This article is about the 1999 film adaptation. For the serial novel by Stephen King, see The Green Mile (novel). The Green Mile is a 1999 American drama film, directed by Frank Darabont and adapted by him from the 1996 Stephen King novel of the same name. The film stars Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb and Michael Clarke Duncan as seven-foot giant 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 Coffey, a man convicted, but not proven, of murder.
In the 2000 Academy Awards, the movie was nominated for four awards (Best Supporting Actor, Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Writing: Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published).
Plot
The Green Mile is a story told in flashback by an elderly Paul Edgecomb (played by veteran actor Dabbs Greer as his final film role) in a nursing home. He tells a friend about the summer of 1935 when he was a corrections officer in charge of Death Row inmates in Louisiana's Cold Mountain Penitentiary. 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, John Coffey, a muscular 7 foot tall black male convicted of raping and killing two young white girls. Upon being escorted to his cell, he immediately demonstrates "gentle giant" character traits: keeping to himself, afraid of the dark, and being moved to tears on occasion. Soon enough, Coffey reveals extraordinary healing powers by healing Edgecomb's urinary tract infection and resurrecting a mouse. Later, he would heal the terminally ill wife of Warden Hal Moores (James Cromwell) who suffered from a brain tumour the size of a lemon. Although it is clear that Coffey has a degree of control over his power, when asked to explain it, he merely says that he "took it back."
At the same time, Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison), a violent, sadistic, and potentially mentally ill guard who takes pleasure in intimidating and injuring inmates, exasperates everyone else in the cellblock. He "knows people, big people" (he is the nephew of the governor's wife), in effect 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 promoted or to manage 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 by not wetting the sponge in salt water - to be put on the head of Eduard to kill him faster - inflicting as much pain as possible on Eduard "Del" Delacroix (Michael Jeter) which eventually caused him to catch fire. Del was a Cajun inmate who had previously embarrassed him (though even Percy is horrified by the gruesome spectacle of Del's death).
Meanwhile, 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 seizes Coffey's arm, and Coffey senses that Wild Bill is 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 handgun into Wild Bill, after which Wetmore falls into a permanent catatonic state. Stunned by these events, Edgecomb queries Coffey, who says he "punished them bad 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. Wild Bill is dead at Wetmore's hands, and Wetmore ends up as a patient at the very asylum to which he promised Edgecomb he would transfer.
Notwithstanding Coffey's incredible abilities and the wrongness of his conviction, he ends up being executed, due in large part to the racism prevalent at the time and place of the story (the movie was set in the Depression era in the southern United States). Another key factor was that Coffey was constantly depressed by all the pain in the world and "how people are always ugly to each other", describing it as "like glass shards in my head, driving me crazy." He therefore refuses to have the death sentence overturned. The proper story ends there, and Edgecomb says he subsequently transferred from Death Row to a youth detention center, where he spent the remainder of his career. The story then returns to the present, where Edgecomb's friend questions his statement that he had a fully-grown son in 1935 - he explains that he was in fact 44 years old at the time, is now 108 and still in excellent health. This is apparently a side effect of the life-giving power of Coffey's touch: a significantly lengthened lifespan. Mr. Jingles, Del's 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 having Coffey executed. Mr. Jingles, being a mouse, should only have had a maximum lifespan of 1 or 2 years, yet he has lived for over half a century, so Paul dreads to think how long he himself has left to live, being a human. As he puts it, 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." The possibility is implied that, at the time of the events leading up to his execution, Coffey was also very old, as Edgecomb is at the end of the movie.
Cast
Characters
Paul Edgecomb
The protagonist of the story, Paul Edgecomb, is the head corrections officer of a Louisiana Death Row during the 1930s. He narrates the story of his time on the Green Mile in flashbacks. Paul is cured of his urinary infection by John Coffey. Later Coffey shows Paul who the real killer of the girls is and as a result Paul is given the gift of an exceptionally long and vibrant life – though Paul believes it to be a curse, as he did nothing to stop Coffey's execution. He is at his wits' end with the conniving and abusive officer Percy Wetmore, and the vexatious "Wild Bill" Wharton.
John Coffey
Coffey is an enormous black man who arrives on the Mile for raping and killing two young girls. Despite the utter horror of the crime he allegedly committed, Coffey is favored by officers and inmates of the prison because of his incredibly gentle and kind nature, which also begins to make Edgecomb question Coffey's alleged guilt. Towards the end of the story it is revealed that he was innocent and that Wharton was the real perpetrator of the girls' rape and murder. He is afraid of the dark, and his character is akin to one of an innocent child, making the crime he is accused of very unbelievable. He makes little effort to avoid being executed, because he finds it too difficult to live in a world that he considers to be unbearably cruel. Coffey has the supernatural ability to heal others, which he simply refers to as "taking it back". He makes a particularly strong impression on Edgecomb after he cures his urinary tract infection. In a biblical sense, he is a reflection of Jesus, given his initials ("JC"), his healing power, his acute sense of the world's pain, and his eventual death at the hands of those who refused to believe him.
Brutus "Brutal" Howell
Second-in-charge of Cold Mountain's Death Row, Brutus Howell, often referred to as "Brutal" by the others, is Paul Edgecomb's closest friend. Despite his intimidating name and imposingly large frame, Brutal is a calm, affable individual; but he does have a temper, which he mostly displays toward Wetmore. Like Edgecombe, Howell comes to accept that Coffey is obviously not guilty of murdering the two children.
William "Wild Bill" Wharton
William Wharton, who prefers to be known as "Billy the Kid", but is known to the inmates and officers as "Wild Bill", is an extremely hyperactive, mischievous and intimidating inmate — described by the warden as "a problem child". He serves as an antagonist, and was later revealed to be a deranged killer and rapist. According to John Coffey's vision when he made physical contact with Wharton, he worked on the farm where the two girls lived, abducted, raped and murdered them. Wharton is also racist; during the film he repeatedly uses the racial slur "nigger". Near the end, he is shot to death by Percy, to whom a disease was passed on 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 and Wetmore despise each other. Del even laughs at Percy after he is attacked by Wharton. Wetmore later stomps on Mr. Jingles, "killing" it, but the mouse is healed by Coffey. Finally, Del's execution is sabotaged by Wetmore; by not wetting the sponge to be placed on his head (which draws the elctrcity to the brain quickest), Wetmore would be able to inflict maximum pain on Delacroix. The electrocution becomes so extreme and inhumane that even the family of Delacroix's victims are horrified, as is Percy. Some would argue that his death is a reference to the first person ever to be electrocuted, William Kemmler. In the movie he is not killed outright, but takes a long time to die and even catches on fire, as did Kemmler.
Arlen Bitterbuck
Arlen Bitterbuck is a Native American who was in prison before John Coffey arrived at Cold Mountain. Repentant of what he has done, on the night of his execution he confides in Paul Edgecomb about his belief that, if a person were truly sorry for his sins, he would be able to relive the best time of his life forever in heaven.
Percy Wetmore
Wetmore is an abusive, cynical and sadistic corrections officer inside the prison, who assaults the inmates. He flaunts the fact that his aunt is married to the state governor, giving him the authority to escape accountability for his unruly behavior. Taking advantage of his connection to the governor, whenever he is assigned an undesirable task by having the state governor call the warden's office to chastise the rest of the staff. Wetmore is tormented by Wild Bill, a serial killer in the prison whom he later murders. The other officers confine Wetmore in the restraining room, bound in a straitjacket, to prevent him from witnessing their covert arrangement to temporarily bring Coffey out of prison so that he can heal the warden's wife, and at the same time, to punish him for sabotaging Eduard Delacroix's execution. They later release Wetmore, coercing him to accept his punishment and not make further complications by reporting the incident. Minutes later, he is grabbed by Coffey, who passes the sickness he absorbed from Moores' wife into him. Now cursed with the disease, he empties his revolver into Wharton, killing him. Wetmore then goes into a permanent, catatonic state. He is placed into a mental health institution which, ironically, is the same institution to which he was applying for a transfer from the prison.
Harold "Hal" Moores
The warden of Cold Mountain Prison, Hal and his wife are friends of the Edgecombs. His personal life provides much of the drama of the movie. Early on, it is revealed that his wife Melinda has an inoperable brain tumor, which is cured by Coffey when the prison staff sneaks him out of E-Block.
Mr. Jingles
Mr. Jingles is a mouse that initially causes a certain amount of drama among the inmates and caretakers of E-Block, but is later adopted by Delacroix as a pet. Mr. Jingles is fatally wounded when Percy stomps on him, but is miraculously healed by Coffey. The mouse's lifespan is extended as a side effect of being in Coffey's hand as he is taking in the pain of Del's execution. On Del's execution day the caretakers convince him that Mr. Jingles is promoted at a Mouse Circus in Souriville, Florida. The mouse is still alive at the time of Edgecomb's telling of the story, but visibly aged with extremely limited mobility.
Soundtrack listing
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.
- The Two Dead Girls
- The Mouse on the Mile
- Foolishment
- Billy-Be-Frigged
- Coffey's Hands
- Cheek to Cheek - Fred Astaire
- Condemned Man
- Limp Noodle
- Scared of the Dark
- Wild Bill
- Cigar Box
- Circus Mouse
- The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix
- Boy's Eye
- Two Run-Throughs
- Red Over Green
- I Can't Give You Anything But Love - Billie Holiday
- That's the Deal
- L'Homme Mauvais
- An Offense to the Heart
- Morphine & Cola
- Night Journey
- Danger of Hell
- Done Tom Turkey
- Did You Ever See a Dream Walking - Gene Austin
- Trapingus Parish
- Boogeyman
- Shine My Knob
- Briar Ridge
- Coffey on the Mile
- Punishment
- Charmaine - Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians
- Now Long Gone
- No Exceptions
- The Green Mile
Awards and nominations
1999 Academy Awards (Oscars)
2000 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)
2000 BMI Film & TV Awards
2000 Black Reel Awards
2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
2000 Bram Stoker Awards
2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards
2000 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
2000 Directors Guild of America
- Nominated - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures — Frank Darabont
2000 Golden Globe Awards
2000 Image Awards
2000 MTV Movie Awards
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
2000 People's Choice Awards
- Won - Favorite All-Around Motion Picture
- Won - Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture
2001 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (Nebula Award)
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
External links
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