History Film / GreenBook

* VitriolicBestBuds: Tony and Don are this at times.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The film generally presents an image of how the Deep South actually was in the 1960s, [[{{Bowdlerise}} with some edges filed off]]. Tony and his family's attitude towards African-Americans are also right in line with the times.

** Don has never eaten fried chicken. Tony insists that Don eats some in the car. Finally, Don accepts and he confesses that it is good. Later, Don is offered a dinner. The host explains that he asked what was his favorite food (he probably asked Tony), so he prepared fried chicken for him.

* BiTheWay: [[spoiler: Don was married once and seems to regret his marriage fell apart but he is not completely heterosexual, leading to a scene where he was nearly arrested due to having a public rendezvous with another man at a pool.]]

* ButNotTooGay: [[spoiler: Don remains firmly in the closet through the whole movie, and his attraction to men is never explored beyond him being caught naked with one at a pool]].

* NotThatKindOfDoctor: Don holds phd's in multiple fields including classical piano and thus goes by the title of doctor, Tony is initially under the belief he will be working with a medical doctor.

* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Don is a cultured artist, he can write love letters and he is not heterosexual. Tony is an heterosexual and he does not hesitate to punch people in the face when needed (or even when not needed).

* WhiteMansBurden: Don is successful black artist, but he has no family and no friend. Moreover, he wants to go on tour in the Deep South, where he will encounter many problems. Tony will help him to overcome the problems during his tour, but more importantly he will help him to develop human relationships (Tony becomes friend with Don; he also advises Don to write a letter to his estranged brother). In the beginning, Tony helps Don only because of the money he will get, but in the end he helps him selflessly, because he regards Don as a friend. {{Zigzagged}}, because Tony is OnlyInItForTheMoney in the beginning, and because Don also helps Tony to overcome his prejudices.

* OddCouple: Don, a refined black pianist, and Tony, a boorish Italian American doorman, become friends.

* HappilyMarried: Tony's background. This is why it is difficult for him to accept the driver's job, because it means that he will be away from his wife for one month.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: [[https://www.shadowandact.com/the-real-donald-shirley-green-book-hollywood-swallowed-whole According to Shirley's brother and nephew]], the film depicts Don very inaccurately, and highly exaggerates the supposed friendship between him and Vallelonga.

* WhiteMansBurden: Don is successful black artist, but he has no family and no friend. Moreover, he wants to go on tour in the Deep South, where he will encounter many problems. Tony will help him to overcome the problems during his tour, but more importantly he will help him to develop human relationships (Tony becomes friend with Don; he also advises Don to write a letter to his estranged brother). In the beginning, Tony helps Don only because of the money he will get, but in the end he helps him selflessly, because he regards Don as a friend. {{Zigzagged}}, because Tony is OnlyInItForTheMoney in the beginning, and because Don also helps Tony to overcome his prejudices.

** Over the course of the film, Don helps Tony to write love letters to his wife, who is very happy to receive such romantic letters. In the end, when Doc shows up at Tony's house, the wife immediately thanks Don for the letters, which shows that she had guessed her husband did not write them by himself.

** Over the course of the film, Don helps Tony to write love letters to his wife, who is very happy to receive such romantic letters. In the end, when Doc shows up at Tony's house, the wife immediately thanks Don for the letters, which shows that she had guessed his husband did not write them by himself.

** Tony steals a green rock. Don tells him to give it back and Tony seems to give in. Later, when Tony is alone in his bedroom, he takes the rock out of his pocket. Still later, when they are driving in the snow, Don tells Tony to put the rock on the dashboard to bring good luck, which shows that he has always been aware that Tony had kept the rock. In the very end, Don puts the rock on a piece of furniture in his apartment, which means that he has stolen the rock from Tony.

* BigEater: Tony, to the point that Don remarks upon it. He gets into a hot-dog eating contest with a noticeably portlier gentleman... and ''wins.''

* NobleBigot: Tony to a T. Even though he is undoubtedly racist at the beginning of the tour, he willingly puts himself in harms way to defend Don Shirley from physical violence and shows far more disgust towards Southern bigots.

* OnePhoneCall: Don uses his when he and Tony are arrested. It leads to Robby Kennedy getting both released.

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: Shirley's family has argued that the movie greatly exaggerated the relationship between Shirley and Tony Lip and that Shirley considered Tony merely to be an employee and not a friend. However, some of Shirley's friends have said that the two were indeed friends, so it is unclear how much is fabricated and how much isn't.

* [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade Historical Jerkass Upgrade]]: A downplayed example. Don Shirley is depicted as being culturally distant from other black people, while his living family insists that he was good friends with them and other prominent black musicians.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Tony is this to a T. He's boorish, foul-mouthed, crude, uncultured, has a bit of a temper, casually racist and not above theft or violence, but he's also a genuinely loving family man who eventually warms up to Don and lets go of his prejudice.

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: {{Subverted|Trope}}. In the beginning, Tony helps Don only because he will receive a large amount of money and Tony needs it to support his family. Over the course of the film, Tony will become friend with Don, and money becomes less important for him: he rejects an offer for another job with a higher pay (he even rejects Don's offer for a pay rise); in the end, he rejects a bribe offered to him to convince Don to play in a restaurant even if he is not allowed to eat.

* WhiteMansBurden: Don is successful black artist, but he has no family and no friend. Moreover, he wants to go on tour in the Deep South, where he will encounter many problems. Tony will help him to overcome the problems during his tour, but more importantly he will help him to develop human relationships (Tony becomes friend with Don; he also advises Don to write a letter to his estranged brother). In the beginning, Tony helps Don only because of the money he will get, but in the end he helps him selflessly, because he regards Don as a friend.

* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Don is a cultured artist, he can write love letter and he is not heterosexual. Tony is an heterosexual and he does not hesitate to punch people when needed.

* NobleBigot: Tony to a T. Even though he is undoubtedly racist at the beginning of the tour, he willingly puts himself in harms way to defend him from physical violence and shows far more disgust towards Southern bigots.