Los Angeles: Peter Farrelly’s Green Book may have ended up with the Best Picture trophy at the 91st Academy Awards but it’s win has not gone down well with many on social media calling it out for its “sanitised look” at racial problems in America.
The film, about the story of an unlikely friendship between a Black musician and his white driver, upstaged front-runners Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, Black Panther, The Favourite and BlacKkKlansman to bag Best Picture Oscar. Many on Twitter equated the film’s surprise win with Crash, Paul Haggis’ 2005 film that had controversially bagged the coveted honour despite the presence of films like Brokeback Mountain and Munich in the category.
“Crash watching Green Book take its place as the worst Oscar winner,” wrote a person on Twitter. Another person wrote, “Green Book was Crash II: Crash In The Past'” Spike Lee, who ended his own long enduring wait for Oscar glory with his Best Adapted Screenplay win for BlacKkKlansman, was also visibly upset with Green Book winning Best Picture honour.
According to Deadline, Lee, whose film BlacKkKlansman was also nominated in the category, attempted to storm out of the Dolby Theatre after it was announced that Green Book has won the award. The director “walked towards the back of the auditorium in a huff.”
During the winners’ speech, Lee had turned his back to the stage. He was later seen engaged in an “intense conversation with Jordan Peele, who was behind him.” Backstage, Lee referenced to his 1989 film Do the Right Thing, which was denied a nomination in the Best Picture award, which ultimately went to Driving Miss Daisy, another controversial Best Picture choice. “I’m snake bitten.
I mean, every time somebody is driving somebody, I lose. But, they changed the seating arrangement. But, in ’89 I didn’t get nominated, so this one we did,” he said. When asked for his reaction to Green Book win, Lee said “the ref made a bad call”. A photo of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman exchanging bemused look with his co-star Michael B Jordan after Green Book was announced Best Picture winner has also gone viral.
