Green Book winning the Academy Award for best film has attracted criticism from the film fraternity and has definitely made Spike Lee unhappy.
As per reports from inside the Dolby Theatre, the director of "BlacKkKlansman" was visibly upset and restless when Green Book got declared as the Best Picture. He even tried to leave the ceremony in the middle but was stopped by bouncers at the door. Later, the director took to the press conference and expressed how he felt about his movie not winning the best picture awarded.
This is not the first time that Spike Lee has lost the award for best picture at the last moment. Back in 1990, his film "Do The Right Thing," lost out to "Driving Miss Daisy." "I'm snakebit. Every time someone's driving somebody, I lose, Mr Lee said to the press conference backstage. He further added, "I thought I was courtside at the Garden and the refs made a bad call."
When Julia Roberts announced the winner for the best picture, several noticed Spike Lee, waving his arm in a fit of anger after which he tried to storm out of the theatre. AP journalist Andrew Dalton was among the many who witnessed the action, first hand. He was not the only person to react with such disgust, even Jordan Peele refrained from clapping during the announcement.
The backlash has been in line with the narrative that 'Green Book' is somewhat of 'white saviour' that totally undermines racial struggle. Apart from that, even the film had its own share of controversy.
When Don Shirley's family criticised the movie and termed it as a "Symphony of Lies." And later the film's screenwriter Nick Vallelonga was under fire when some of his anti-Muslim tweets resurfaced. And last but not the least, director Peter Farrelly was called out when reports of him occasionally flashing his penis on the sets of "There's Something About Mary", surfaced.
Keeping aside the criticism of 'Green Book' even Spike Lee has made some noise at the award show with his speech, that has been termed as somewhat historic. By asking the people to be more responsible in the upcoming elections and reflecting upon how African-Americans have a played an important part in the history of America, Spike Lee infuriated Donal Trump, who called out his speech as being racist in a tweet.
Later, in an interview to Entertainment Weekly, Spike said: "Well, it's okee-doke, you know. They change the narrative. They did the same thing with the African-American players who were kneeling, trying to make it into an anti-American thing, an anti-patriotic thing, and an anti-military thing. But no one's going for that."
