A 'Green Book' Best Picture Win Proves Hollywood's Still A Sucker For White Saviors
"Capping off a year that boasted movies as progressive as “Black Panther,” “The Favourite” and “BlacKkKlansman,” the Oscars took us back in time on Sunday, giving Best Picture to something straight out of 1989.
“Reverse Driving Miss Daisy” ― you know it as “Green Book” ― nabbed the top prize, and with it the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sent a clear message about how Hollywood sees race in 2019. The film tells the story of real-life black jazz pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) through the lens of the racist white chauffeur (Viggo Mortensen) in his employ, treating the latter as a hero because he overcomes his bigotry. It’s a clichéd, insulting conceit that dupes audiences into feeling good when the white character extends mild graciousness.
A “Green Book” win is proof positive that popular culture has only improved so much on matters of race since “Crash” won Best Picture in 2006.
The category’s preferential balloting system ensures the trophy goes to a movie that hits a consensus spot among voters. The winner therefore stands in as a median representation of the academy’s taste, providing a snapshot of how Hollywood views itself. This year, it turns out people were most comfortable handing the industry’s highest honor to a movie that places its black character in the backseat, literally and figuratively. "
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"The win also tells us just how little the academy pays attention to the discourse surrounding the titles in contention. Shirley’s family called “Green Book” a “symphony of lies,” saying it greatly embellished the central friendship and challenging its assumption that Shirley was disconnected from the black community. Ali, who won Best Supporting Actor on Sunday, apologized to Shirley’s relatives in response. Factual integrity isn’t paramount in a fiction film, but in this case the script distorts a black man’s biography to benefit its white lead. Voters didn’t seem to care about that flap, nor did they mind that Mortensen used the N-word at a post-screening Q&A while trying to make a point about how such slurs are no longer acceptable. By the time director Peter Farrelly was apologizing for having exposed his penis on sets when he was younger, everyone had already made up their minds about the movie. "
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/best-picture-green-book-oscars_n_5c736ca7e4b03cfdaa571b71
= new reply since forum marked as read
Mahershala Ali should have won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role. I'm glad he won something, but he was cheated out of a better award in the process. Or one could argue that BOTH Dr. Shirley (Ali) and Tony the Lip (Mortensen) were leading roles and they both deserved to be nominated for the Leading Actor award. How could they choose one and not the other? My guess is that maybe Viggo Mortensen's agent got something in his contract early on, stating that only he would be the leading role. Does that even happen any more?
"They pissed people off by hiring and firing Kevin Hart. And then they pissed people off by announcing and then unannouncing that they will air certain categories during the commercial break. Now they will piss people off by choosing one of the following 8 movies for Best Picture."
That way no one is left out.
A). There is no "white savior" in "Green Book". The biggest issues the movie has are in the cringeworthy way they have a white guy try to teach a black guy to "be black" and the fact that the "Green Book" is only peripherally mentioned in the movie.
B). Everyone is getting bent out of shape about the historical innacuarcy of "Green Book" and no one seems bothered in the least that "BlackKKlansman" largely fictionalized the final part of that film (ie the bombing).
C). Somehow every thinks Vigo's turn from racist bigot to being open minded is unrealistic over two hours, but Adam Driver's somewhat racist turn not racist in KKklansman isn't?? Um ok.
D). The movie in the Best Picture category with the most realistic representation of racial interactions for me was not either of those two films...it was "A Star is Born". I thought Chappelle's character and that set of scenes added heart to the movie...but maybe it's because I'm biased in that I know I have friends in Memphis that I could show up drunk on their front yard and they'd be cool with it and put me up if I needed it...
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E). Ali is a phenomenal actor, but was his performance really the best on that category? I thought Grant in "Can you ever forgive me?" was a better performance, but that's obviously subjective.
F). Finally, it was appropriate that most of the better films in the Best Picture category were honored in some way in other categories (Ie Best Actor/Actress/Screenplay/Director/Supporting Roles/And Song). I think that speaks to how strong those films were and how there wasn't ONE standout film this year but a bunch of really good ones.
