was born between two men with two different backgrounds. Tony is not only Shirley's driver but he was also hired to be his bodyguard in a time where discrimination was unavoidable. This film also describes the rejection of a community (color or social background) if one of its members is not completely in the standards.

As the director of this movie said in an interview "discrimination is smart". Even if nowadays all American citizens can vote and sleep in all the motels, discrimination just took an other form. The police's violence against Afro-American people is also a main topic of this film.

Greenbook won on the 2019 Oscars the award of the best picture and the best supporting male role for Mahershala Ali. This consecration has been controversial since. In major part because this is a movie about an Afro-American's life from the standpoint of a white man.

I personnaly went to see this movie with my class and all I heard about it was good and a thunder of applause at the end.

Alexandra GALEA