Green Book: Viggo Mortensen thinks backlash over the film was misinformed

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Even though Green Book was a fine film that featured strong performances from Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali, the 2018 Best Picture Oscar winner is remembered more today for the controversy surrounding it. Its depiction of race relations became a big bone of contention and Mortensen took a lot of criticism since many believed that his role represented the classic example of the "white savior" trope in movies. During a recent interview with "The Film Stage", Mortensen took some time to weigh in on the past controversy while promoting his directorial debut The Falling.

"[The film is] a story that was based on a very real friendship, and real events, with very few liberties taken at all, but there was this small minority saying it's not truthful to the period, those people weren't friends, those things didn't happen, etc. The dumbass in that story was the white guy. There was a steep learning curve for the character I played. But they both learned from each other. And the fact is, it was based on real events. So the people that really tried to do damage to the movie's reputation during its run, as you say, and people still to this day are like, "Oh, is this the Green Book of this year?" As if it's a stain to have been part of that movie, which is ridiculous. That very small minority was either unknowingly or knowingly misinformed and misinforming about the foundation of that story, and the friendship that it's based on."

Green Book is inspired by the true story of a tour of the Deep South by African American classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley (Ali) and Italian American bouncer Frank "Tony Lip" Vallelonga (Mortensen) who acted as Shirley's drive and bodyguard. Despite becoming a darling of the awards season and eventually winning Best Picture at The Oscars, the movie was met with criticism for focusing on Frank's redemption as a bigot at the hands of Shirley. The film also was the victim of accusations from Shirley's family that said the film misrepresented the relationship between Shirley and Tony being far more intimate than it actually was. I was aware of all of these concerns and even understood a great deal of them but the screenplay, written by Peter Farrelly, Brian Hayes Currie, and Vallelonga's son, Nick Vallelonga, was based on interviews with Nick's father and Shirley, as well as letters his father wrote to his mother. I say all of this to just shine a light that this is Frank's story and it's told from his perspective and it's not intended to be a biopic about Shirley. At the end of the day, it's Frank's tale about how their friendship made him overcome his bigotry and the heart of that story is the unlikely friendship between the two personalities. Mortensen goes on to say that he doesn't believe that any of those criticisms take away from a well-made film that has themes that are still relevant today:

"That was unfortunate, and very irritating, because we wanted to talk about the movie and the subject of racism historically and how things hadn't still hadn't changed enough by a longshot, as we've seen in the last couple of years-certainly, that's evident. It was unfortunate that it happened, but the public, of all stripes, in all countries, reacted extremely favorably to the movie. I think–and I said so at the time–I think it's a really good movie and it's going to stand the test of time. I think it's up there in the finest tradition of the best work from people like Preston Sturges and others. It's a really well-made movie, period, and a valuable glimpse of a specific time in US history, with repercussions to this day and with lessons for this day."

I'm with Mortensen on this one and I wasn't one of those people that jumped on the trashing Green Book bandwagon. I don't think it deserved Best Picture and that's a story for another time but the heart of the story is from Frank's perspective. It's easy to throw the film under the fire for being another case of the white man coming in to save the day but that wouldn't be a fair label for this film, in my opinion.

Do YOU agree with Viggo Mortensen's views on the Green Book backlash?