Green Book

The DVD played fine without any skips. However, there were two or three places in the DVD where there were light inconsistencies regarding reflections on the windshield and light shining around the characters heads which I do not remember when watching it when it aired on cable. Why was this a copy made in Mexico? I thought that the DVD was US made.

Great movie

I really enjoyed this movie. Great, Great movie. Lessons taught, Lessons learned. 1st watch 03/03/2023.

This is a heartwarming, informative and motivating story. It can help us all learn that we are more alike than different.

I think about this film. I think about relaltionships Ive had but more importantly I think about how a person feels when he is uninvited into society at large. Im glad people are still making films about racism. I think I understand the issue but each film reminds me that I really dont understand how it FEELS. When my grammar school was integrated in the 1940s, I went to school with people of color and didnt think much about how they felt in their daily lives. I was in my 60s when I attended a reunion and found out that one of the brightest women who is a whole lot more successful than I ever was had to sit in the balcony at the movies when we were young . I never thought about where she was when I was with my white friends at the movies. So I recommend that everyone see this film and that more films be made to drive home the point over and over. See this, youll learn something.....perhaps not during the film but while youre stuck in traffic and your mind can think about it.

This is a fantastic tail.

Based on a true life story will pull me in every time. Real people can change, if they want to, for the betterment of all!

The general story line is based on a true story of Dr Don Shirley, a prodigious pianist who hires an Italian bouncer to drive him into the “deep south” on a musical tour in the early ‘60s, in an age of segregation. Coming from an Italian heritage, I can confess that my culture is guilty of having had a history of exclusivity that still lingers to this present day. It’s nothing personal, it’s an Italian thing. Didn’t matter if you’re Black or White, it was if you were or were not a ‘Goomba’. Some of the terms used in the ‘60s are pejoratives today, particularly the n-word, which I’m relieved was refrained from use. The now derogatory term is derived from a reference to folks who hail from Niger. Instead, the script substitutes ‘Black’, a term yet unused in that generational time period, but is the English equivalent for the Latin word negro — which, incidentally, is still used as a nickname by some Latino families (pronounced: nay’-gro) Spoiler alert, there is an interesting scene where Tony drives into Kentucky for the first time and discovers a Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurant and he gets a bucket, to the dismay of the proper Don Shirley. I can personally vouch that I myself remember the first time eating fried chicken and being schooled by my family that it is fully appropriate, and not considered bad manners, to eat chicken without utensils. It’s the one main course that we are permitted to eat using our fingers themselves. Even so, the bigger story here is that as they toured further into the south, there were interesting lessons in the distinctions of venues. For example, Don Shirley was perfectly welcomed at the culturally blended dinner table where the host served up what was thought to be something Don Shirley must like. Even so, Shirley might have been offended of their stereotypical presumptions for this menu selection without having the earlier exposure to the Kentucky Fried Chicken incident prior in the storyline. Later in the film, this becomes more poignant as they learn that in the deeper south, the Virtuoso pianist wasn’t welcomed to sit and to simply eat in the same dining room with everyone. It’s unconscionable and bewildering that identity politics still haunt us today. We shy to speak of varying strengths or weaknesses that tend to accompany different people groups. Personally, I don’t like the term ‘race’ which is misleading since we are all a part of the only one human race on the planet. There are different nationalities, cultures, creeds, and complexions, but there is not a second race existent on God’s green earth, to borrow a phrase used in the film. A good film uses the feature time to build the background story of the characters. It makes sense to me to begin in this worldview of the driver’s background, Tony the Italian, as he is a prototype of the ethnocentric world that they lived in of various migrants in America. That world gets enchantingly swept into the world of the story’s main subject, Don Shirley, an accomplished Black pianist who is the benefactor and employer of a recent layed-off bouncer, Tony, to drive him on a musical tour into the southern countryland of the U.S... which leads to my favorite scene. The movie poster shows our two stars sitting in the Cadillac, almost as if posing for a promotional billboard advertisement. In fact, we find that it’s actually a scene from the film, and maybe the most phenomenal moment, without a word of dialogue. After Tony refills water into an overheated engine and then opens the door for his impeccable employer, both their gazes fall onto the eyes of Black harvesters looking back from the fields. It’s as if time stops! Maybe this explains why the piano maestro, it is reported, actually did not want the biography shared while he was still living. When we as individuals begin to open up and expose our vulnerabilities, we find that we are really more alike deep down than we are different. We are all trying to ease our sufferings, only to find that there are others in the community who are facing even greater inequities. Tony isn’t particularly skilled in any trade, so he’s reduced to being a bouncer without much of a retirement program. Don Shirley is a financially independent and one-of-a-kind, successful pianist, but faces reprehensible discrimination. Then there’s the ethnic workers tilling the land: men and women, young and old. Looking into those eyes, the two main characters in this biographical movie ultimately realize their own multitude of ethical deviations, like Tony’s temper and total disregard to steal or toss waste out into the streets; and for Don Shirley those ethical challenges include finding solace in a bottle of scotch and not reaching out toward his estranged brother, the only surviving family member of his family.

This is a movie that hits the heart! More people need to pay attention to the way they treat others! We all have to live on this planet, and we need to care for one another! Be an example of good!!

We watched this movie several times on TV. Its such a great movie, I wanted to share it with my mother when I went for my monthly visit so I bought the cd. I highly recommend this show.