Movie Review: Green Book

The movie Green Book was released in the year 2018 and is inspired on a true story. The movie was directed by Peter Farrelly and stars Viggo Mortensen as Tony Lip and Mahershala Ali as Don Shirley. Dr Don Shirley is a world-class African-American pianist, who is about to embark on a concert tour in the southern states of America. Don Shirley needs a chauffeur and protector Tony Lip is a tough-talking bouncer from an Italian-American neighbourhood in the Bronx. Despite their differences, the two men soon develop an unexpected bond while confronting the racism and danger of the southern states of America.

The character of Tony Vallelonga also known as Tony lip is stereotypical Italian American from the Bronx. At the start of the movie we are introduced to our main character Tony Vallelonga who is a bouncer at the Copacabana the movie show that Tony is smart and cunning when a mob boss give a receptionist his prized hat and then tony with a nonchalant attitude convincing the receptionist that there will be no consequences. When Tony buys the hat from her it is unknowing to the viewer why he has done this. After a brawl starts at the Copacabana that Tony has to break up in this scene the film shows the viewer another one of Tony’s traits that he is a good fighter. After he breaks up the brawl it is said that the Copacabana will be closing for renovations after hearing this news it cuts to Tony in a room with the mob boss from before after talking about the Copacabana and the mob boss was talking about his missing hat and tony give the mob boss his hat back to get in good spirits with the mob. One of the biggest characteristics of Tony Lip is that he eats food like a champion

The character Doctor Don Shirley is world class pianist. The first introduction of Doctor Don Shirley is when Tony is going to the interview to be Don’s chauffeur. The first time the viewer see Doctor Don Shirley he is wearing a white robe sitting on throne looking like a king. Once Tony get the job and him and Don are about to go on tour and before they set off on his tour Don Shirley butler put a blanket over Don Shirley knees this represents the that Don Shirley fragile to the open world.

The movie is set in the year of 1962 in the middle of the civil rights movements people are still on the fence about the African American community because some people are racist, and others are not. The main character Tony Vallelonga at the start of the film was showing racist tendencies when there two African American plumbers had drink and when Tony saw them you can see the disgust in his face. When tony went into the kitchen he saw the two glasses he saw the glasses and chuck them in the bin to further the fact that Tony Lip is a racist. Other ways that the director shows that Tony Lip is when Tony is feeling hungry and wanted KFC in this scene it show how ignorant Tony about the African American community Tony assume that all of the African Americans eat fried chicken and watermelon which is stereotype of the African American community.

The characters of Tony Lip and Don Shirley development throughout the film from a racist to lovable friend. The way that Tony Lip develop throughout the story is through the scenes that him and Don Shirley. At the start their journey of the deep south the way that Tony speaks to Don Shirley as if tony is trying to find something they have in common. The way that Tony asked Don these questions is as if he was confident that Don Shirley would say yes to one of the questions but when Don says no Tony is thrown for a loop and confused because he has a stereotypical understanding on the African American community. the way the Lip and Shirley bound over this tour is by when Lip is writing letters to his wife and Shirley wants to hear what Lip has written after reading a bit of Lip letters, he tells Lip to restart because there is no emotion in this letter and to copy everything that he says. The way that Shirley tells Lip how to write his letter the audience is getting a small glimpse into the life of Don Shirley before this tour. The way the Don Sherly character develops throughout the film is because Shirley doesn’t feel like he doesn’t belong in this world the reason why he believes that doesn’t belong in this world because he fit in with white community because he is African American and the white will al ways look down on him and he doesn’t fit with the African American community because he doesn’t feel like he belongs in that community. the way that Shirley character changes is in the final third of the film when he cannot eat at the restaurant where he is performing. Before this moment Shirley would have just accepted this and go to eat somewhere else but the way that he is resisting the orders of the establishment is when he wants to eat with the rest of his band, and he won’t take no for an answer. While watching this scene the audience is rooting for Shirley because the audience wants him to eat with rest of his band because of the way that this scene is shot and acted while watching this scene you’re on the edge of your seat hoping that Shirley can eat with his band. The end of this confrontation was so satisfying to watch because of what Shirley would have done before which is following instructions.

In conclusion After watch the film Green Book I would recommend this film to all movie watchers. The reason I would recommend this film is because the way that the actors performed in this film made the audience invested in everything the characters do because of the way the characters are written and performed the audience feels sad when the characters sad and they feel triumphant when characters are triumphed. Green Book is one of the better films I have seen this year and would highly recommend it to any that wants to watch good movie.