Although "Green Book" won the "Best Picture" award at this year's Oscars, director Peter Farreri did not even get the nomination list for "Best Director", which is probably still "insufficient" in the eyes of some people. This includes the black "old cannon" Spike Lee (the director of "Black Party"), when he heard that the best picture was actually "Green Book", he was so angry that he had to leave the seat, was persuaded by the on-site staff to return, and finally laughed at himself: "Every time someone drives, I will lose (29 years ago, his "Do What You Should" lost to "Drive Miss Daisy"). The real cause of his anger, of course, was not the theme of driving, but that "Green Book" was an almost white-headed film that was fundamentally different from the work of these black directors, "not my race, whose hearts must be different."
"Green Book", a title that sounds a bit romantic, is behind the ugly modern history of the United States. In the 1960s, the "Green Book", compiled by black postmen, was a travel pamphlet guiding black Americans deep into the heart of the conservative South, telling them where to stay and eat, otherwise they would be insulted, expelled and beaten by whites, and it was a "life-saving manual" full of blood and tears. A special product of such a racist era, looking back half a century later, what should have been angry condemnation has become a warm, inclusive road comedy under the lens of the white Farrey. He was the one who made a film like Dumb and Dumb, the same two people driving together, Gene Kelly and Jeff Daniels, who had an ill-paid IQ, and now became a black-and-white vigo Mortensen and Mahersala Ali, and the sensitive skin color antagonism was resolved on Christmas Eve, which was too easy and naïve for those black affirmative action activists who had struggled all their lives.
The sharpness and brutality of the racial confrontation at that time was difficult to reconcile, and the last restaurant scene in "Green Book" has been reflected, but in the eyes of activists like Lee, it is far from enough, and "Black Party" is through the baptism of violence of blood and fire, almost paying the price of life, so that blacks have a chance to pierce the barriers of racism. The understanding in "Green Book" is too light, too natural, to say it is "to lift a heavy weight", to say it more severely is "deliberate paralysis", which will make people ignore the cruelty of the struggle. If you look at the four "skin tone films" that won awards at this year's Oscars together, "Green Book" and "Black Gangsters", "Black Panther", and "If Beale Street Can Talk" are not a "camp", this difference is the difference between position and perspective, which is difficult for Spike Lee and others to tolerate.
Because the actual racial conflict is at hand, the last news clip in "Black Party" is the current American society, and no matter how soft and beautified in "Green Book", it is difficult to comfort the families of the dead who have been crushed by ethnic elements. In the post-Obama era, when conservatism is resurgent, the evolution of black status and discourse power is so subtle that even in Hollywood, the base camp of the left, there are not many ways to show solidarity. Last year, Trump has been exhausted, and even if half of the acting awards are awarded to black actors this year, it is still difficult to quell the absolutist demands of minorities for equality - with Ali's role in the film, why can't he nominate the male lead, but only the male supporting actor?
White people are the mainstay, black people are matched, and such a setting in "Green Book" is not only because of the number of scenes, but the former's observation of the latter is the driving force that really promotes the development of the plot. The driver, Tony Lippe, discovers the secrets of Dr. Don Shelly along the way, which is more interesting than the customs and customs along the way, and Mortensen's interpretation is more full, thanks to his on-screen image of a brazen man and the poet's temperament of the actor, which makes this Tony have both a simple side and a subtle inner curve. From a hidden racist who throws away his black cup to invite black people to his home for Christmas, what really impresses Tony is perhaps not Shelley's talent and cultivation, but sympathy for the "loneliest black man in history", which makes him realize that insults and violence are not solutions to social problems, at least not as in "Skin" (this year's Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Film Award), to the next generation. But this kind of "epiphany" sympathy is limited to individuals and families, and it is difficult to spread to the wider white community, so there will be a surging civil rights movement, there will be an accusation of judicial injustice in "If Beale Street Can Speak", the system in "Black Party" undercover single-handedly singled out the Ku Klux Klan, "Black Panther" simply formed its own civilization and established another country... In contrast, the scene of blacks and whites driving out of the distance to become friends and writing love letters to their wives together is also too mild.
Structurally, "Green Book" is a mature, neat road movie, with characters, motives, conflicts, and lofty intentions worthy of a big book, the basis of the real story provides credibility, fictional tampering adds drama, and the Oscar can't say it without giving an award. For fans familiar with such films, the plot development of the film is mostly expected - the famous pianist Shelley is going to tour the South, the driver Tony is an Italian social man, this road bumps and bumps are inseparable from the conflict of culture, customs and personality, the most interesting and most worth digging into, is the reverse setting of the identity of the two: the dark-skinned Shelly is an elegant gentleman who is highly educated and disdainful of KFC; the white-skinned Tony is a rude, uncultured and uncultured low-level. This is more experimental than similar films such as "Drive for Miss Daisy" and "Untouchable": Can the race at the bottom of society change its social status through art education and cultural accomplishment?
Unfortunately, even if the audience is touched by the friendship between the two at the end of the film, when they look back and think about this question calmly, the answer is not so optimistic. The overall status of the Negro did not improve because of Shelley's tour, and the biggest change was not to Benny, I am afraid that he was the only one. Shelley didn't understand in his heart that he was just an "outlier" who was captive and watched by white people, like the chimpanzees who were used as "primate IQ experiments", everything was just a performance opportunity manipulated by white scientists, he was far away from his compatriots, and he could not even choose the type of repertoire and performance venue he performed. And the most cruel and serious part of the film is to let Shelly personally tell this "truth", the rain pouring night, the insult accompanied by loneliness, the confusion of self-identity, how painful it is for the person concerned, but Shelly still has to continue to do so, giving up his favorite classical music, and instead using a more secular popular piano to please the world and please the white rich.
Perhaps in the eyes of the black brothers on the side of the road, Shelley's suffering and hardships are nothing more than "small witches and big witches", but as an artist, Shelley's courage to challenge the "road of discrimination" is still worthy of respect. "Talent", on the other hand, becomes insignificant in this opposing system, it cannot be exchanged for a suit, a bed, a full meal, and even leads to the disaster of killing, and finally only a pair of old fists of a white driver can keep the peace of black artists. In the final analysis, Shelley's opening style, the so-called dignity and honor, is still led by the Kennedy brothers led by the White American elite to give alms, if it is not the high-level big people to put pressure on the grass-roots police, those white policemen who discriminate against black people will not easily release people, which is the "white salvation theory" that Spike Lee despises the most. When these two foreigners are gone, racists such as the Ku Klux Klan will continue to bully black laborers on the farm, drive black players out of restaurants, unrepentant, and even intensify.
The most effective way for blacks to win true respect, to stop obeying the "green book" and survive was to put down the piano, rise up and fight, and demand the right to live back from the arrogant whites. This is recognized not only by black directors such as Spike Lee, but also by Quentin Tarantino, and the guns in Django rescued are aimed at the white slave owner played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and the black lackey played by Samuel Jackson. As early as 1940, the Oscars used a best supporting actress (Heidi McDaniel in "Gone with the Wind") to appease the black people, but only wanted them to be obedient nannies and loyal housekeepers. From this point of view, "Green Book" is more like a regression on the line than "Black Panther" and "Black Gangster", which can only be regarded as a private memoir in Reader's Digest, left in Grandpa's photo album, warm pulse.