Is ‘Green Book’ the worst Best Picture winner of all time?
By Jack Murphy// A&E Editor
The 91st Academy Awards ended in shocking fashion when Julia Roberts announced that Peter Farrelly’s “Green Book” had won the Oscar for best picture. Immediately afterward, the Academy was criticized for the selection by many in the industry, including Spike Lee, who stormed for the exits once the announcement was made. In his backstage interview, he said, “the refs made a bad call” and “It wasn’t my cup of tea.” Multiple journalists panned the decision, calling “Green Book” the worst, best picture winner of the last decade and, potentially, of all time. This grabbed my attention because “Green Book” was actually recommended to me by my grandparents and also calling something “the worst of all time” immediately draws my interest, especially since I’ve seen a couple of the worst, best picture winners of all time myself. As such,
I set out to figure out what the worst best picture winner of all time is. I looked up a bunch of lists to find the films that popped up the most and used those as my guidelines to create a couple of rules. Rule one, anything pre-1950s doesn’t count as the expectations in the film industry were different, and they are a staple of the times. And two, if it’s one of the worst of all time because another film lost, like how “Shakespeare in Love” won over “Saving Private Ryan” for example. After doing my research, I ended up with two films that are very similar.
Obviously, “Green Book” was mentioned quite frequently as one of the worst. The second film is the notoriously bad best picture winner “Crash.” “Crash” won the award in 2006, and to this day is the only film that has won the award while not being nominated for a Golden Globe. “Crash” takes place in modern-day Los Angelas and follows a bunch of characters, all of whom happen to be racist, some more than others. Throughout the film, they all learn that racism is wrong. I was forced to watch “Crash” last year for one of my classes, and I have to say I hated it so much. “Crash” only exists to communicate that racism is a problem, which is true, but the way “Crash” portrays it is unrealistic and cheesy. Though “Crash” has an all-star cast, Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Thandie Newton, Terrance Howard, Michael Pena and the man himself, Brendan Fraser just to name some of them. “Crash” just feels like it’s serving an agenda and not authentic, which makes it all the more unbelievable that it somehow won the best picture at The Academy Awards.
“Green Book” takes place in 1962 and is an adaptation of a true story. The narrative follows a driver/bouncer, named Tony Lip played by Vigo Mortensen, who takes a world-class African American pianist named Don Shirley, played by Mahershala Ali, on a concert tour throughout the deep south. “Green Book” differentiates from “Crash” with an uplifting tone, probably because Peter Farrelly is a mostly comedic director. In the film, Tony is just misunderstood, and Don doesn’t quite understand his culture as poor African Americans make him uncomfortable. By the end, they come together and learn from each other’s differences.
The problem I have with the films is that they both misportray racism as an issue that is easily fixed. Once the main characters in both films see how racism affects others, they have an “ah-ha” moment and disown their previously held beliefs. I think most people would agree with me that racism is not an issue that is as easy to resolve as the two films suggest.
For example, if you were to show a raging racist how their actions affected people, I can guarantee they wouldn’t be so easily convinced.
In the first five minutes of “Green Book,” Tony is in his apartment with two African American plumbers fixing the sink in his kitchen. His wife offers both of them a glass of water, they both leave after drinking, and as soon as they go, Tony throws away both the glasses. It’s an incredibly racist moment and it’s never mentioned or remotely brought up again. Prior to making the film, Don Shirley’s family wasn’t even asked about him and all the information about Shirley came from the real-life family of Tony, so in the final product, Shirley’s character isn’t great and there’s not much to him.
Overall, “Green Book” is a very average movie that shouldn’t have gone anywhere near the best picture title, but it is a film that your parents or grandparents will enjoy. Just to be clear, I’m not saying your parents or grandparents are racist if they enjoy this movie either. I’m gonna give “Green Book” a “C.” But, is it the worst best picture winner of all time? Nope, “Crash” still holds that title because of how horribly it is written. I hated everything about “Crash,” and it’s definitely one of the worst films I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen films like “Birdemic” and “Troll 2.” “Crash” deserves a “D-,” only the acting and Brendan Fraser keeps the film from completely failing.
Vigo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali star in “Green Book,” the Best Picture winner. Photo by Universal Pictures