Film Review: The Green Mile Essay, Research Paper

Film Review on

The Green Mile

For my film review on an epic, I watched The Green Mile, staring Tom Hanks (Paul Edgecomb), David Morse (Brutus Howell), and Michael Clarke Duncan (John Coffey). Frank Darabont directed the film. Darabont also wrote and produced the movie. This movie had a very diverse, involving, and changing plot. And to keep this film review somewhat short, I will only share the main, and very important events that happened throughout the film. The beginning starts in a retirement home. Most of the residence are watching television and after changing the channel to an old musical, one of the elder male residence leaves the room in tears. His friend at the home comes to talk to him, and the rest of the movie is his story. You find that long ago he was a prison guard during the depression era in the south. He worked at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary on which a handful of killers lived out their last days before taking a ride on Old Sparky the electric chair. The prison is a normal one, with not many odd occurrences, until one day they bring in a new inmate. A huge black prisoner named John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), like the drink but not spelled the same . He was accused of the killing of two young girls. But after he is brought in, he is not mentioned for a while and the story focussed on Paul Edgecomb, who was currently going through the worst urinary infection of is life. Several of the inmates walk the green mile and ride Old Sparky in this time. And some new inmates come into the prison, but it seems as though that is all normal. Later you find that the warden (James Cromwell) s wife is suffering from an inoperable brain tumor. Then, you find that the inmate John Coffey has an incredible power. He has the ability to cure aliments. The first such instance he cures Edgecomb s

urinary infection. 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 prison guards, who are all close friends, decide to take Coffey to Warden Hal Moore s wife. They take him, and he cures her completely, but he didn t release the gnats as he had done every time before. They take him back to the jail, where he realeses the gnats directly into the mouth of the corrupt, spoiled, prison guards mouth. He was the guard hated by all the others, and he did not partake in the temporary release of Coffey. While in a confused state, Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison) shoots the evil inmate, Wild Bill (Sam Rockwell). It is found by Coffey that Bill commited the murders that he was being blamed for, and in a magical handshake, Coffey showed Edgecomb what Bill had done. Eventually it came time to execute the huge inmate who cries a lot and like the night left on a night, John Coffey. There was no way that there could be a repeal on the execution, so they did not even try. On top of that, Coffey said that he was tired of the world and was relieved that he was leaving. Edgecomb knew he was going to be punished by God if he allowed the execution to go through and it did, but he couldn t stop it. Coffey s only wish was to se a moving picture before he died, it was the one which appeared on television in the home. After the execution of Coffey, you are taken back to Edgecomb telling the story. But his friend can t fit something together, the ages that Edgecomb had stated he was. The truth was, the he was over 108 years old. Edgecomb knew that was his punishment, he had to live so long, he had to witness the death of his wife, son, friends and so on. But later he took his friend to a small cabin, where he showed her a box, with a mouse in it. It was Mr. Jegengles, a mouse that they had back at the Green Mile, which was held by Coffey while its owner, Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter) was being executed. Edgecomb knew it also had the magic from Coffey, the same that he had, and he told his friend, I know I ll die someday, but if he could make a mouse live this long, how much longer do I have? .

I felt that this was an increadible movie in terms of acting. There were the great, honest American citizens like Edgecomb (Hanks) and there were the antagonists that you just loved to hate, Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison) and Wild Bill (Sam Rockwell). I thought that the acting in this movie was the best part. Every actor was perfect, but some, almost too perfect. The villains, I thought just seemed too real. Tom Hanks had an outstanding performance, which was only rivaled that movie year by Kevin Spacy (American Beauty).

My favorite scene in the movie had to be the very ending one. Where Edgecomb was explaining the part about Mr. Jegengles and the mystery of his long life. That was at the end of the movie, and the death of Coffey was still sinking in, and then this supernatural puzzle came in. Edgecomb had a great line there, about if a mouse could live that long, how much longer did he have. That is when it occurred to me how hard it must have been to live that long. And having to witness the deaths of so many loved ones. This made me think about how it really wouldn t be so good to be alive that long. It would be so hard having to continue on living through so many hardships, not knowing when the comfort of death would some to some one that old, and that is all Edgecomb wanted, his life to stop, for his debt to be up to God for his allowing a gift like that to leave Earth.

Overall, this is one of the best movies I have ever seen. This was not a movie I thought I would like going into, a three-hour drama. But I really enjoyed it. This film was really involving, with an involving plot and excellent story. I give this movie all four stars, a 100%. And I can say, that after seeing this and American Beauty, that I feel The Green Mile should have truly won more Academy Awards then it did.