When I heard that Spike Lee was upset that “Green Book” won Best Picture over his own movie “BlacKkKlansman”, a movie about an African American Police officer who infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan, I understood his frustration. To put it plainly, it sucks to lose when you put all your effort into a project. Spike Lee’s rejection of the film has sparked many headlines that claim that “Green Book” is just another ‘White Savior’ film, a film that is based on the premise of a white man saving an African American who is in an unfortunate position.

While watching the movie I saw an apparent social difference between an Italian working-class man from the Bronx and a highly educated Jamaican American pianist. Throughout the film, I watched the relationship between two seemingly divergent men grow. At the beginning, Tony Lip, portrayed by Viggo Mortensen, shows immense prejudice against all people of African descent. By the end of the film, Don Shirley, played by Mahershala Ali, and Tony have created a strong bond of friendship that is not usually depicted in television. This friendship benefited both Tony and Don because both characters gained from their relationship. The friendship forged in this movie was one of the main reasons why I loved this movie and the acting in “Green Book” sealed the deal of my eternal love for this movie. Mortensen and Ali both play their characters like a second skin but the supporting actors polish the rough edges on the wonderful acting performance in “Green Book”. Linda Cardellini who plays Tony’s wife, Dolores Vallelonga, radiates the green screen with her smile and her unbiased mind.

Yes, this movie is a historical drama based off a true story of a black musician touring in the deep south during the 1960s and yes this movie was filmed in 2019 and some elements of it were definitely falsified for entertainment purposes. However, this movie was based off a true story, the very revolutionary story of Dr. Don Shirley, a strong man who defied a segregated society just to make a point about his talent as a black musician.