The Green Mile (film): Difference between revisions
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==References== |
==References== |
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Corporate David Smith aka Smithy Steaks who's vocanbulary does not contian any superlatives has been quoted as saying, "The Green Mile makes me laugh, cry and poo all at once. It's single handedly given me the horn for the last 5 years. It makes me want to be a better man" |
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== External links == |
== External links == |
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Revision as of 05:32, 30 July 2007
| The Green Mile | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster for The Green Mile | |
| Directed by | Frank Darabont |
| Written by | Novel: Stephen King Screenplay: Frank Darabont |
| Produced by | Frank Darabont David Valdes |
| Starring | Tom Hanks David Morse Bonnie Hunt Michael Clarke Duncan Barry Pepper James Cromwell Doug Hutchison Sam Rockwell Patricia Clarkson Harry Dean Stanton |
| Cinematography | David Tattersall |
| Edited by | Richard Francis-Bruce |
| Music by | Thomas Newman |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. (USA theatrical/worldwide DVD) UIP/Universal (non-USA theatrical) |
Release dates | December 10, 1999 |
Running time | 188 minutes |
| Languages | English French |
| Budget | $60 million USD |
The Green Mile is an Academy Award-nominated 1999 drama film, directed by Frank Darabont and adapted by him from the Stephen King novel The Green Mile. The film stars Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb and Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey.
The movie is primarily about Edgecomb and his life as a corrections officer on Death Row in the 1930s. The movie is told in flashback by the protagonist in a nursing home and follows a string of supernatural and metaphysical events upon the arrival of convicted murderer John Coffey.
In the 2000 Academy Awards, the movie was nominated for four awards (Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Writing: Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published) but won none of them.
Plot summary
The Green Mile is a story told in flashback by an elderly Paul Edgecomb in a nursing home. He tells a friend about the summer of 1935 when he was a corrections officer in charge of Louisiana death row inmates. His domain was called "The Green Mile" because the condemned prisoners walking to their execution are said to be walking "the last mile" here, on a stretch of green linoleum. The main feature of the cellblock was "Old Sparky", the electric chair.
One day, a new inmate arrives. He is 7 feet tall (about 2.1 meters) John Coffey, a black man convicted of raping and killing two young white girls. Coffey immediately shows himself to be a "gentle giant", keeping to himself, afraid of the dark and being moved to tears on occasion. Soon enough, Coffey reveals his extraordinary healing powers by healing Edgecomb's urinary infection and bringing a mouse back from the dead. Later, he would heal the terminally ill wife of the warden. Although it is clear that Coffey has a degree of control over his power, when asked to explain it, he says only "I just took it back, is all."
At the same time, Percy Wetmore, a vicious, sadistic officer who takes pleasure in intimidating and injuring inmates, exasperates everyone else in the cellblock. He "knows people in high places" (he was the nephew of the governor's wife), however, preventing Edgecomb or anybody else from doing anything significant to curb his deviant behavior. Wetmore recognizes that the other officers greatly dislike him, and uses that to demand being put "up front" (i.e., in charge) at the next execution. After that, he promises, he will have himself transferred to an administrative post in the Briar Ridge mental hospital, and Edgecomb will never hear from him again. A reluctant agreement is made, but Edgecomb comes to regret it after Wetmore deliberately sabotages the electrocution, inflicting as much pain as possible on Eduard Delacroix who had previously embarrassed him.
Meanwhile, a violent prisoner named William Wharton arrives, due to be executed for multiple murders he committed during a robbery. At one point he grabs Coffey's arm, and Coffey senses that Wharton is also the true killer of the two girls, the crime for which Coffey was falsely convicted and sent to death row. Coffey then uses his powers to compel Wetmore to empty his gun into Wharton, after which Wetmore falls into a permanent catatonic state. Stunned by these events, Edgecomb queries Coffey, who says he "punished" those men, then takes Edgecomb's hand and imparts the vision that he saw of what really happened to the girls, a vision that Edgecomb finds nearly unbearable to endure. Wharton is dead at Wetmore's hand, and Wetmore ends up as an inmate at the very asylum to which he promised Edgecomb he would transfer.
Not withstanding Coffey's incredible abilities and the wrongness of his conviction, he ends up being executed, due in large part to geographically based racial overtones (the movie was set in the American South, during a period of racial segregation). The proper story ends there, and Edgecomb says he subsequently transferred from death row to a juvenile facility, where he spent the remainder of his career. The story then returns to the present, where Edgecomb explains to his friend why he is able to remember the events of 1935: he is in fact 108-years-old and still in excellent health. This is apparently a side effect of the life-giving power of Coffey's touch: partial immortality. Mr. Jingles, the mouse resurrected by Coffey, is also still alive — but Paul believes his outliving all of his relatives and friends to be a punishment from God for not stopping Coffey's execution. As he puts it, he has had to walk his own Green Mile. "...but oh God, sometimes, the Green Mile seems so long."
Featured cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Eve Brent | Elaine Connelly |
| Brent Briscoe | Bill Dodge |
| Patricia Clarkson | Melinda Moores |
| James Cromwell | Warden Hal Moores |
| Jeffrey DeMunn | Harry Terwilliger |
| Michael Clarke Duncan | John Coffey |
| Graham Greene | Arlen Bitterbuck |
| Dabbs Greer | Old Paul Edgecomb |
| Tom Hanks | Paul Edgecomb |
| Bonnie Hunt | Jan Edgecomb |
| Doug Hutchison | Percy Wetmore |
| Michael Jeter | Eduard Delacroix |
| David Morse | Brutus "Brutal" Howell |
| Barry Pepper | Dean Stanton |
| Sam Rockwell | 'Wild Bill' Wharton |
| William Sadler | Klaus Detterick |
| Gary Sinise | Burt Hammersmith |
| Harry Dean Stanton | Toot-Toot |
| Bill McKinney | Jack Van Hay |
| Brian Libby | Sheriff McGee |
| Judy Herrera | Bitterbuck's Daughter (deleted scene) |
Characters
John Coffey
John Coffey is a black prisoner on death row for raping and killing two small girls. It is later revealed he was framed by another man on death row for another crime. Coffey is favored by officers and inmates of the prison. He chooses to be executed partly due to the cruelty he feels in the world. Coffey has the ability to heal sickness.
Paul Edgecomb
The first of the two protagonists, Edgecomb is the head corrections officer of the death row building at a prison during the 1930s. He tells his life in flashbacks. Paul is cured of his urinary infection by John Coffey, of whom Edgecomb and the other officers become fond. He is at his wits' ends with the conniving and abusive officer Percy Wetmore, along with the psychotic "Wild Bill".
William "Wild Bill" Wharton
William Wharton, known to inmates and officers as "Wild Bill", is the extremely evil individual behind the crime for which John Coffey was convicted. Wharton serves as an antagonist. He is a deranged and psychotic killer. He worked on the farm where the two girls lived. Wharton kidnaps and rapes them. He then kills the girls where they are discovered by Coffey. Wild Bill attacks officers on occasion. He even grabs Coffey's arm, and that's when Coffey discovers Wharton was the true killer of the girls. It is also implied Wharton is racist, as during the film he repeatedly uses the racial term "nigger". Wharton is later shot to death by Percy Wetmore, to whom a disease was passed by Coffey.
Eduard Delacroix
Eduard Delacroix, better known as "Del", is a fairly well-adjusted inmate who becomes a friend of John Coffey. Del discovers a mouse whom he names Mr. Jingles, who becomes his closest friend on death row. He despises Wetmore, who also hates him. Del even mugs at Percy after he is attacked by Wharton. Wetmore later severely injures Mr. Jingles, but the mouse is brought back to health by Coffey. Finally, Del's execution is sabotaged by Wetmore in order to inflict maximum pain on him. However, the electrocution gets so out of hand that even the family of Delacroix's victim is horrified.
Percy Wetmore
Wetmore is a sadistic corrections officer inside the prison who assaults prisoners. He flaunts the fact that his aunt is married to the state governor, therefore allowing him to get away with his unruly behavior. He often uses this to his advantage whenever he is assigned a lousy task by having the state governor call the warden's office to chastise the rest of the staff. At one point he wickedly harms Mr. Jingles. The mouse is brought back to health by Coffey. Wetmore is tormented by Wild Bill, a serial killer in the prison whom he later kills. Wetmore even sabotages prisoner Eduard Delacroix's execution. The other officers later throw Wetmore into the restraining room, bound in a strait jacket due to his wicked ways. Wetmore is released, only to be grabbed by Coffey. Coffey passes a sickness he absorbed from the warden's wife into Wetmore. Wetmore, realizing he is now cursed with the disease, empties his pistol and kills William "Wild Bill" Wharton, in revenge for humiliating him. Wetmore than goes into a permanent, catatonic state. He is later placed in a mental-health institution which, ironically, is the institution he was applying to for a good job.
Deviations from source material
The Green Mile is, for the most part, faithful to Stephen King's original novel. There are, however, a few slight alterations.
- The novel is a written story, delivered by the elderly Edgecomb to his fellow nursing home patient, Elaine. Each of the six volumes includes both an entry in the Green Mile story, as well as brief bookend scenes taking place in a modern day nursing home. These scenes included not only Edgecomb's relationship with Elaine, but also his interaction with a sadistic employee, Brad Dolan, who reminds him of Percy Wetmore, his Green Mile co-worker. It is these interactions that cause him to remember 1933, his last year on the Mile. In the film, Brad Dolan is left out completely, and the bookend sequences only take place at the very beginning and end of the movie. Instead of Dolan, it is watching the 1935 film Top Hat that provokes the flashback, and this film is added to the main storyline as well, in which John Coffey's last request is to be able to see a "flicker show" (motion picture) before he is executed.
- In the book, Hal Moores has an assistant named Curtis Anderson. He does not appear in the film, and his lines and scenes are given to Moores instead. Other inmates on the Green Mile in the book who did not have speaking roles, and are inconsequential to the plot, are also omitted.
- The first and second volumes of the book are told out of chronological order. The first book begins with the arrival of Coffey, and provides details of the murder for which he was convicted. At this point in time, inmate Eduard Delacroix already has his pet mouse, Mr. Jingles, and another inmate, Arlen Bitterbuck, has already been executed. The second book goes back in time, to before Coffey is brought in, to explain where Mr. Jingles came from, and who Bitterbuck was. The film re-arranges these events so that Coffey's arrival is the first event to take place, and all others follow it.
- In the book, strong evidence — ignored by the authorities — is presented to the reader of Coffey's innocence in Edgecomb's eyes: for example, the tracking dogs' confusion at the site of the girls' murder, resulting from the murderer and the girls' bodies leaving in different directions. In the movie, however, Coffey grabs Edgecomb's hand and, along with transferring "life" to him, also shows Edgecomb who really killed the two girls.
Filming locations
The following is a list of filming locations for The Green Mile:
- Blowing Rock, North Carolina, USA
- Columbia, Tennessee, USA
- Lewisburg, Tennessee, USA
- Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Nolensville, Tennessee, USA
- Shelbyville, Tennessee, USA
Soundtrack listing
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
The Green Mile soundtrack contains mostly instrumental pieces scored by Thomas Newman. Below is a listing of the songs (and their track numbers on the CD) that weren't composed by Newman.
8. "Cheek to Cheek" performed by Fred Astaire – 2:38
19. "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" performed by Billie Holiday – 3:27
27. "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" performed by Gene Austin – 2:52
34. "Charmaine" performed by Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians – 2:25
Awards and nominations
1999 Academy Awards (Oscars)
- Nominated - Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role — Michael Clarke Duncan
- Nominated - Best Picture — David Valdes, Frank Darabont
- Nominated - Best Sound Mixing — Robert J. Litt, Elliot Tyson, Michael Herbick, Willie D. Burton
- Nominated - Best Adapted Screenplay — Frank Darabont
2000 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)
- Won - Best Supporting Actor (Film) — Michael Clarke Duncan
- Won - Best Supporting Actress (Film) — Patricia Clarkson
- Won - Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
- Nominated - Best Director — Frank Darabont
- Nominated - Best Music — Thomas Newman
2000 BMI Film & TV Awards
- Won - BMI Film Music Award — Thomas Newman
2000 Black Reel Awards
- Won - Theatrical - Best Supporting Actor — Michael Clarke Duncan
2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
- Won - Favorite Actor - Drama — Tom Hanks
- Nominated - Favorite Supporting Actor - Drama — Michael Clarke Duncan
- Nominated - Favorite Supporting Actress - Drama — Bonnie Hunt
2000 Bram Stoker Awards
- Nominated - Best Screenplay — Frank Darabont
2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards
- Won - Best Screenplay, Adaptation — Frank Darabont
- Won - Best Supporting Actor — Michael Clarke Duncan
- Nominated - Best Picture
2000 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
- Nominated - Best Supporting Actor — Michael Clarke Duncan
- Nominated - Most Promising Actor — Michael Clarke Duncan
2000 Directors Guild of America
- Nominated - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures — Frank Darabont
2000 Golden Globe Awards
- Nominated - Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture — Michael Clarke Duncan
2000 Image Awards
2000 MTV Movie Awards
- Nominated - Best Breakthrough Male Performance — Michael Clarke Duncan
2000 Motion Picture Sound Editors (Golden Reel Award)
- Nominated - Best Sound Editing - Dialogue and ADR — Mark A. Mangini, Julia Evershade
- Nominated - Best Sound Editing - Effects and Foley — Mark A. Mangini, Aaron Glascock, Howell Gibbens, David E. Stone, Solange S. Schwalbe
- Won - Favorite All-Around Motion Picture
- Won - Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture
2001 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (Nebula Award)
- Nominated - Best Script — Frank Darabont
2000 Screen Actors Guild Awards
- Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Cast
- Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role — Michael Clarke Duncan
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (June 2007) |
- Michael Clarke Duncan has a guest role in the penultimate episode of the first season of CSI: NY, which stars Gary Sinise. Duncan plays a man who is wrongfully convicted of a crime. But unlike Coffey, Quinn Sullivan (Duncan's character in CSI: NY) finds justice with the help of Mac Taylor (Sinise's character).
- Ten years before the release of the book, an episode of the sci-fi/fantasy show Amazing Stories featured a nearly identical plot. In the episode, titled "Life on Death Row", an inmate (Patrick Swayze) discovers he can heal even death with a touch. As authorities rush to halt his execution and the world debates the morality of the decision, the twist ending reveals that each inmate and officer healed by the power now possesses the power as well. This episode was directed by Mick Garris who would go on to direct several TV movie adaptations of Stephen King's work, including The Stand and The Shining.
- Brutus Howell threatens "Wild Bill" Wharton with solitary confinement, saying "I hope you've got your bags packed." Wild Bill replies, "My bags are packed! I'm ready to go!", an out-of-time reference to the 1967 song "Leaving on a Jet Plane."
- Commentators pointed out some comparisons between Coffey and Jesus Christ[1], i.e. that their initials were both "J.C.", they both possessed healing powers and they were put to death by the state with a small group of followers believing in their powers/innocence. [1] [2]
- Thomas Newman scored two Academy Award nominees for Best Picture in 1999: this, and American Beauty, the latter the winner.
- There is a segment in the The Simpsons episode "The Frying Game" which references this movie. Homer, being announced as a "dead-man walking on the Green Mile", walks past a man who resembles John Coffey. The man says, "Take my hands boss." Homer then takes his hands. Then he says,"I'LL KILL YOU, JUST LIKE I KILLED THAT OTHER GUY!!!" After he lets Homer go, he then finds a mouse and picks it up. Then he says, "You want some cornbread Mr. Jingles? Well you can forget about it, CAUSE I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!"
References
External links
- Official film website
- The Green Mile at IMDb
- The Green Mile at Rotten Tomatoes
- MovieGlimpse.com / Green Mile (shows parallels with Jesus Christ & John Coffey)
- HollywoodJesus / Green Mile (this website offers a commentary by Frank Darabont (Director and Screenwriter of 'The Green Mile') on the Christ parallels within the book/film)
- Boheme Magazine / Green Mile (on the Christ parallels within the book/film)