Winner of the 2019 Academy Award for Best Picture, Green Book (2018), directed by Peter Farrelly, is a biographical comedy-drama that chronicles the unlikely friendship between a virtuoso Black classical pianist and his Italian-American driver during a concert tour through the segregated American South in the 1960s. Despite its resounding success with audiences, box office earnings, and accolades during awards season, the work became one of the most divisive and debated titles in recent cinema, sparking fervent discussions about racial representation, privilege, and the persistence of the "white savior" formula in contemporary Hollywood.
Analysis and Plot
Set in 1962, the film follows Frank Anthony Vallelonga, better known as Tony Lip (played by Viggo Mortensen), a bouncer from the Bronx who is brash, pragmatic, and holds visible structural racial prejudices. When the nightclub where he works, the famous Copacabana, closes for renovations, Tony finds himself in need of a temporary job to support his wife, Dolores (Linda Cardellini), and their children.
His search leads him to an unusual job interview above Carnegie Hall. There, he meets Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), an extraordinarily educated, refined, and wealthy jazz and classical pianist. Dr. Shirley is about to embark on an eight-week concert tour that will begin in the Midwest and head down into the Deep South of the United States. Aware of the dangers a Black man would face traveling through states under Jim Crow segregation laws, Shirley seeks a driver who can also serve as a bodyguard and handle everyday problems.
To navigate this hostile region, they use The Negro Motorist Green Book, a real travel guide published annually by Victor Hugo Green between 1936 and 1966. The guide listed hotels, restaurants, boarding houses, and gas stations that accepted Black customers, serving as an essential survival tool amidst segregationist violence.
The film's initial dynamic is anchored in the sharp contrast between the two protagonists. Tony is loud, devours fast food, uses slang, and solves problems with his fists. Don Shirley is upright, speaks multiple languages, wears elegant clothes, detests rudeness, and lives in almost aristocratic isolation. As they travel south, the barriers begin to crumble. Tony witnesses the brutal, humiliating, and institutionalized racism directed at Shirley—who, despite receiving standing ovations from wealthy white audiences, is forbidden from using the same restrooms, trying on clothes in local shops, or dining in the same restaurants as his audience.
In return, Dr. Shirley helps Tony write poetic and grammatically correct love letters to Dolores, bringing the driver closer to his wife through a sensitivity he didn't know he possessed. Through incidents with Southern police and moments of deep vulnerability, their purely commercial relationship transforms into a bond of complicity and mutual respect.
The Ending Explained and Its Subtext
The film's climax occurs in Georgia, before the final show of the tour, on Christmas Eve. Dr. Shirley is barred from dining in the main restaurant of the prestigious club where he is performing, under the justification of "house traditions." Exhausted from submitting to constant humiliations in the name of supposed "cultural elevation" and encouraged by Tony's indignation, Shirley refuses to play, and the two leave the venue.
They end the night at a "chitlin' circuit club" (a predominantly Black bar) called The Orange Cup. In this unpretentious environment, free from the shackles of white bourgeois decorum, Shirley sits at the upright piano and plays Chopin passionately before joining the local band to improvise energetic jazz. This scene represents a moment of liberation for Shirley, who spends most of the film rejected both by the white elite (who see him only as exotic entertainment) and by the working-class Black community (who view him as someone overly detached from their daily reality).
The drive back to New York is marked by a severe blizzard. Tony, exhausted, races against time to spend Christmas with his family. When his strength gives out, Dr. Shirley takes the wheel, in a symbolic role reversal that demonstrates his shedding of pride and the sense of brotherhood established between the two. Upon arriving in the Bronx, Shirley insists that Tony go home and returns to his luxurious, yet lonely, apartment above Carnegie Hall. However, confronted with his own physical and emotional solitude, Shirley decides to go to the Vallelonga home. He is warmly received by Tony and, after a moment of hesitation from the family, is welcomed with an affectionate hug by Dolores, who whispers a thank you in his ear for helping her receive Tony's letters. The film ends with a real photo of the actual Tony Lip and Don Shirley, stating that they remained friends until the end of their lives in 2013.
Subtexts and Hidden Meanings: From the perspective of a "feel-good movie," the ending celebrates reconciliation and the overcoming of prejudice through domestic affection. However, film analysts point to a paternalistic subtext: the moral redemption of Tony (the prejudiced white man) is placed in the foreground, while the historical pain of Shirley (the marginalized Black man) serves as a catalyst for this personal growth. Shirley's acceptance by the working-class Italian family at Christmas is presented as the "cure" for racism, simplifying a deep structural issue into a year-end lesson on individual tolerance.
Cast and Standout Performances
The heart of the film lies unquestionably in the chemistry and dramatic delivery of its lead duo, whose top-tier performances helped mitigate the script's weaknesses:
- Viggo Mortensen (Tony Lip): Known for intense and physical roles, Mortensen gained about 45 pounds to play the Italian-American driver. With a heavy physical characterization, a thick Bronx accent, and exaggerated mannerisms, he manages to transform what could have been a caricature into a captivating and genuinely charismatic figure. His Oscar nomination for Best Actor was widely deserved for his ability to inject humanity and comedic nuances into an initially hostile character.
- Mahershala Ali (Dr. Don Shirley): Winner of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, Ali delivers a surgical performance, marked by restraint and absolute control of his emotions. He plays Shirley as a man who wears an invisible armor of elegance and erudition to protect himself from a world that rejects him. The contrast between his upright posture and the look of deep internal pain, especially in the iconic scene in the rain where he shouts "If I'm not Black enough, and if I'm not white enough, and if I'm not man enough, then tell me, Tony, what am I?", elevates the film to its most genuinely dramatic moments.
- Linda Cardellini (Dolores): Although she has a smaller role confined to the domestic sphere, Cardellini acts as the film's moral anchor. Her expressive glances while reading Tony's letters and her silent acceptance of her husband's behavioral changes add depth to the plot's family arc.
Behind-the-Scenes Trivia
- Peter Farrelly's Transition: Before Green Book, director Peter Farrelly was known almost exclusively for scatological and slapstick comedies of the 90s, such as Dumb and Dumber (1994) and There's Something About Mary (1998). The transition to a prestigious biographical drama was seen as one of the biggest career pivots in recent Hollywood history.
- Family Script: The script was co-written by Nick Vallelonga, the real-life son of Viggo Mortensen's character. Nick used audio tapes recorded with his father and letters his father wrote to his mother during the tour to structure the narrative, which led to accusations of a one-sided bias in the storytelling.
- Keyboard Double: Mahershala Ali, although he trained intensely, did not play the piano at the level required for the role. The production used advanced visual effects and camera cuts to overlay the hands of virtuoso pianist and composer Kris Bowers (who also composed the film's original score) onto Ali's body during musical performances.
- Budget and Commercial Success: Produced with a modest budget of $23 million, the film became a global box office phenomenon, grossing over $321 million worldwide, driven by extremely favorable word-of-mouth from audiences.
Behind-the-Scenes Controversies and Cultural Debates
Despite its commercial and award-winning success, Green Book faced a storm of controversy that nearly derailed its Oscar campaign:
The Rejection of the Shirley Family: After the release, Dr. Don Shirley's living relatives—specifically his brother, Maurice Shirley, and his nephew, Edwin Shirley III—came forward to denounce the film. They classified the work as a "symphony of lies." According to the family, Shirley was never estranged from his brothers or the Black community, contrary to what the film portrays to accentuate his dramatic isolation. Maurice also contested the depth of the friendship between Shirley and Tony Lip, describing the relationship as purely professional, "boss and employee," and criticized the fact that no member of the Shirley family was consulted during the script's production.
The "White Savior" Trope: The film was widely criticized by Black journalists and academics for using the questionable narrative formula where a white man helps a Black man overcome his difficulties, while the white man himself is humanized and "educated" in the process. Critics pointed out that the film spends more time focusing on Tony's arc of maturity and overcoming prejudice than on the internal complexities and systemic suffering of Dr. Shirley.
Controversies with the Crew: During the Oscar campaign, old controversies resurfaced. Director Peter Farrelly had to publicly apologize after the revelation of 90s articles detailing his inappropriate behavior of exposing his private parts on sets as a "joke." Additionally, screenwriter Nick Vallelonga was harshly criticized for an old 2015 tweet in which he supported a false claim by Donald Trump about Muslims celebrating 9/11 in New Jersey—an extremely embarrassing situation given that Mahershala Ali is a practicing Muslim.
Viggo Mortensen's Slip: During a post-screening panel discussion, Mortensen caused outrage by using the offensive "n-word" in full while trying to argue that racism in the US had changed and that people no longer used derogatory terms as casually as in 1962. The actor issued a formal apology immediately after the incident.
Critical Reception and the Divided Legacy
The reception of Green Book reflects a deep division in cultural perceptions:
On one hand, the general public warmly embraced the work. On the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a solid audience approval rating of 91%, also boasting an "A+" grade on the CinemaScore audience thermometer. For most viewers, it is a comforting, fun, humorous film endowed with positive messages of unity and friendship that evoke the best feelings of classic Hollywood cinema.
On the other hand, critics were drastically divided. While traditional outlets praised the formidable performances of the central duo and the agile, engaging pace of Farrelly's direction, publications dedicated to pop culture and racial politics deconstructed the work. The New York Times critic A.O. Scott argued that the film offers a tamed, sanitized, and overly comfortable version of American racial history, designed to make white audiences feel good about themselves without having to confront the persistence of systemic racism in the present.
Green Book's victory in the Best Picture category at the 2019 Oscars—surpassing critical favorites like Alfonso Cuarón's Roma and Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman—was met with discontent by many cultural journalists. Spike Lee, in fact, reportedly attempted to walk out of the theater at the moment the win was announced, later comparing the film to Driving Miss Daisy (1989), another period piece about interracial relations that won the Academy's top prize in an equally controversial manner.
In short, Green Book remains a fascinating object of cinematic study: a work impeccable in its delivery of melodramatic entertainment and exceptional performances, but forever marked by the anachronism of its sociopolitical approach.
Sources Researched
- https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/green-book-family-dr-donald-shirley-calls-film-a-symphony-lies-1169278/
- https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/green-book-controversies-viggo-mortensen-peters-farrelly-shirley-family-1202034614/
- https://www.variety.com/2019/film/news/spike-lee-green-book-oscar-best-picture-driving-miss-daisy-1203148119/
- https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/green_book
- https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt6966692/
