There’s a popular back-handed compliment down south for well meaning and misguided idiots, and that’s “Bless your heart”. If I could sum up Peter Farrelly’s 2018 film Green Book in three words, that would be it. He joins a seemingly never-ending string of white filmmakers with good intentions out to remind us that racism is bad and super Negroes are here to save us from ourselves. Green Book is this year’s The Help, Driving Miss Daisy, Hidden Figures, Selma, etc. Of course many of these films just have to be “based on a true story” which makes their patronizing all the more infuriating.
Now before I get too long winded I wold like to offer my usual “I’m a straight white male discussing the problems of representation of other cultures” blindspot that I might have. Feel free to tell me how wrong I am because I’m not a southern caricature in the 1960s south, an Italian stereotype or a supremely gifted black man here to remind everyone how much better we could all be. Now the phrase “Magical Negro” was not coined by me and people have been writing about this cliche for decades in films featuring black characters. To understand what the phrase means I simply ask you to remember Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile or Will Smith in The Legend of Bagger Vance. In white directed movies, typically featuring white protagonists, the black person is usually supporting, mostly sexless, and a better person than the white person who learns how to be friends with another race.
The problem of representation goes as far back as you can imagine and far better historians than me have explained this in detail so allow me to focus on what the specific problems with this movie are. For starters, this was one of the most cliched films I’ve ever seen. Roughly ten seconds of the trailer and you know every single thing that happens in the movie. I mean seriously watch the trailer and you now know every thing that occurs in the film. Does the wise guy from the Bronx learn to accept colored people? Does the uppity virtuoso eat fried chicken and maintain his dignity? Is there a scene at a bar where white rednecks threaten the black man for being black? Are there racist cops doing racist cop things? Does the Italian tough guy stand up for his black friend? Holy shit it’s like the writers had a checklist of everything a movie set in the south in 1962 needed in order to get funding.
The fact that this captured a couple of Golden Globes including best picture - comedy or musical is part of the problem. I’m not entirely sure what comprises the voters of the Hollywood Foreign Press but they are comically out of touch. This doesn’t mean the Academy won’t nominate this for a few awards so they can prop up their movies about extraordinary black people in the Civil Rights era like it’s this years Meryl Streep nomination. What is so infuriating about this, and Driving Miss Daisy 29 years ago is that there are actual, real good films being written and directed by black people right now. Have you seen If Beale Street Could Talk, Sorry to Bother You, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, or BlackKklansmen? It’s like these voters are like “That’s nice, but I’d like a movie that is a little more familiar and maybe not so angry”. I would also like to put Blindspotting on this list because it's just so much better, even if it was just co-written by a black man.
The problem with this film, and Hidden Figures as well as countless others is what I could call “The Dumbo Effect”. Now before I get sidetracked into saying how much I have no interest in the live action Dumbo that is being forced upon us this year, I’ll explain. The moral of Dumbo is you shouldn’t judge people because they may have super abilities and if they do, then boy will you look stupid. This is the message that these movies constantly hammer home. It’s one of the reasons why we’ll never see a good film based on Jackie Robinson’s life. The idea is that if black people are exceptionally gifted; either intellectually, artistically, or even physically then they should deserve our backwards white respect. Never mind the black people shucking and jiving in the background, it’s ok for them to stay in their place and do as they’re told because they like playing craps and getting drunk and robbing each other. The problem remains that anyone not gifted would be just fine to discriminate or outright dismiss. I mean they would have kept Jumbo Jr.'s mother in that cage if he wasn't able to fly and make his capitalist oppressors rich.
Hidden Figures was very much the same film. Here’s an incredible true story about these super smart black women who wouldn’t have been worth our time if they were simply maids and cooks. Good thing they were supremely intelligent. Part of the problem stems from the “Based on a true story” motif, and perhaps another part of it is how the story is framed. We see everything from Tony’s (Vigo Mortensen) perspective, with roughly two incredibly short scenes from the vantage point of Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali). This is not an entirely uncommon tactic and was the same used in the problematic Mississippi Burning some 30 years ago, hell even In the Heat of the Night has some of the same problems, because that is very much Rod Steiger's film. Now Peter Farrelly is super white and it isn’t too surprising that he would frame the story from the more familiar perspective but in 2018 it’s played out. How many times have we seen this film already, insert audible groan here?
Now I’d like to mention a few of the things I actually enjoyed here, so don’t worry this will be quick. Coming from a comedic director it isn’t too surprising that Farrelly opted for more of a buddy comedy road picture than super dramatic civil rights picture. There were a few times I had a chuckle without necessarily any laugh out loud moments. The amusing and light tone is welcome and I feel that this is what is disarming at least some critics and voters. Overall the film has the same semi-respectable ratings other films of this kind have, so it’s neither better or worse than the many films exactly identical to it. Both performances of the leads are great. Mortensen and Ali are very reliable and I wouldn’t be surprised if either gets themselves at least a nomination when the Oscars are announced. The few scenes featuring Don Shirley’s music are also quite good and momentarily take you out of the cliched mess surrounding it. Also despite her very small screen time it is nice to see Linda Cardellini get work.
At the end of the day I’m simply tired of these films coming out every year so that the white liberal Academy can pat themselves on the back that they’re so fucking “brave” for telling these true stories. It’s nauseating just as it was for the last several decades. When waves of young black filmmakers were getting to make films their way in the late 80s and early 90s the Academy largely ignored all of them. Things have gotten better and the recent win for Moonlight is some validation for that. Considering how much better these honest, personal films about black people made by black people are this “Trying to win an Oscar” sub-genre of garbage civil rights films needs to die once and for all.
