Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) is a Death Row prison guard. The time is the 1930’s and the despair that plagues his profession has taken it’s tole on his own personal being. His faith, and altogether humanity has diminished from watching men wait to die every day. Everything changes when a new prisoner is brought to his block. John Coffey(Micheal Clark Duncan) is an enormous black man almost eight feet tall. The crime he has been convicted of is the murder of two little white girls. Despite his appearance Coffey is almost childlike himself. At night he fears the dark and asks for a nightlight. Edgecomb is completely taken by his new inmate, but he isn’t the only one. Brutus (David Morse) and Percy (Doug Hutchison), the other two guards, who are complete opposites in personality join Edgecomb and Coffey for some peculiar phenomenons involving mice with great intelligence, and the path to the truth about Coffey’s innocence and who he truly is.
Despite the brilliant writing of Stephen King, it’s fair to say there is a 50/50 chance his writing won’t translate properly onscreen. The Green Mile makes up for the fifty percent that don’t. The Green Mile is right up there with The Shining and Stand By Me. It was a delightful translation. Though it’s based on a short story, the films length is considerable, but it was necessary in developing the plot and the characters. The cross that King makes with the gentleness of Coffey and the brutality of the prison, the guards, and society is so diametric it would be difficult for your most cold souled person to not react to it.
Director/writer Frank Darabont certainly has an eye for making Kings work come alive. Darabont approached the direction of this film very much so in the same manner he did The Shawshank Redemption. It carries the same feel of hope in a place of darkness. But in some places it didn’t succeed as fully. Some of the religious metaphors were a bit much and the mystic part of the story occasionally felt forced and out of place from an already established plot. If not for the extensive length of the film, it would have made sense, but there was enough time to develop that more smoothly. The story itself may not have conveyed as well as it did without the cast to back it up, but Tom Hanks was subtle and brilliant while Micheal Clark Duncan’s sweet depiction of Coffey was the finishing touch to a lovely script.
Even with those criticisms it was still a beautiful film full of genuine sentiment. The Green Mile, while not the perfection of The Shawshank Redemption, but it stood plainly on it’s own two feet and was a delight to watch, even for three hours. Three out of Four stars.
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