The Green Mile - DVDfever.co.uk

There’s one thing that’s going to make writing this review difficult and that is attempting to explain the plot without giving anything away so I’ll have to be brief.

In short, the film centres around the relationship between Death Row prison warden Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) – at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary in the Deep South – and its latest inmate, John Coffey (Armageddon‘s Michael Clarke Duncan).

The latter worked on the land for Klaus Detterick (William Sadler, who also starred in the recent Disturbing Behaviour) as well as The Shawshank Redemption, but was sure to get the sack after being found by the river propped up against a log, cradling the bloodied heads of Detterick’s two young daughters and wittering, “I tried to take it back, but it was too late”.

Did he kill them and so deserves to be fried in the chair or is it just a case of “Not me, guv. It’s a fit-up!” ? By the time half this film has passed, all will become much more clear.

The year is 1935 but it is told in flashback from the present day as an elder Paul (Dabbs Greer) sits in a nursing home recounting his tale to a female friend, Elaine (Eve Brent) about the time he worked on the “Green Mile” and had a bladder infection.

Green Mile? Well, Death Row itself is referred to in the “mile” part as the distance it feels like walking between the cell and “old Sparky”, the electric chair. It’s green because of the lime-green colour of the floor. So now you know.

Paul’s having toilet trouble courtesy of his bladder problems and it’s an element of Stephen King’s supernatural mind that aids some relief on hand courtesy of John Coffey. I can’t say any more as that would ruin the whole point of watching the film.

About the cast, this is certainly an impressive line-up and most of the principal and secondary characters are on-screen long enough to be memorable for one reason or another.

For the screws, Paul’s colleagues are Brutus “Brutal” Howell (David Morse, Jodie Foster’s father in Contact), Edgecomb’s chief assistant and you can guess how he got the name from his demeanour towards the inmates, old hand Harry Terwilliger (Jeffrey DeMunn), the promising Dean Stanton (Barry Pepper) and the maverick Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison).

In addition to Michael Clarke Duncan, the three other convicted killers are nervy Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter) who befriends a mouse before he is sent back to meet his maker, the repentant Native American inmate Arlen Bitterbuck (Graham Greene, most remembered for the Red Indian who befriended Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves) and mad-as-a-hatter William “Wild Bill” Wharton (Sam Rockwell) who only befriends the voices in his head.

Of the rest of the cast, Coffey has an impressive effect on the lives of Prison Warden Hal Moores (James Cromwell, from Star Trek: First Contact and Deep Impact) and his terminally-ill wife, Melinda (Patricia Clarkson).

The only ones who have too little to do are Jerry Maguire‘s Bonnie Hunt as Paul’s wife Jan and what the press release describes as “the prison’s wiry old trusty” (?), Harry Dean Stanton as Toot-Toot, who appears to “test” out the electric chair for its first run.

So, is the film actually worth going to see? Well, it is and it isn’t, hence the middle-of-the-road score.

As most of the characters play their part, they do it effectively and convincingly and it lays the groundwork for a worthwhile three hours sat on your backside, but what lets it down immeasurably is the script. The film begins as a standard, but realistic prison drama and you expect high standards given the cast and Darabont’s debut film, but the supernatural storyline on which Edgecomb’s and Coffey’s relationship lies is totally unbelievable and I failed to get carried along with that element, which led to the complete lack of chemistry between these two.

That doesn’t bode well because as you start to get edgy in your seat, you realise the length of the film and that you shouldn’t have a drink beforehand. I did… and seeing Tom Hanks straining to syphon the python didn’t do many favours for my bladder either.

As the film plods towards the eventual conclusion of Coffey walking down the “green mile” heading for his destiny, you first get to see the rest of the clan go the same way, bar one who makes a different kind of fatal exit, but there is a final twist of sorts revealed at the end as it returns to the present day and the elder Edgecomb concludes his tale.

Overall, the film left me feeling unsatisfied. It’s a missed opportunity, but I don’t know what I could suggest to improve matters other than to bin King’s novel from day one and choose a different story altogether for the same cast to act out.

Now can someone please explain how this managed to get nominated for four Oscars? They are Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound and the only one deserved nomination, Best Supporting Actor for Michael Clarke Duncan. If you watch the trailer being shown on TV it will tell you nothing about the film, other than that there’s something going on between him and Hanks and that it causes the prison’s lights to explode (!)

For a complete list of all the Oscar nominees, please visit my Oscars 2000 Nominees Page. This page will be updated with the winners after the event.

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Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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