It's All About Keeping Your Dignity and Self Respect

Rating: 10/10 (18 May 2019)

That's what this movie perfectly showcases. It's about a highly respectable and highly regarded African American pianist who dares venture into the highly discriminatory and apartheid realm of the Southern United States in 1962. He's treated with acclaim at the beginning of his tour, but slowly, as his chauffeur/ bodyguard & assistant (wonderfully played by Viggo Mortenson) drive further South , the more inhuman and disturbing the situation becomes.
Mahershala Ali is absolutely terrific as the highly cultured and professional pianist, Dr. Shirley, who demands respect and appreciation for his musical talents, but later realizes just how much "race" and treatment depended on who he was.
His dignity is highly apparent at the beginning, but as the tour gradually moved further South, you could could he had trouble "keeping it together" and trying to deal with just how truly demeaning and disrespected a man in his situation could be in at that time.
He even admitted to Tony his "alienation" from who he was and how he couldn't relate to either black or white. Tony, an apparent racist at first, does gradually come to his senses about the annoying obstacles of racism, but gradually learns to deal with it in a "less violent way". That's the major potency of this film.
This is a beautiful movie and tugs on the heart strings in a lot of ways. It can really make you think and question the status a person can be in no matter where they are. We'd all like to think we'll be treated like equals no matter what part of Earth we might venture in, but sometimes it's not that way. This film terrifically addresses that issue. I highly recommend it.