The Green Mile is film director Frank Darabont second film adaptation of a Stephen King prison novel. The movie stars Tom Hanks, David Morse, Barry Pepper, Michael Clarke Duncan, Bonnie Hunt and James Cromwell. The film is about a miracle worker who is sentence to death row after being falsely convicted of the murder of two young girls. It also deals with the state of the death penalty back during the time of the depression in America and how the death row guards have to deal being executioners.
Paul Edgecomb is an old man in a retirement home. He tells a story about when he was prison guard on a death row called the Green Mile to another elderly in the retirement home. He talks about how he had an inmate named John Coffey who is, a gigantic black man who at first sights comes across quiet and mentally challenged. Paul talks about really bad urinary track infections he has, and how Coffey was able to fix it by just touching him and sucking out his breath.
Coffey does more healing miracles while on thhe mile. Soon Paul figures out that how could god gives Coffey this gift if he was not innocent. Coffey's gift is also burden, he sees the worst in people. He can see all the terrible things they have done. So Coffey wants to die, he wants to get his life done with. So, Paul and his fellow gaurds in all their sadness knowingly kill an innocent man.
However when Coffey touches Paul part of the gift is passed on to him. He was given the gift of unusal long life. Paul ends up looking at this as a burden instead of a gift, because longer then usual lifespan means that he has to see every one that he loves in life die.
The Green Mile goes into to detail about other inmates and guards too. Most of the guards are good people except for one, Percey. Percey is spoiled rich kid whose uncle is the governor. He is a sadist, the only reason why he works at the mile is so he can watch people die. He ends up hating one of the inmates after he befriends a mouse, he tries to kill it several times. At the moment of this inmates execution he purposefully messes up the execution so its more painful, and the inmates ends up being set on fire by the electric chair.
The film also shows us the scum that are some inmates, which is Wild Billy. Billy is a psycopath, who we find out committed the crime that John Coffey is a convicted of. Coffey sees the worst in both Percey and Billy, and ends punishing them both by having Percey shoot Wild Billy to death. This sends Percey to the mental institution promptly.
The Green Mile is well acted. Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan are both fantastic in this. However the film is runs slightly too long. I feel that over three hours is way too long to tell this story. The parts where we see Paul as an old man felt unessary. It is never boring though, and the last thirty minutes of this film are almost guarantee to make the audience cry. The cinematography and the music are also well done. The look of the film feels like the depression era with the sets and costumes.
This is a film that is anti-death penalty. Shows that putting someone death is cruel, and also with states there is a good chance of executing an innocent man. The film shows executions as a way of revenge. Whenever there is execution the victim's family and friends are all there with a sneering and hatred look. The film makes the audience feel very sorry for whenever someone is executed too.
The idea is about retribution, Percey the guard takes this idea to the extreme. He wants to see these men suffer, after one of the men was executed we see him aroung the corpse saying something like hope you enjoy hell. Then we see another guard come up to him and say leave him alone he has paid back his debt.
Something that the film did do well is the brutality of the electric chair. The electric chair in most states if not all has been states as cruel and unusal punishment, which is unconstitutional. It really shows the pain, and the scars left over by it. Also one can argue that having the victim's loved ones there to watch him can be painful on the person. If there is a mess up in the electric chair it can turn really bad.
If I was to do something different to this movie is I would show the inmates as a little more violent. There is only one extreme inmate which Wild Billy. John Coffey is innocent so its understandable why he is violent, however the other the two inmates where the most part very hospitable, which makes the audience think why are these guys so deserving to die.
Above all The Green Mile is a good not great, but still highly recommendable. It is another successful adaptation that Frank Darabont did of Stephen King prison novella.
Rating 86%
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