Viggo Again - Traveling with the Green Book

about 3 years ago

I like connections. That's how my brain works and probably everyone's brains. When I think of something, I instantly receive all kinds of offers that have a connection with each other and with my thought. I like this and I thank my brain for taking me, from connection to connect to interesting and often totally unexpected areas.

That's how Facebook or Youtube algorithms work, I think without knowing the model when it's enough to look for something and receive a lot of similar offers. Of course, with the hope that we will find something we are interested in buying.

Now about the movies, that's why we're here. On the model above, it is enough to think of a movie that my brain bombards me with many other titles that have to do, through the director, actors, screenwriters or who knows what other unknown connection.

The last movie I wrote about was "Hidalgo", you can see here if you may be interested: The story of a horse but especially of the rider - "Hidalgo".

Not nearly a masterpiece, just a Hollywood movie, I chose it for two reasons. The first was because I saw it again on TV the other day and I set out to write about movies seen on TV, as a source of inspiration. The second reason was because of the lead actor, Viggo Mortensen. An actor I've seen sporadically, I understand that I haven't even seen his best movies but I like him and it's enough to see that he's in the cast to choose to see that movie.

That's why I mentioned the connections made by the brain. Because I was writing about Hidalgo and my thoughts were running to the Green Book, the last movie I saw with Viggo. I wanted to write about Hidalgo and the Green Book in the same post but in the end, I understood that it would be too much.

This is how I came to choose the Green Book for this short presentation.

Now I want to make a clarification about how I thought of presenting my favorite movies here. I don't intend to write too much about them, to substitute myself for the critics (I don't think I have the necessary competence) or, to tell the film from one end to the other. No, I just want to highlight a few reasons why I liked the movie and why you should see it too. I just want to create your desire to watch it! If that happened then I would be very happy.

I have to start by saying that this film was highly awarded at the Academy Awards, USA 2019, for Best Motion Picture of the Year,
Best Original Screenplay and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Mahershala Ali). Although Viggo Mortensen was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, all awards were won by Mahershala Ali for his supporting roleMahershala Ali, a great actor, I really like him too.

There was a big Viggo surprise in this movie, a major physical change. I was shocked. Where was that handsome, trained, well-mannered man?

The character played, Tony Lip worked as a bouncer at a nightclub, a club that was closed for renovation. In order to earn something while out of work, he agreed to be the driver and attendant of a black pianist on his tour of the southern United States, this happening in the 1960s when segregation was commonplace.

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The emotional effect is most easily achieved through surprise and antithesis. The black pianist is a cultured, well-mannered man and an exceptional artist, and the white driver played by Mortensen is uneducated and lacks elementary education. Obviously, such a situation is unusual.

At first, the two despise each other but spending a lot of time together they start learning from each other, which is quite simple because what they had was missing from each other and vice versa, so each of them gained something from the other.

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The most important thing they gained was friendship! A friendship for life.

The beauty of the film is the way it presents the transition from an antipathy, gradually, to a true friendship. A friendship between two men as different as possible. The story between the "little" Italian-born neighborhood boy Tony Lip and the African-American classical pianist Don Shirley, a realistic presentation of an evolving friendship.

This theme of friendship is a very common one in movies. Presented in hundreds of different ways, I saw many films of this kind and the culmination is that now I do not remember any title to give an example. But I'm sure you each have at least one example.

Green Book is one of the most successful in this category and is reinforced by the fact that it is based on real facts, practically the screenwriter Nick Vallelonga tells here his father's story. The friendship of the two men lasted until their death.

As I said I don't want to tell the story of the movie, I just want to arouse my curiosity and desire to watch this movie. Beyond the special story, the good quality humor, and emotions, there is, first of all, the extraordinary interpretation of the two protagonists!

Thank you if you found the interest to read to the end.