Green Book (2018) on Netflix
PG-1320182h 10mBiographyComedyDrama
With the Copacabana closed, bouncer Tony Lip needs work. He takes a job driving pianist Don Shirley through the Deep South, guided by a book listing places that serve Black travelers.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb8.2/10704,251 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes77%
Trailer
Plot summary
The Copacabana in the Bronx closes for renovations in 1962, and bouncer Tony Lip needs money for his wife Dolores and their children. An old contact sends him to Carnegie Hall to interview with Don Shirley, a Black concert pianist preparing an eight-week tour of the Midwest and the Deep South that will end just before Christmas. Don, who has no driver's license, has asked for a man who can handle trouble, and hires Tony despite their clash over ironing and shining shoes. The record company provides a car, half the pay up front, the rest at the end if no show is missed, and a copy of the Green Book, a guide to the motels and restaurants that will serve Black travelers in the segregated South.
In these lists: Comedy Movies on Netflix in the US, 2010s Movies on Netflix Right Now (US)
Cast
- Mary Agnes Nixonas Copa Coat Check Girl
- Jon Sortlandas Rydell Band Leader
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Green Book (2018)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Steven Spielberg loved the finished film so much that he reportedly watched it five times over two weeks, calling it his favorite buddy movie since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and he then took it to DreamWorks Pictures for domestic distribution through Universal.
- Singer Robert Plant, who was dating a friend of director Peter Farrelly's wife, recommended the 1950s and 1960s rarities heard on the soundtrack; over dinner on a double date Farrelly asked his advice and Plant played him songs on YouTube.
- Composer Kris Bowers did more than write the score: he taught actor Mahershala Ali basic piano technique and personally stood in as the hand double whenever the camera needed close-ups of piano playing.
- Don Shirley's brother Maurice disputed the film's central friendship, saying Shirley never considered Tony Lip a friend but rather an employee and chauffeur who resented wearing the uniform.
- Shirley's real-life cellist, Jüri Täht, was startled to see himself fictionalized as a character named Oleg and was upset that the film made Oleg Russian, when Täht was actually an Estonian whose family had fled the Soviet Union.
- At a November 2018 promotional panel, Viggo Mortensen said a racial slur aloud while discussing the film's period setting; he apologized the next day, saying his intention had been to speak against racism.
