In less than a month, the oscars of the new year are about to be announced. The most concerned award for the average movie fan is the Oscar for Best Picture.
Every year the Oscar for Best Picture becomes a hot topic: "The Shape of Water" in 2018, "Moonlight Boy" in 2017, and so on.
This year, 8 films were nominated for Best Picture, my personal favorite is the electric "Green Book", after watching these 8 nominated films, I am even more convinced that "Green Book" is the most likely to win the Best Picture Award. A few days ago, the Producers Guild of America awarded the Best Picture Award to "Green Book", which is known as the "Oscar weather vane", and in the past 29 years, the best picture selected by the Producers Guild of America has coincided with the Oscar best picture as many as 20 times.
It can be said that the director of "Green Book" has already held half of the best picture of the little golden man. Considering that at the Golden Globe Awards at the beginning of the year, "Green Book" also won the Best Picture Award, most of the little golden man's body was pinched in the hands of the director.
【Oscar Little Golden Man】
But who would have thought: 5 years ago, Peter Farreri, the director of "Green Book", won a bunch of "Golden Plum Awards", a special award for bad films in the United States, which is announced every year before the Oscars to pay tribute to the much-criticized bad films.
Peter "got a lot" at the Golden Plum Awards in 2014, winning the Worst Film, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay awards for a film.
【2014 Peter's film received serious bad reviews】
And this film is "Movie 43", this movie can be described as a luxurious lineup: there are "Sister Stone" (the heroine of "Philharmonic City"), Jeremy Allen White (the high-IQ brother in the American drama "Shameless"), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine, Uncle Wolf), Kate Winslet (Rose in "Titanic") and other big names, it is because of these big names to participate, fans expect too much, and the quality of the movie will generally be crazy "Golden Plum".
[The quality of the film is like Kate Winslet's expression]
Feng shui takes turns, wild lilies also have spring, with "Green Book", Director Peter finally has to be shamed. Now let's talk about why I'm so optimistic about this movie. The film is about race in America, the injustices suffered by black people. This issue has been discussed tens of thousands of times in American films, and Green Book has something new to say.
The novelty is that the Green Book does not describe this problem in the sad, repressive tone of "scar literature", as in "Moonlight Boy"; nor does it discuss this problem in a stormy and cheerful and vengeful manner, as in "Twelve Years of Slavery". Rather: speaking in a relaxed, even slightly ridiculous tone.
This makes it possible for audiences who are accustomed to watching movies with racial issues and are already aesthetically tired to find a rare interest in this movie. To make others accept a kind of thinking, you have to let the inevitable first accept your story, and this film does a good job. But light-hearted ridicule does not mean frivolity, and in this film, the scars of racism really exist, and what heals them is the indiscriminate goodness of human nature that transcends race and skin color.
【Stills of "Green Book"】
The story told in the film is simple: Don Shelley, a famous black pianist in New York, needs someone to escort him on a tour of the racially discriminatory Southern region. Wrong, he found a white Tony. Tony also looked down on black people at first, but life forced him to accept Don's offer, from the beginning the two of them were just a working relationship, and later, he became Don's close friend.
They were with each other along the way, fighting against entrenched racist ideas in the South, with many interesting stories happening during their 2-month journey; and many bad experiences, but they watched over each other. Eventually, return to New York on Christmas night.
There are many classic passages in the film, such as: Tang, who lives in new York high society, did not eat fried chicken at first, because during the period when blacks were enslaved, the policy stipulated that blacks were not allowed to raise large livestock, so at that time, chickens as small livestock became the most important source of meat for blacks. In its worst, chicken can even be equated with the word "negro."
But unable to resist the temptation of the aroma and Tony's persuasion, Don finally ate fried chicken all the way and refused to stage a "true fragrance" warning.
There is also a particularly shocking scene in the movie: the two drive through the farmland in the south, the car breaks down on the way, Tony comes down to help Tang repair the car, and at the same time opens the door for Tang, while the black man working in the farmland not far away is as dazed as seeing the "miracle". They must not understand: What is going on? Don sat in the car and looked at his fellow blacks who were working, which was called "the opposite of history."
【Historical Contrast】
There are many wonderful, interesting, and even classic places like this in the movie, and if you watch it, you will definitely get a lot.
Another point also guarantees the shocking power of "Green Book": "Green Book" is based on real events, and the real things that happen are far more bloody and cruel than in the movie. Although slavery in the South was abolished after the Civil War in the 19th century, it was not until the 1960s that the prevailing notion of "white people are noble and blacks are inferior" did not change.
The year 1962 depicted in the film is the eve of the climax of the black affirmative action movement, and the revolt of blacks against racial inequality is about to reach its peak, and the discrimination of whites against blacks is at its peak.
The historical Don Shelley was indeed a New York pianist who toured south, and the story of "Green Book" took place on this journey.
[Historical Don Shelly prototypes and actors in movies]
The so-called "Green Book" was the "Black Travel Guide" that was popular on the market at that time. In 1936, a black postman in New York published a book called "The Green Book of Black Tourism", which talked about which hotels and inns could accommodate black people, and which places blacks should avoid when traveling, which can be described as bloody evidence of racial discrimination.
Fortunately, the wheels of history are rolling forward: Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Black Civil Rights Movement, the American South, the Black People launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Little Rock Incident, the Free Rider Movement, and so on, and the efforts for racial equality are becoming more and more intense. The "Green Paper" finally fulfilled its mission in 1966, and apartheid policies came to an end with the massive civil rights movement.
Of course, if a film wants to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, it is not enough to have a good story and real history as a support, and the actor's performance is also an important consideration dimension.
The male protagonist of the film, Don Shelley, is played by Mahershala Ali (hereinafter referred to as Ali), who is also a familiar face in the eyes of Chinese film fans. In 2017, it was he who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his wonderful performance in "Moonlight Boy". In this movie, he plays a serious uncle on the surface, but in fact he is particularly warm-hearted.
【Stills of Mahershala Ali's Moonlight Boy"
Recently, the popular topic American drama "True Detective Season 3", Ali also played the main role in it, and it is a blockbuster, a big drama, and a high-scoring drama, according to this trend, he is afraid that he will take Over Morgan Freeman's class in the future and become a black acting director in Hollywood. This time, he is going to hit the Oscars for the second time with "Green Book".
Playing the white leper Tony is Vigo Mortensen (hereinafter referred to as Vigo), which is also a familiar face in the eyes of Chinese film fans. In the movie, he plays a gangster who watches in a bar, and from time to time he plays a little clever and mixes a little money, and in order to win $50, he eats 26 hamburgers. No way, his family has 3 children to support.
[Stills from "Green Book", Tony the White Man]
Before becoming a white man who is good at eating hamburgers and fried chicken, and has a fat brain, Viggo is the Aragon in "The Lord of the Rings", a handsome man who falls in love with the elf princess. It is said that for the performance of "Green Book", he deliberately gained dozens of pounds, such a person does not win the award who won?
Aragon in The Lord of the Rings
In short, director Peter, who has won the Golden Plum Award, this is going to turn over, just like the pianist Don Shelley in "Green Book" said that "having genius is not enough, it takes courage to change people's hearts", Director Peter definitely has the talent to make good movies, but to really make a good movie, it takes more courage.
I recommend you to watch this movie, and I hope you will gain courage from the movie.
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