The Most Savage Reactions To Green Book’s Best Picture Oscar Win
"Remember when Green Book won Best Picture? Man, that choice did not age well."
Film lovers have slammed the decision to award the Best Picture Oscar to Green Book, with the announcement sparking an immediate backlash both on the internet and at the ceremony itself.
The comedy-drama about Dr. Donald Shirley, a black musician, and Tony Lip, his white chauffeur, driving across America’s deep south in the early 1960s has been accused of peddling a white saviour narrative, and was described as “a symphony of lies” by Shirley’s family. The fact that it was written by a man who believes anti-Muslim conspiracy theories and directed by a man who once pulled his dick out on the set of a film probably doesn’t help the situation either.
The reaction on social media to Green Book‘s win was swift and extremely brutal.
Remember when Green Book won Best Picture? Man, that choice did not age well.
— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) February 25, 2019
Congratulations to Crash on no longer being the go-to reference for the Oscars fucking up.
— Sean O’Neal (@seanoneal) February 25, 2019
CRASH 2: THE CRASHENING! #Oscars
— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) February 25, 2019
Can’t stop looking at the group of people collecting the Best Picture Oscar for Green Book, a film about racism in the South. pic.twitter.com/4NBNit588I
— Freddie Campion (@FreddieCampion) February 25, 2019
Some of Green Book’s best friends are black movies.
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) February 25, 2019
Green Book says there are good people on both sides.
— Melinna B (@MelinnaTeatrina) February 25, 2019
Electoral college Vs. Popular vote pic.twitter.com/xK8Ou5OJm8
— Elamin Abdelmahmoud (@elamin88) February 25, 2019
Green Book? Really!? #oscars #AcademyAwards2019 pic.twitter.com/1d0VZ4GbVo
— ROMA stan account (@jair7s) February 25, 2019
Green Book was always going to win because a lot of retired Academy members watched the screener and said “I used to have a Cadillac like that”
— Parker (@jeffparker) February 25, 2019
But as savage as the response online was, the people at the actual Oscars were arguably even less impressed.
So @_MarcusD3_ captured Chadwick Boseman’s face when Green Book won, the perfect reaction gif pic.twitter.com/x8uAV66tEc
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) February 25, 2019
Samuel L. Jackson’s reactions announcing the Green Book win versus the BlacKkKlansman win were um distinctive to say the least pic.twitter.com/B3USRJGKo7
— Hanna Yowell (@HannaYowell) February 25, 2019
Spike Lee was visibly angry when “Green Book” was announced as the winner of best picture at the Oscars, waving his arms in disgust and appearing to try to storm out of the Dolby Theatre before he was stopped at the doors. He returned to his seat when the speeches were over.
— Andrew Dalton (@andyjamesdalton) February 25, 2019
Spike Lee, who won Best Adapted Screenplay for BlacKkKlansman, was particularly critical of the decision, equating it to a basketball game where the ref “made a bad call”.
Brandishing a champagne flute, the filmmaker told reporters he was on his sixth glass. “You know why,” he quipped.
“Every time someone is driving somebody, I lose,” Lee added, referencing the 1990 Oscars when Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture while his masterpiece Do The Right Thing failed to score a nomination.
Ultimately though, it might be this clip that summed up his feelings best.
Interviewer: is there something about Green Book that offends you?
Spike Lee: pic.twitter.com/fXy2TLM7yc
— two yards ahead in the brain (@mxr_ly_) February 25, 2019