Green Book is a 2018 American comedy-drama film directed by Peter Farrelly. Starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, the biographical film is inspired by the true story of a 1962 tour of the Deep South by African-American pianist Don Shirley and Italian-American bouncer and later actor Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga, who served as Shirley's driver and bodyguard. Written by Farrelly alongside Lip's son Nick Vallelonga and Brian Hayes Currie, the film is based on interviews with Lip and Shirley, as well as letters Lip wrote to his wife. It is named after The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide book for African-American travelers founded by Victor Hugo Green in 1936 and published until 1966.
Green Book had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2018, where it won the People's Choice Award. It was then theatrically released in the United States on November 16, 2018, by Universal Pictures, and grossed $321 million worldwide. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances of Mortensen and Ali, although it also drew some criticism for its racial dynamics and its depiction of Shirley.
Green Book received many awards and nominations. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor (for Ali), making it the fifth film to win Best Picture without being nominated for Best Director (after Wings, Grand Hotel, Driving Miss Daisy and Argo). It also won the Producers Guild of America Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture, the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and the National Board of Review award for the best film of 2018, and was chosen as one of the top 10 films of the year by the American Film Institute. Ali also won the Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actor.
Plot
In the spring of 1962, in the Bronx, Italian-American bouncer Tony Lip searches for new employment while the Copacabana is closed for renovations. He is invited to an interview with Don Shirley, an African American pianist in need of a driver for his eight-week concert tour through the Midwest and Deep South.
Don hires Tony on the strength of his references. They embark with plans to return to New York City on Christmas Eve. Don's record label gives Tony a copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide for African American travelers that contains the addresses of those motels, restaurants, and filling stations that would serve them in the Jim Crow South.
Tony and Don clash as Tony feels uncomfortable being asked to act with more refinement, while haughty Don is displeased by Tony's uncouth habits. As the tour progresses, Tony is impressed with Don's talent on the piano and becomes increasingly appalled by the discriminatory treatment Don receives from his hosts and the general public when he is not on stage.
In Louisville, Kentucky, a group of white men beat Don and threaten him at gunpoint before Tony rescues him. He instructs Don not to go out without him for the rest of the tour.
Throughout the journey, Don helps Tony write eloquent letters to his wife, which deeply move her. Tony encourages Don to get in touch with his own estranged brother, but Don is hesitant, observing he has become isolated by his professional life and achievements. Don is later found in a homosexual encounter with a white man in a public shower, and Tony, unfazed, bribes the police officers at the scene to prevent his arrest.
In Mississippi, the two are arrested after police officers pull them over late at night in a sundown town, and Tony punches one after being insulted. While in jail, Don asks to phone his lawyer, but calls Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who pressures the governor and police to release them.
Once they resume traveling, Don reprimands Tony for his actions, and a heated argument erupts regarding race relations and meritocracy, with Don expressing frustration at feeling rejected by the black community due to his mannerisms while the white community either mistreats him or uses him to make themselves look open-minded. They eventually find a hotel for the night and reconcile.
On the night of Don's final performance in Birmingham, Alabama, he is refused entry into the whites-only dining room of the country club where he is due to perform. Tony threatens the manager, and Don refuses to play unless they serve him in the room with his audience. Eventually, Don gives Tony the choice on whether or not he plays, to smooth tensions. Tony chooses his friendship, refusing bribery from the manager, possibly terminating his contract with the record company that demands Don does not miss a show. Tony and Don leave the venue and instead eat at a black blues club, where Don joins the band on piano. As the pair leave the club, Tony senses and scares off two patrons with a firearm who were intending to ambush them for Don's money, which he had displayed earlier, an action which visibly startles Don.
The pair head north, attempting to get home by Christmas Eve, but are caught in a blizzard. They are then once again pulled over by a police officer. Worried they will receive the same treatment as earlier, both are surprised when it turns out the officer had only pulled them over due to a flat tire, which he kindly helps them fix. Continuing back to New York, Tony, for reasons of sleep deprivation, decides he is unable to continue driving, meaning he will miss Christmas dinner. Don, not wanting this to happen, drives for him, with Tony sleeping in the backseat.
Tony invites Don to have dinner with his family, but Don declines. At the party, a relative of Tony makes a racial remark, which Tony objects to, leading to the relative's acquiescence. Sitting alone at home, Don changes his mind and returns to Tony's, where he receives a warm welcome from Tony's extended family.
The end title cards show real-life photos of Don and Tony, explaining Don continued to tour and create music, while Tony went back working at the Copacabana, and they remained friends until dying months apart in 2013.
Cast
In addition, Tony and Dolores Vallelonga's son, Frank Jr., appears as his own uncle, Rudy (Rodolfo) Vallelonga (who says, "I'm just saying, we're an arty family"), while their younger son (and the film's co-producer and co-screenwriter), Nick, appears as Augie, the Mafioso who offers Tony a job doing "things" while the Copacabana is under renovation. The real Rodolfo Vallelonga appears as his own father, Grandpa Nicola Vallelonga, while the real Louis Venere appears as his own father, Grandpa Anthony Venere. Another co-producer and co-screenwriter, Brian Currie, plays the Maryland State Trooper who helps out in the snow storm. Actor Daniel Greene, who frequently appears in films directed by the Farrelly brothers, portrays Macon Cop #1.
Production Viggo Mortensen began negotiations to star in the film in May 2017 and was required to gain 40–50 pounds (18–23 kg) for the role. Peter Farrelly was set to direct from a screenplay written by Nick Vallelonga (Tony Lip's son), Brian Currie, and himself.
On November 30, 2017, the lead cast was set with Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini and Iqbal Theba confirmed to star. Production began that week in New Orleans. Sebastian Maniscalco was announced as part of the cast in January 2018. Score composer Kris Bowers also taught Ali basic piano skills and was the stand-in when closeups of hands playing were required.
The film is executive produced by Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Octavia Spencer, Kwame L. Parker, John Sloss and Steven Farneth.
Writing
The script was written by Vallelonga's son Nick Vallelonga, as well as Brian Hayes Currie and Peter Farrelly, after conversations with his father and Shirley.
Music
For the film's soundtrack, Farrelly incorporated an original score by composer Kris Bowers and one of Shirley's own recordings. The soundtrack also includes rarities from 1950s and 1960s American music recommended to him by singer Robert Plant, who was dating a friend of Farrelly's wife at the time he had finished the film's script. During dinner on a double date, his wife and her friend stepped outside to smoke and the director asked Plant for advice on picking songs for the film that would be relatively unknown to contemporary audiences. This prompted Plant to play Farrelly songs via YouTube, including Sonny Boy Williamson II's "Pretty 'Lil Thing" and Robert Mosley's "Goodbye, My Lover, Goodbye".
In an interview with Forbes, the director explained the soundtrack ended up not only avoiding rote nostalgia, "but also those songs were really inexpensive and I did not have a huge budget so I was able to come up with some sensational pop songs from the time that were long forgotten." The music played at the black blues club toward the end of the film featured the piano performance of Étude Op. 25, No. 11 (Chopin), known as the Winter Wind etude by Chopin. This was not included in the soundtrack release.
A soundtrack album was released digitally on November 16, 2018, and physically on November 30, 2018, by Milan Records, featuring Bowers' score, songs from the plot's era, and a piano recording by Shirley. According to the label, it was streamed approximately 10,000 times per day during January 2019. This rate doubled the next month as the album surpassed one million streams worldwide and became the highest-streamed jazz soundtrack on the Milan label.
Release Originally in production at Focus Features, the company ultimately passed on the project. Participant Media then financed the $23 million budget for Green Book, but Farrelly was concerned about the fact that Participant had a distribution deal with Focus. Knowing very well about Steven Spielberg and his studio's longtime relationship with Universal Pictures, Farrelly decided to call his agent Richard Lovett, who also represents Spielberg. Lovett managed to convince Spielberg to watch the film, which he loved so much he reportedly watched it five times over two weeks, calling it "his favorite buddy movie since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Spielberg then took the film to DreamWorks Pictures, which currently has a domestic distribution deal with Universal.
Green Book began a limited release in 20 cities, in the United States, on November 16, 2018, and expanded nationwide on November 21, 2018. The film was previously scheduled to begin its release on the 21st. The studio spent an estimated $37.5 million on prints and advertisements for the film.
The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2018. It also opened the 29th New Orleans Film Festival on October 17, 2018, screened at AFI Fest on November 9, 2018 and was programmed as the surprise film at the BFI London Film Festival.
On November 7, 2018, during a promotional panel discussion, Mortensen said the word "nigger". He prefaced the sentence with, "I don't like saying this word", and went on to compare dialogue "that's no longer common in conversation" to the period in which the film is set. Mortensen apologized the next day, saying "my intention was to speak strongly against racism" and he was "very sorry that I did use the full word last night, and will not utter it again".
Home media Green Book was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 12, 2019, by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. The film was made available for purchase on streaming video in digital HD from Amazon Video and iTunes on February 19, 2019. It was also released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Entertainment One through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in the UK in 2018.
Reception Box office