MovieChat Forums > Green Book (2018) Discussion > Shirley's family don't like this movie

I think he missed the point of the film. It wasn't a straight up biopic. It was a film about our history, and about human nature (love/hate/prejudices), and about friendship -- using this story as it's vehicle.

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why not use two fictional characters then?
According to that article its not that
its not 100% accurate,
its not even "there was a bit of artistic license"
its not even "its only very loosley based"
apparently its the exact polar opposite of reality!

That would be like making a WW2 film about capturing an Enigma machine and depicting the Americans doing it .
... oh wait .

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>>why not use two fictional characters then?

Well, they could have, but they didn't. It's a better movie this way. Sure, they could have said loosely based, but it's OK. It's not a normal biographical movie like Chaplin (1992). As I said above: It was a film about our history, and about human nature (love/hate/prejudices), and about friendship -- using this story as it's vehicle. And it was wonderful.

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A film depicting which allied force captured the Enigma machine is the polar opposite of reality? You really need to look up the term polar opposite.

The real question here is who exactly is bending what truth. Both sides have offset each other. Unless you got some particular insight into the matter it sounds like you're just picking which side you believe is correct based on whatever it is that drove you to that. I'm sure it's not 100% accurate but I read some of the criticism of the film from Shirley's family and even at that at least one of them admitted to not even having ever seen the film. Is that what's to be taken seriously?

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Yes you're right i did use "polar opposite" with some bad examples. I think the enigma example was less opposite than the relationship between the two guys in the film, which was probly indifferent at best , hmm , so niether "opposite".

I suspect there was in reality no friendship just a tolerance of each other, so it seems the "real people" have been used instead of fictional ones purely to lend "weight" to the story and make it more marketable.

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Can't be sure what's true but the bottom line is you've got the family of someone who's now dead saying "nuh-uh we weren't estranged."

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The screenplay was written by Tony Lip's son. It's told from the point of view of how his family saw the relationship between the two men.

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