The 91st Academy Awards have come to an end, and the major media have begun to sing the Oscars again. It's another Oscar year , and political correctness has occupied the Oscars.
Recently, the film "Green Book" has naturally become the focus of firepower. Spike Lee, who won the best adapted screenplay, left the audience angrily after learning that "Green Book" won the award. But it is also excusable. 29 years ago, Spike Lee was taken away from the best picture by "Driving for Miss Daisy" with a black driver and a white passenger.
In recent years, the three Mexican heroes of the Academy Awards have killed the Quartet, and the black elements have also frequently appeared and been criticized for being too politically correct. But if "Green Book" is not a good movie, I will be the first to disagree!
1
not just political correctness
The introduction of Oscar films in China is no longer delayed for many years like "The King's Speech" in those days, and it has been released next to each other for several consecutive years. "La La Land" and "Three Billboards" have gained good reputation. with the market. This year's "Green Book" was also released in China at the end of the awards.
"Green Book" is the kind of movie that makes people feel that the world is beautiful and human nature is beautiful after watching it. The whole movie presents a wonderful journey in the form of a road movie. The story is full of plot, and the characters are set up well. It is an average oldschool work in all aspects.
Don Shirley, a successful musician, lived in a house full of rare treasures, sitting on a high throne in a silk nightgown. There should never be a blanket on your legs to keep out the cold, and drink a bottle of whisky alone in the middle of the night.
Tony Lip was born at the bottom of the street and has Italian blood. Perhaps it is Italian blood that gives Tony his own street wisdom and knows how to turn bad luck into good luck. He always finds opportunities in dead ends, earns trust from mob bosses, and earns those $50 off his big appetite when he loses his job.
Two people whose life trajectories did not intersect originally were tied together because of a two-month journey.
Tony disliked black people from the start, and by the way, Dr. Shirley's Indian butler. And Dr. Shelley didn't like Tony's impoliteness. In Tony's eyes, Dr. Shelley is a pretentious person who cares about everything. Dr. Shelley sees Tony as a rude, reckless person who binge-eats, gambles, and lies.
As soon as they hit the road, the two of them got on each other. Shelly hated Tony smoking in the car. Turning around, Tony took a bite of the sandwich his wife prepared for the doctor. Tony mocked that Dr. Shelley, being a black man, didn't understand black music and his fellow black musicians.
But when Dr. Shelley sat at the Steinway piano and the beautiful notes flowed from his fingertips, Tony was overwhelmed by Dr.'s talent. Tony recommended KFC fried chicken to Shirley, and under pressure, Dr. Shirley carefully clamped the chicken wings with his fingertips, but he nibbled so gracefully.
As the car gradually went south, the situation of black people got worse and worse. The Doctor was fattened in the bar, and Tony stepped in to settle the dispute. As a result, the Doctor gradually changed his views on Tony and introduced Tony's full name to the audience.
The relationship between the two gradually turned from an employment relationship to a friendship relationship. Tony is not tempted by his Italian friend's high salary to leave the Doctor, who ghostwrites Tony's home letter and teaches Tony how to write love words.
The conflict between the two was intensified by the bathroom incident. Dr. Shelley, who was born in black, was still a homosexual, and homosexuality was even more hated in the 1970s when people of color were still discriminated against.
In the late-night attack on the police, it broke out completely. Shelley and Tony were locked in the police station, and they were released only because of Shelley's friendship in the White House. Although he was invited to the White House twice by virtue of his superb piano skills, Dr. Shelley still could not escape his black identity. He was discriminated against by the police and could only use the toilet outside to prepare in the utility room. The skin color became the original sin.
Dr. Shelley studied in the Soviet Union for a long time, and although his skin was equally dark, he was not accepted by his compatriots.
When the car broke down and stopped on the road under the field, the black man on the field under the scorching sun looked at Dr. Shelley in a suit with a white driver, with doubts and curiosity in the eyes of both parties.
Dr. Shelley's duality made him crave identity, and it all paved the way for the final climax, the search for oneself.
Tony has always wondered why Dr. Shelley must come to the South to tour, and the other two members of the trio have stated that the Dr. is on tour to improve the social status of black people. In the end it failed, and the Doctor couldn't dine with white people.
Tony was angry about this, pulled the doctor and left to go to the Orange Bird Bar.
Here is where the Doctor first integrates with his fellow black people. The Doctor sat in front of the piano and started an outstanding improv performance. This wanton playing was an outburst of Dr. Shelley's emotions from forbearance to extremes.
The performance ignited the enthusiasm of the audience, and the two had the most enjoyable night of the entire tour. This performance has sublimated the friendship between the two. Dr. Shelley took care of Tony and returned home early, hoping to return home before Christmas Eve.
This time they encountered a sudden inspection by the police, which made people break into a cold sweat, but this time it was the police who kindly reminded that the wheel was flat. It is this warmth from time to time that warms my heart.
In the end, the Doctor took the place of the sick Tony and drove back to New York before Christmas Eve. The lonely Dr. Shelley also left the deserted residence and joined the lively family dinner at Tony's house. It may have lost the thoughtfulness brought by the open ending, but it is very heartwarming.
Dr. Shelley is lonely and hopes to gain the respect of others through his own efforts and remove the label that is attached to him.
Dr. Shelley knew the weight of the family and called Tony's wife at the beginning, hoping to borrow Tony for two months. Understand the feelings of a wife who has left her husband, and ghostwrite Tony's home letter.
Tony discriminated against blacks from the beginning, and dumped the drinking glasses used by blacks into the trash. Taking over the job of the driver for money, along with the contact with Dr. Shelly during the trip, Tony learned about the loneliness and helplessness of the doctor and became Shelly's friend.
Shelly's loneliness and Tony's hustle and bustle influence each other, dissolve each other, and gradually merge in this journey.
2
Life winner Ali
Mahershala Ali, played by Dr. Shelley, won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar twice in three years, the last time he won with his outstanding performance in "Moonlight".
At the same time, he dubbed the uncle of Black Spider Mike in the best animated feature film "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse". The third season of the high-scoring American drama "True Detective" starred the male protagonist, and also appeared in the recently hit film director Amway's masterpiece "Battle Angel: Alita".
I first met Ali in the superpower American drama "4400" that year, and later made a cameo in the Netflix American drama "House of Cards". With many excellent works and two golden statues, Ali's popularity has gradually increased.
Ali's performance in "Green Book" was restrained and restrained, and he remained motionless while staring at the black people in the field, but under his slightly wandering eyes, there was an inner turbulence. In the middle of the night, she silently put on makeup to cover up the injuries on her face, and there were tears in the corners of her eyes. Ali expresses the inner emotional fluctuations of the characters through subtle movements, instead of blindly crying and grabbing the ground in an explosive performance.
In addition to his excellent acting skills, Ali also had the opportunity to play in the NBA. It was also an accident that Ali did not become a basketball player and devoted himself to the acting career.
3
green book in history
Tony's rejection of Dr. Shelley's fried chicken in the movie isn't just because Dr. Shelley doesn't like to handle food with his hands. Fried chicken has become a cultural symbol of racial discrimination under the special historical background of the United States . In America, it's not easy to invite black people to eat fried chicken, watermelon and grape juice. For a long time, these things were used to mock black people as unworthy of freedom.
The full name of the Green Book is "The Negro Motorist Green Book", which means a safe travel guide for black travelers, and its slogan is "Now we can travel without embarrassment."
In 1936, Victor Hugo Green, a post office worker in the black community of Harlem, New York, and his wife published the first Green Book.
In their book, they compiled restaurants, hotels, inns, and vacation destinations that were willing to host black travelers at the time. Since its first publication in 36 years, sales of this thin, green-skinned booklet have exploded.
It was not until the mid-1960s that with the progress of the affirmative action movement, it gradually withdrew from the stage of history.
For decades at the time, the Green Book was the bible for every black traveler. Without it, traveling can mean humiliation and danger, especially in the American South.
Behind the convenience of the Green Book, it actually pointed to the South's "separate but equal" racial segregation policy at that time.
After the Civil War in the 19th century, the Constitution had abolished slavery and granted equal rights to blacks, and whites could only limit their contact with blacks from other directions.
Thus, there is the high-sounding "separate but equal" policy.
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Epilogue
"Green Book" is a solidly good movie, and it's also for Chinese audiences. The movie brings laughter to the audience because of the interesting interaction between the two; the movie brings the audience to think deeply because of the discrimination suffered by black people.
If you are accustomed to wearing tinted glasses on racial films, you can watch them as a normal comedy. When you walk out of the movie theater after watching, you may want to eat KFC.
This article was first published on the WeChat public account [Eason X]
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