One of my favorite movies ever!
-1999 American drama directed by Frank Darabont
-Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King
-Told in a flashback format and stars Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecombe, Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey.
-Tells the story of Paul Edgecombe and his life as a supervisor on the death row during the Great Depression and the supernatural events that he was able to witness
Did You Know?
-The music old Paul Edgecombe hears in the nursing home is the same music the nurses played at medication time in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
-When Melinda Moores is visited by Coffey, she gives him a St. Christopher medal. According to Catholicism, St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, and like Coffey, died a martyr.
-Doug Hutchinson, who played Percy Wetmore, was actually 39 years old, instead of being 21 like the character in the book.
-When Paul and John go outside, John looks up and says "Look Boss, it's Cassie, the lady in the rocking chair". This is a reference to the constellation Cassiopeia
Plot
-In a Louisiana nursing home in 1999, Paul Edgecombe(Dabbs Greer) begins to cry while watching Top Hat. His elderly friend, Elaine Connolly, shows concern for him and Paul tells her that the film reminded him of when he was a corrections officer in charge of Death Row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary during the summer of 1935. The cell block Paul(Tom Hanks) worked in was called "The Green Mile" because of the color of the floor's linoleum. Condemned prisoners would walk this floor, nicknamed "The Last Mile" by the guards because it was their last mile before their execution.
-One day, John Coffey(Michael Clarke Duncan), a giant of a black man, 6'8'', is convicted of raping and murdering 2 small white girls named Kathe and Cora Detterick. He shows all the signs of being a gentle giant; keeping to himself, soft spoken, fearing darkness, and crying often. Soon enough, John reveals unusual powers by healing Paul's urinary tract infection and bringing a mouse back to life. Later on, he would reveal that he would heal the terminally ill wife of the prison warden, Hal Moore(James Cromwell).
-At the same time, Percy Wetmore(Doug Hutchinson), is a sadistic guard who enjoys bothering the prisoners. The only thing that is keeping him there is he "knows people, big people". He is the nephew of the governor's wife. Percy recognizes that the other officers greatly hate him and uses that to demand to be "put out", meaning front line position, on the next execution. After that, he promises that he will have himself transferred to the Briar Ridge Mental Hospital. A deal is made. But then when it comes time for the execution of Eduard Delacroix(Michael Jeter), Percy sabotages it. He is supposed to soak the sponge that goes inside the electrode cap for a quick death in brine to conduct it better. But he does not soak the sponge, and this causes Del to catch fire and die in great, slow pain
-Before Del's execution, a violent prisoner named William "Wild Bill" Wharton(Sam Rockwell) arrives, due to be executed for multiple murders committed during a robbery. At one point, he grabs John's arm and John physically senses that Wharton was the one who raped and killed the 2 girls, the crime John was accused of. John "takes back" the sickness in Hal Moore's wife Melinda and puts it into Percy, who goes mad and shoots Wild Bill to death in his cell, after which, Percy falls into a coma like state. He is tranferred to the Briar Ridge Mental Hospital. In the aftermath of these events, Paul talks to John, who says he "punished them bad men" and offers to show Paul what he saw. John takes Paul's hand stating he has to give Paul "a part of himself" in order to see what really happened
-Paul asks John what he should do, if he should open the door and let John walk. John tells him that he is ready to die because the world has too much pain in it and he is "rightly tired of the pain." As the last request he makes, John watches Top Hat. When John is put into the electric chair, he asks Paul not to put the traditional black hood on, as he is afraid of the dark. Paul agrees, shakes his hand, and John dies.
-As Paul finishes his story, he notes that he requested a transfer to a youth detention center, where he spent the remainder of his career. Elaine questions his statement that he had a fully grown son at the time and Paul explains that he was 44 years old at the time of John's death and that he is now 108 years old and still in excellent health. This apparently had a side effect of John giving a "part of himself" to Paul. Mr. Jingles, Del's mouse brought back by John is also still alive. Paul believes his outliving all of his friends and relatives is to be a punishment from God for having John electrocuted. Paul explains he has deep thoughts about how "we each owe a death; there are no exceptions; but, Oh God, sometimes the Green Mile seems so long." Paul is left wondering if Mr. Jingles has remained living, and wonders how long it would be until Mr. Jingles death.
Cast
-Tom Hanks: Paul Edgecombe
-Michael Clarke Duncan: John Coffey
-Bonnie Hunt: Janice Edgecombe
-David Morse: Brutus "Brutal" Howell
-Doug Hutchinson: Percy Wetmore
-Sam Rockwell: William "Wild Bill" Wharton
-Michael Jeter: Eduard "Del" Delacroix
-James Cromwell: Warden Hal Moores
-Patricia Clarkson: Melinda Moores
-Barry Pepper: Dean Stanton
-Jeffrey DeMunn: Harry Terwilliger
-Harry Dean Stanton: Toot-Toot
-Dabbs Greer: Old Paul Edgecombe
-Gary Sinise: Burt Hammersmith
-Graham Greene: Arlen Bitterbuck
-William Sadler: Klaus Detterick
-Bill McKinney: Jack Van Hay
Good page, good writeup of the movie. Greenmile is one of my faves as well. It's changed my mind about capital punishment. After watching it, I looked around on the web and learned there are MANY people executed, only later to be found innocent. Because of this, capital punishment must be banished. No innocent person should EVER be murdered by the State.
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