Green Book

"Green Book" just won the Best Picture Oscar, exactly 30 years after "Driving Miss Daisy" also stepped into #OscarsSoWhite. This based-on-reality story of a Black genius was penned by white guys, one of whom, Nick Vallelonga, is the son of the protagonist, and who also won Best Original Screenplay.

The film should have been focused on gifted pianist Dr. Don Shirley, who, like groundbreaking opera singer Marian Anderson, damned the racism torpedoes and sped full ahead with a concert tour in the Jim Crow south. But the movie – and the writers' Oscar acceptance speech – focused on bigoted New York goomba Tony "Lip" (Viggo Mortensen), his family and foibles, rather than the polymath doctor, played Mahershala Ali. Accordingly, Ali won Best Supporting Actor rather than Best Actor, continuing Hollywood's history of marginalization and perpetuation of the myth of "the magical Negro." (Also see: Mark Meadows and the "Black friend" that absolves his racism at the Michael Cohen testimony.)

Despite the title, the film offers little illumination of the vital, real-life travel guide that kept African-Americans housed, fed and safer from segregation during mid-century sojourns. All those African-American stories are a terrible thing to waste.

The Blu-ray offers three bonus features, including "Virtuoso Performances," which focuses on the relationship between the two lead actors and the men on whom they are based.

"An Unforgettable Friendship" talks to the principals and creatives including Executive Producer Octavia Spencer. Director Peter Farrelly says, "I wanted to honor [the real men's] memories, but I also want to tell the truth." He explains that Vallelonga had numerous letters and tapes of his father talking about this two-month tour. The son had met the musician as well, calling him a cross between Liberace and Beethoven.

"Going Beyond the Green Book" does talk about the titular guide, written by postal worker Victor Hugo Green, an "AAA" for black people that also provided referrals for taxis and drug stores.

Green wrote he hoped that one day we wouldn't need his book, which was started in the 1940s. Mortensen said it stopped being published around 1966. In the current MAGA-sphere, one wonders if we still need to track safe spaces today.

"Green Book"
Blu-ray and DVD set
$22.99
https://www.greenbookfilm.com