The Green Mile (film)

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 prison guard 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.

For 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 prison guard 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 seven-foot 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 guard who takes pleasure in intimidating and injuring inmates, exasperates everyone else in the cellblock. However, he "knows people in high places" (he was the nephew of the governor's wife), preventing Edgecomb or anybody else from doing anything significant to curb his deviant behavior. What Wetmore wants is to be put "up front" (i.e., in charge) during an execution: then, he promises, he will have himself transfered to an administrative post in the Briar Ridge Mental Hospital, and Edgecomb will never hear from him again. Meanwhile, a violent prisoner named William Wharton arrives, due to be executed for a multiple murder 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 when Wharton touched him, of what really happened to the girls; a vision which 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.

Notwithstanding 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 story proper ends there, and Edgecomb says that 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 a seeming side-effect of Coffey's life-giving power. Mr. Jingles, the mouse resurrected by Coffey, is also still alive — but Paul sees it as his just dessert for not stopping Coffey's execution that has outlived all his relatives and friends. As he puts it, he has had to walk his own Green Mile..."but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long."

Featured cast

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 guards and inmates of the prison. He chooses to be executed due to the cruelty he feels of the world. Coffey has the ability to heal sickness and is also a psychic.

Paul Edgecomb

The first of the two protagonists, Edgecomb is the head guard of the death row prison during the 1930's. He tells his life in flashbacks.

William "Wild Bill" Wharton

William Wharton, known to inmates and guards as "Wild Bill", is the extremely dastardly individual behind the framing of John Coffey. Wharton serves as the main antagonist. He is a deranged and physcotic killer. He worked on the farm of the two girls. Wharton kidnaps and rapes them. He then kills the girls where they are discovered by Coffey. Wild Bill attacks guards on occassion. He even grabs John's Coffey's arm, where Coffey discovers Wharton was the true killer of the girls. Wharton is then shot by Percy Whetmore, a sadistic guard whom was passed a disease by Coffey. It is also implied Wharton is racist, as during the film he repeatedly uses the racial term "nigger".

Eduard Delacroix

Eduard Delacroix, better known as Del, is an inmate and friend of John Coffey. He discovers a mouse named Mr. Jingles, who becomes his closest friend on death row.

Percy Whetmore

Whetmore is a sadistic guard inside of the prison who assaults prisoners. At one point he wickedly kills Mr. Jingles. The mouse is revived by John Coffey. Percy is tormented by Wild Bill, a serial killer in the prison, whom he later kills. Percy is later placed into a local instution. He serves as the primary antagonist.

Trivia

• The prison guards wear uniforms to aid the film's visual style, even though they were not in use at the time in which the movie is set.
• The music played over the loudspeakers in the retirement home as Old Paul Edgecomb first walks out of his room is the same as that which the nurses played at medication time in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).
• While many of Stephen King's novels are set in the author's native Maine, The Green Mile takes place in Louisiana. However, the surname of the main character — Edgecomb — is the name of a town on Maine's mid-coast.
• The electric chair featured in the film was built from the original designs of an example named "Old Sparky", which is part of the museum/tour of the Moundsville State Penitentiary in West Virginia. The prison was one of the finalists for the final shooting location. "Old Sparky" has been a common nickname for the electric chair in a number of states that used it.
• A teaser trailer, gradually revealing Mr. Jingles to be making his way about the electric chair, was shot but not used. With no other creature present to give a sense of scale, it was decided that the close-ups of the mouse made it resemble a rat.^[1]
• Tom Hanks also starred with Gary Sinise in Forrest Gump and Apollo 13. In The Green Mile, Sinise has a cameo as the attorney who defended John Coffey in the case which resulted in Coffey being sentenced to death.
• Tom Hanks and Barry Pepper also co-star in Saving Private Ryan
• Michael Clarke Duncan has a guest role in the penultimate episode of the first season of CSI: NY that stars The Green Mile cast member Gary Sinise. He plays a man who is wrongfully convicted of a crime. But unlike John Coffey, Quinn Sullivan (Duncan's character) 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, entitled 'Life on Death Row', an inmate (Patrick Swayze) discovers he can heal even death at a touch. As authorities rush to halt his execution and the world debates the morality of the decision, the twist ending reveals that every inmate and guard healed by the power now also possess the power as well.
• Commentators pointed out some comparisons between John Coffey and Jesus Christ, i.e. that their initials were both "J.C.", that they both possessed healing powers, and that they were put to death by the state.

• Gary Oldman was considered for the role of Wild Bill Wharton

• Stephen King's favourite film adaption from his books

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 Paul'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 of the Green Mile 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 John Coffey, and provides details of the murder for which he is 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, John Coffey grabs Paul Edgecomb's hand and along with transferring 'life' to him, he 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

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

• Nominated - Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture — Michael Clarke Duncan

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

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)

• 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

References

1. ^ The Green Mile Special Edition DVD

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