The Green Mile

While studying film in university, we were watching “Top Hat” in class. I was enjoying it but when Fred Astaire begun to sing “Cheek to Cheek”, I sat up in my chair. For the rest of movie, I couldn’t get the idea of John Coffey watching the movie out of my head. I love movies like “Inception” that take something classical (in the case of that movie it was a song) and give it a new subtext but that is far from the point of this review. “The Green Mile” is a powerful drama. I do not condone its vulgarity but I can ignore it and focus on the story of the movie as adapted from the Stephen King novel. I like all the subplots in the movie and the acting. It would have been nice if this show had won just one Academy Award and many think that it should have gone to Michael Clarke Duncan. The movie also looks extremely pleasing to the eye. Many times when it comes to a film adaptation of a novel, I try to focus less on the story and more on its depiction on screen when writing a review. In the case of “The Green Mile”, the story and its portrayal by the actors & director are so intertwined that they must be mentioned together.

Design-wise, the movie looks amazing. It depicts the great depression ironically in a romantic sense, using a color scheme similar to the start of "The Wizard of Oz". The present day opening also looks quite clean and ideal. I love the shots of old Paul as he walks to see Mr. Jingles at the start of the movie. I like the way that all the characters are introduced. Percy remains one of my favorite “love-to-hate” characters from a movie along with Delores Umbridge and Hilly Holbrook. It is established loud and clear that no one likes Percy and that his attitude is nothing but mean spirited. He is also revealed to be a squealer and a coward. His desire to see a man die is what makes him even more unappealing. Paul is confused about John because of his first question about leaving the light on at nights and his handshake. You can see it in his eyes that he knows that John is different from other inmates on death row. You don’t get many gentle giants on the mile. In the scene when the posse arrives to find Coffey and the girls, you can tell just a little bit that the crime scene is not what it appears. I like the warden, Hal. He knows that Percy is a bad person and therefore doesn’t believe his side of the story. He goes to Paul for the truth and also to warn him as a friend. The film is not entirely a serious drama. I also love the first scene with Mr. Jingles. It is some pretty funny stuff especially when Paul and the others let Percy clean out the restraining room. I love Harry Dean Stanton’s moment during the rehearsal when he pretends to pray and says, “I’ll never do it again. That’s for sure.” The rehearsal shows that all the prison guards, good hearted as they may be, have become complacent with their job of executing people. I love the cross dissolve from rehearsal to execution day. The movie becomes a whole new ball game once John heals Paul. Paul the following day goes to find out whether John is guilty because he has no idea what is going on. The only thing he is sure of is that he is healed on his infection and that John is responsible of it. Burt Hammersmith’s story about the dog is written and performed well enough that we continue to wonder whether John is guilt or not. This doesn’t stop Paul however from bringing the cornbread in gratitude.

Because of the incident with John and the pranks of Wild Bill, we kind of forget about Percy’s attitude until the scene where he pees his pants. There a good deal of things to resolve before the movie is over. The other guards are serious about not telling people about Percy peeing his pants because it is based on a rule they all support, even if it is Percy. Unfortunately, that is something that Percy himself will not understand. When John offers to bring Mr. Jingles back to life, Paul then understands that John’s gift is not limited to just healing the sick. For a moment, we had forgotten about John’s gift until his hand appears in frame. I love how Paul is playing with the baton while Percy goes to see that Mr. Jingles is alive. It is a nice touch and seems to be Tom Hanks’ kind of humor. It is quite sad when Percy tells the truth about Mouseville. The pain on Del’s face is heart wrenching. After Percy doesn’t wet the sponge, the look on his face is that of a small curious child as takes a cookie from the jar. He is soon to realize just what happens if you don’t wet the sponge. During the execution of Del, I love the contrast of John and Wild Bill yelling. The film also has some excitement when we come to the healing of Melinda, Hal’s wife. The guards are going to risk their jobs and freedom for the sake of Melinda. I love the dinner scene where Paul lays out his plan to heal Melinda. It is obvious that Dean is the one to stay behind but there are two big problems that need to be taken care of for the plan to work: Wild Bill and Percy. I love how they trick Wild Bill into drugging himself. During the scene, I also love how Dean and Harry are playing cards without looking because they are so interested in seeing if Wild Bill will take the bait. The sequence is quite thrilling because of the fear of getting caught. It is interesting that Hal puts his gun down only when he hears his wife. That truly shows how much his wife’s sickness is hurting him. It is also neat that even before John heals Melinda, Hal can tell what is going to happen. “Top Hat” ends up being only a small part of the story about the John Coffey but it is a powerful moment. The ending of the movie is ideal for this kind of show.

There are other elements that make this movie amazing but it is the acting that stands out to me. Tom Hanks needs no introduction. I have said it before in reviewing his films and I will mention it again: Hanks' roles seem to be only slightly different from each other but those slight differences are all that matter. In this case, his southern accent is slightly different from that of Forrest Gump. Also, when he later performed Carl Hanratty on “Catch Me If You Can”, there is a resemblance and yet it is different from his performance of Paul Edgecomb on this movie. Hanks is a master artist. His ability to play the everyman is unmatched in Hollywood. We all have Bruce Willis to thank for Michael Clarke Duncan being cast as John Coffey. I would have loved it if Duncan won the Oscar that year but he was nominated alongside so many other wonderful, talented people with Michael Caine being the one who took home the Academy Award that year for Best Supporting Actor. However, Caine's performance in "The Cider House Rules" is now considered to be overated. Also, the performances of other supporting actor nominees from that year including Tom Cruise and Haley Joel Osmond are now considered in hindsight to be better than Caine's in 1999. Returning to the subject at hand, you hate the character of Percy so much in this film and it is thanks to Doug Hutchison. I applaud his work in this movie. Today, I recognize Sam Rockwell in his small role in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” but I consider “The Green Mile” to be the film that introduced me to him. He obviously did amazing in this show. James Cromwell was the perfect person to play the Warden. He is so real in this performance. By that point in the decade, it felt so wonderful every time Tom Hanks and Gary Sinise were in a film together. This was the third time after “Forrest Gump” and “Apollo 13”. Dabbs Greer looks like an old Tom Hanks. He also portrays a healthy elderly man quite realistically. I first saw Michael Jeter in “Patch Adams” and he was great in that show but he did better in this film. I did not know he had passed away until almost ten years after his death. He was such a great actor. All the actors in “The Green Mile” went above what was expected of them: Bonnie Hunt, David Morse, Patricia Clarkson and Barry Pepper (he acted alongside Hanks in "Saving Private Ryan" by the way). Director Frank Darabont was a great choice to adapt this novel, having already successfully delivered “The Shawshank Redemption”. Sometimes, swearing is inserted in stories just to please the vulgar desires of the audience but other times, swearing is used to establish the world in which the story takes place and the characters that we watch. While the swearing in this show did bother me, it could have been worse I suppose when you consider the movies released in later decades. I didn’t notice Thomas Newman’s name on this show until I wrote this review. Sometimes, the music on the Pixar movies he has done sounds right off this show.

I feel that this movie should have won Best Picture and the same goes for Best Adapted Screenplay but because I have not seen all of the other nominees in those two categories from 1999, my viewpoint lacks credibility. Still, I am glad I own this movie on Blu-ray. As I said, I can overlook the offensiveness that this film contains because of its good story and acting. The film is quite unforgettable. The design is wonderful. “The Green Mile” may have a long running time but that is a representation of the film’s final line.

4 Stars