3 hours of getting to know somebody and then watching him get executed in an electric chair. If that doesn't make you feel any emotion then i don't quite know what will. Set on death row in a southern prison in 1935, the Green Mile is the big-screen adaptation of Stephen King's 1996 bestselling serialized novel of the same title. It is the story of a prison guard (Tom Hanks) who develops a poignant, unusual relationship an inmate (John Coffey) who possesses a mysterious and miraculous gift for healing. Tom Hanks stars as Paul Edgecomb, the Death Row head guard who relates in flashback a nostalgic account of his duty at Cold Mountain Penitentiary and his watch over a quartet of convicted killers awaiting execution in the electric chair. Michael Clarke Duncan plays John Coffey (vaguely reminiscent of a rugby player), a massive, seven-foot inmate convicted of raping and brutally murdering two young girls. His gentle, naive persona and unusual healing powers stirs Edgecomb's doubts about Coffey's guilt, and confirms it when Coffey holds his hand and gives him the gift of envisioning the real crime scene and the actual killer. My curiosity is aroused by Coffey: who was he? What was he? From the dialogue, we don't know where Coffey comes from, or his past, but first meet him bawling in the fields holding the 2 dead and bloodied girls in his lap. Apparently Coffey was trying to save them or revive them back to life but was too late. Was he an angel? Or a man who was blessed with the gift of life? He tells us he is tired of roaming, of seeing all the "ugliness" in the world, and hence accepts his fate of execution. But the moviemakers leave us second-guessing on the few possibilities.
The movie itself is well choreographed, despite being rather long. It builds itself on emotion, and depth of characters, so we know each actor's role clearly. It also captures the idea of discrimination, that being big in size and dark-skinned meant that you were most likely a criminal or capable of crime. Coffey was caught and assumed guilty, we don't see the trial nor an investigation. We see the biasedness of the grieved parents of the young girls at Coffey's execution, and at this point this scene is very heart wrenching, knowing that Coffey is innocent and seeing the pained expressions of all the prison guards as Coffey is electrocuted.
There is a lot of sorrow and heartfelt pain in this movie, with a few humorous moments, but i do recommend a box of tissues for the sniffles.
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