There are thousands, perhaps millions, of films about racism towards black people, but Green Book takes the genre to a new level. It features excellent performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, it's genuinely funny, and the story of their unlikely friendship is compelling on many levels. In a year when mediocre blockbusters are being released left and right, Green Book is one of the best movies of the year.
During the course of this film, you'll see a man who is considered to be "not very bright" transform into an exemplary human being. The movie also does a great job of depicting the prejudiced atmosphere of the American Deep South in the 1960s without making its citizens seem too much like caricatures of typical white supremacists. It's a shame that there are still people out there who are willing to be such racist a-holes, but it's also great to see a movie that highlights the fact that even the most ignorant and obnoxious of us can change when pushed.
The film is about a very کتاب خیلی سبز جامع comprehensive green book that was used during the Jim Crow era to assist African Americans in traveling across the country. Postal employee Victor Green, with the help of his wife Alma, started the guide in 1936 in Harlem and expanded it nationwide with the 1938 and 1939 editions. The Green Book contained listings for lodging and restaurants as well as barbers, hairdressers, gas stations, drugstores, and other businesses, allowing black travelers to navigate discrimination at the time. The guide was published annually until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed the types of racial discrimination that made it necessary.
For a more in-depth look at the history of the Green Book, there are several books that can be consulted. Probably the most comprehensive is Overground Railroad: The Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor. This book outlines the history of the guide in both chronological and thematic fashion, as well as providing a state-by-state tour of sites where Green Book was used. It is recommended for anyone interested in learning more about this fascinating relic of the past.
There's no substitute for seeing original copies of the Green Book for yourself, though. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library has digitized versions of each addition available to view online, as well as an extensive research guide and blog entries.
As for the movie, the director Peter Farrelly keeps the tone buoyant throughout with appealingly whimsical humor, from Tony's bluff ribaldry to Don's dry wit. This helps the film float, weightlessly, above its appalling bedrock of ponderous assumptions about race. That said, there's a certain grotesqueness to the way that Green Book hedges its views on race with as many caveats as a movie producer's contract. Ultimately, this skewed and skewed approach honors a mode of 'both sides' enlightenment that is as regressive as it is universally salable.
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