#The green mile movie

While in a confused state, Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison) shoots the evil inmate, Wild Bill (Sam Rockwell). He was the guard hated by all the others, and he did not partake in the temporary release of Coffey. They take him back to the jail, where he realeses the gnats directly into the mouth of the corrupt, spoiled, prison guards mouth. They take him, and he cures her completely, but he didn t release the gnats as he had done every time before. The prison guards, who are all close friends, decide to take Coffey to Warden Hal Moore s wife. It is quite a site to see, with the odd electrical field and the releasing of the illness by Coffey in the form of disappearing gnats. The first such instance he cures Edgecomb s Then, you find that the inmate John Coffey has an incredible power. Later you find that the warden (James Cromwell) s wife is suffering from an inoperable brain tumor. Time, though, to ditch King.And some new inmates come into the prison, but it seems as though that is all normal. Give him a story and he delivers a real movie. And Darabont, the real star, is a director in a classic-tradition.

#The green mile movie

Hanks everyman routine may have become so ingrained it virtually doesn't register, but you can't imagine the movie without him. Morse, Clarke Duncan, Bonnie Hunt as Edgecomb's wife and, especially, Hutchison weave their own acting magic. A big, tasty meal that lacks the nourishment of Shawshank.It is harsh, though, to judge solely against such a startling debut and The Green Mile is about as accomplished a piece of storytelling as you'll come by. There is also a lot less going on here than Darabont reckons, ostensibly boiling down to a simple take on the evil-that-men-do. In the main this is down to the sheer length - and so much of it superfluous - that patience is exhausted and drama dampened. Yet, when denouements unravel and Coffey works his magic - marked by a freaky spewing of tiny black insects into the air - it is all far less staggering than the build up signals. And, a la Saving Private Ryan, the story is told care of a mysterious flashback framework. Over the epic running time the film inches its way through a complex soap opera of events on the Row, punctuated by three pivotal and grisly executions via 'Old Sparky', the electric chair. All of which, combined with Coffey's ethereal view of what separates the good and bad, convinces the rattled Edgecomb that he must be innocent. Jingles, squashed by the Rows bullyboy new recruit Percy Wetmore (Hutchison). And heal he does, from narrator and Row boss Paul Edgecomb's (Hanks) graphic urinary infection, to pet mouse Mr. The crux of the matter is that the gentle seven-footer John Coffey has the miraculous, quasi-Holy power to heal.

The performances are subtle, the script (by Darabont) faithful to King's prose, the style elegant and poised and the big moments suitably grandiose. This slowburn 30s-set tale of a prison Death Row (the corridor, here lime green, is known as the mile) shaken by the arrival of a dim-witted giant (Clarke Duncan) accused of slaughtering two baby girls, is a paragon to expert detail.

But be warned, youll need stamina.ĭirecting, Darabont was reputedly infuriatingly meticulous, every scene finessed with a Kubrick-esque repetition of takes in search of perfection. There's certainly a lot of great stuff here.

King wrote the book as an experiment in serialised fiction - six even parts each cliffhangered to the next - and at a bot-busting three-plus hours, the movie feels like watching a whole mini-series in one sitting. The Green Mile impresses, shines, awes, jabs the heart at moments, but it is no Shawshank.

The story-is-God dedication that transformed The Shawshank Redemption into a modern classic is much in evidence in this lavish, confident fantasy drama, but he may be hamstringing himself with his dogged devotion to pop-horror guru Stephen King's prison-inspired output. Straight up, Frank Darabont is a 'great' in the making.