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The Green Mile (6-Dec-1999)
Director: Frank Darabont Writer: Frank Darabont From novel: The Green Mile by Stephen King Music by: Thomas Newman Producers: David Valdes; Frank Darabont Keywords: Drama, Prison, Death Row, Mice Told as a flashback to the 1930s, a monumentally large black man sits on Death Row, convicted of the double rape and murder of two young girls. Timid and soft-spoken, it is difficult to believe this man could have committed those crimes; further, it is found that he has special curative powers. Received nominations for four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor.
[watch trailer]
CAST REVIEWS Review by Walter Frith (posted on 9-Jun-2007) Director Frank
Darabont's 1994 classic 'The Shawshank Redemption' has become such a
hit with the public that it's incredible the way people still talk
about it five and six years after its release. It received seven Oscar
nominations including one for best picture but didn't win in any
category. Initially a box office flop with a take of only 28 million
dollars, the film gained steam in the second run media such as home
video, pay t.v., and recently, on a much welcomed DVD. Consistently
maintaining a position in the top 5 on the Internet Movie Database's
top 250 films of all time, and right up their in the opinion of film
buff's with films such as 'The Godfather', 'Schindler's List',
'Casablanca' and 'Citizen Kane', 'The Shawshank Redemption' now
provides Darabont with a variation on that film. Like 'The Shawshank
Redemption', 'The Green Mile' is also based on a Stephen King novel
(and is written for the screen by Frank Darabont) and is a prison film
set in the past but with a twist, it's about miracles and the presence
of supernatural goodness witnessed by guards and inmates on a death row
section of prison in the south in the middle of the 1930's. The title
of the film refers to the surface of the floor on death row, covered
with green tile and that walk to the electric chair can certainly seem
like a mile with the thought of where you will spend eternity hanging
in the balance. The film begins in the present day where a nursing home
patient reflects on his past and then we go there to see that as a
young man he is portrayed by Tom Hanks who stars as Paul Edgecomb, the
head of the death row guards. Included in the men under him are Brutus
"Brutal" Howell (David Morse) and the slimy and weasel like Percy (Doug
Hutchinson) who has connections in government and can have any job the
state offers and wants to be a prison guard because he views prison as
a "bucket of pi** to drown rats in". Hutchinson provided many chills
for me in the first season of television's 'The X-Files' in 1993-94 in
an episode and later in that same season, a sequel to it where he
played a liver eating mutant over a hundred years old but looking like
a man in his early thirties. Sort of an alternative vampire if you
will. The conflicts of duty and conduct on the job for these death row
guards makes the story watchable every second and their eventual fates
are just what the audience deserves to see. One day, a prisoner is
brought in. He is a large black man named John Coffey and is seemingly
over seven feet tall (Michael Clarke Duncan in an Oscar-worthy role).
He is set to be executed but his nature convinces Edgecomb he is
innocent of the crime he was convicted for.....murder. We see that he
has healing powers so great, they are almost God like in helping many
people shake off their physical ailments such as a urinary track
problem that Edgecomb suffers from. Darabont structures his film in
three parts. The execution of three prisoners, one white, one
native-American and the other black, all separated about an hour apart
over the film's three hour running time and the movie has an
anti-climax about hope, faith and showing an eventual injustice by the
time it's all over. In many ways, the film is better directed than 'The
Shawshank Redemption' since the story is more confined and it is harder
for Darabont to find avenues of interest and the film looks like a play
in many spots and its deliberate slow pace at times is reflective of
the very nature of death row, a process that takes far too much time in
the minds of many, especially those convicted and the surviving members
of a victim's loved ones. 'The Green Mile' is filled with little
elements of detail about the day to day life of both prison guards and
inmates and its humanity is countered by the prejudices and injustices
of a darker time where justice seemed to often be discarded for the
sake of comforting those desperate for a conviction. Something that
really hasn't changed in many situations all that much after all these
years gone by. As of the date of this review, (February 7, 2000), the
state of Illinois has recently suspended the death penalty to look into
flaws in the system where many more people than first thought on death
row may actually be innocent. 'The Green Mile' is one of 1999's best
films because it centers on making the film entertainment and emotion
first and social commentary second. After all, the movies should often
provide us with thoughts other than those in our own world and Stephen
King's touch of the supernatural in this film gives us an alternative
and original look that can make us feel somewhat good about a bleak and
tragic situation. Visit FILM FOLLOW-UP by Walter Frith
Review by Raymond Chaput (posted on 4-Apr-2009) Once in a great while a film comes along whose story or performances, or both, lays bare ones emotions. The Green Mile is a perfect example. Sometimes a great injustice emerges from such a film. In this case, it is that Michael Duncan did not receive an academy award for his role as John Coffey. One never gets a sense that Duncan is "acting," but rather, is the real John Coffey living out his own character. One sees in his eyes and hears in his wonderful voice, all the emotions and frustrations of his character. If I had the power, this man would receive his superbly earned Oscar even if it is twenty years after the fact. Those who played the role of the guards were not the only ones crying at Coffey's execution. The words of Coffey were intensely scripted and delivered by Duncan. God, that Duncan was great. Also, the casting was superb, as was the writing and directing. The mouse, old and still in his cigar box at the end of the film, was a wonderful idea in realizing and understanding the reality of the old age of Paul Edgecomb for reasons Edgecomb wasn't even sure about, except for directing the orders for the switches to be turned on at Coffey's execution. The aged mouse part was unexpected and beautifully fitted into why Edgecomb was destined to live a very long time. All the mouse scenes were very well photographed. Maybe Tom Hanks can drum up some support for getting Michael Duncan a delayed oscar, and the mouse the best actor in a supporting role. A great film by everybody involved.
Review by John Mailer (posted on 19-Feb-2005) In this film, half your house is guaranteed to be sold out for flooding; it is really emotional.
The story is of a man wrongly convicted of murdering two girls, John Coffey (Michael Clark Duncan). He portrays a hulk of a big black guy, yet, like most slightly overgrown men turn out to be in films, he's a really nice guy. Police officers on Death Row, where he is, know his innocence, and he gains their sympathy, yet he won't admit he didn't wrong-do, and in a last, tearjerking scene, he dies in the electric chair.
Although there are subplots, the story is brilliant. It won't disappoint.
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