VIDEO: to be a film about two men who find each other in spite of differences, have the “Green Book” has been astounding divisive. Ever since it began to emerge as a possible candidate for an Oscar, has the criticism, the hail, without it the film to win the most prestigious award, the best film, during the Oscar award ceremony. Part of the criticism is fair, some parts of it are exaggerated. And maybe the victory is a sign that the academy voters are tired of the kind of political arguments that increasingly characterize the filmkritikken.
ELEVATES the FILM: Viggo Mortensen and Mahersala Ali. Show more
“Green Book” is all about a biased, white driver (Viggo Mortensen) who gradually becomes friends with the subtle, black pianist (Mahershala Ali) as he runs around in the south in the sixties. It is a true story that is the basis for the movie, and the script is partly authored by the son of the driver, Nick Vallelonga, and based on the stories he told his children about the journey through the segregated south. It is a sort of feelgood-movie about racism, about contradictions that are resolved by the fact that people are becoming a little better known and ultimately give each other a hug.
There has been three types of criticism which have been directed against the “Green Book”. The first one has gone out that the film presents a quaint and convenient views on racism, to the extent that many think it is offensive. A perspective has been that the Mortensens main character is so grossly biased in the beginning of the film that it seems postage when the film ends with the harmonious fraternity. Many have also meant that the film’s focus on a white protagonist, who encounters a noble, black form which has as its main task in the plot to save the more complicated, the white man, is an extension of a condescending Hollywood tradition that should belong to the past.
The second shape for the criticism has been about the portrayal of Dr Don Shirley, the pianist, played by Mahershala Ali. Shirley’s husband the surviving relatives protested at the way he was portrayed in the screenplay, and thought the friendship between him and the driver simply had not been as close. The tone was so aggressive that Mahershala Ali took a phone call to the family and apologized for the mistake and said that he had “done the best he could with the drug he was given”. It is unusual that an actor in the degree that takes away from a film that is about to get him an Oscar, and Ali held a subdued acceptance speech when he on the night of Sunday won his second Oscar statuette in three years. He underlined the responsibility he felt towards the Don Shirley in his speech.
The third form for the criticism has been directed towards Nick Vallelonga himself, who only a few years ago retweetet Donald Trump’s claim that tens of thousands of muslims in New Jersey cheered when al-Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center. This is a conspiracy theory and Vallelonga asked later apologized, but the incident booklet by him and strengthened those who were already convinced that those who made the “Green Book” had not had a good enough understanding of the sensitive topic they had given themselves in the throws with.
See the trailer for “the Green Book” here:
RECEIVED CRITICISM: Viggo Mortsensen and Mahershala Ali impresses in the “Green Book”, but the film itself is a simple affair. Show more
May served the controversy for the benefit of the “Green Book” before the Academy awards, rather than the opposite. It can certainly seem somewhat exaggerated when a film that is explicitly anti racist, albeit in a clumsy way, almost be described as if it itself is a piece of racism. This is not a movie that takes up the structural racism in society, but it is not certain all the movies about racism need to be that. Ali’s role is also more complex than what the most fanatical critics have wanted it to. It is a hopeful film, who believe that the fraternity and reconciliation is possible. Perhaps it was that which convinced Oscar voters. Perhaps there was also a hint of exhaustion over the partially fierce condemnation of the film, and a certain defiance in the face with a nøyeregnende kritikerskare.
While the “Green Book” both klisjefylt and occasionally tone-deaf. Mortensen and Ali gives great performances and raises the quality of the work. But it is not going to come from that in a year where Spike Lee, the legendary chronicler of black life in the united STATES, eventually was honored with an Oscar; where two black women were the historical winners for kostymedesignet and produksjonsdesignet to the “Black Panther”; where it was made sophisticated movies with minoritetstematikk as “If Beale Street Could Talk” – that exactly this should be the year when the most golden of gullmennene went to the easiest of these films, and the one who in the least degree shifts on the perspective of whoever is looking at and get them to think new thoughts.
