The Green Mile

The Green Mile (film)

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The Green Mile
Promotional poster
Directed by	Frank Darabont
Produced by	Frank Darabont David Valdes
Screenplay by	Frank Darabont
Based on	The Green Mile by Stephen King
Starring	Tom Hanks David Morse Bonnie Hunt Michael Clarke Duncan James Cromwell
Music by	Thomas Newman
Cinematography	David Tattersall
Editing by	Richard Francis-Bruce
Studio	Castle Rock Entertainment
Distributed by	Warner Bros. (US) PolyGram Films (thru Universal Studios) (international)
Release date(s)	December 10, 1999 (1999-12-10)
Running time	188 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$60 million
Box office	$290,701,374[1]

The Green Mile is a 1999 American drama film directed by Frank Darabont adapted from the 1996 Stephen King novel of the same name. The film is told in a flashback format and stars Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb and Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey with supporting roles by David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, and James Cromwell. The film tells the story of Paul's life as a death row corrections officer during the Great Depression in the United States, and the supernatural events he witnessed.

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Michael Clarke Duncan, Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Plot

In a Louisiana nursing home in 1999, Paul Edgecomb (Greer) begins to cry while watching the film Top Hat. His elderly friend Elaine (Brent) shows concern for him, and Paul tells her that the film reminded him of when he was a corrections officer in charge of death row inmates at Cold Mountain Penitentiary during the summer of 1935. The cell block Paul (Hanks) works in is called the "Green Mile" because the condemned prisoners walking to their execution are said to be walking "the last mile". Here, it is a stretch of faded lime-green linoleum. The other guards include Brutus "Brutal" Howell (Morse), Harry Terwilliger (DeMunn), and Dean Stanton (Pepper).

One day, John Coffey (Duncan), a giant black man convicted of raping and killing two young white girls, arrives on death row. However, he is shy, soft-spoken, and emotional. John reveals extraordinary powers by healing Paul's urinary tract infection and resurrecting a mouse. Later, he heals the terminally ill wife (Clarkson) of Warden Hal Moores (Cromwell). When John is asked to explain his power, he merely says that he "took it back."

Percy Wetmore (Hutchison), a sadistic and unpopular guard, who is the nephew of the governor's wife, has recently begun working on the mile. Percy recognizes that the other officers dislike him. He uses that to demand managing the next execution, by promising that afterward, he will transfer to an administrative post at a mental hospital. An agreement is made, but Percy then deliberately sabotages the execution. Instead of wetting the sponge used to conduct electricity and make executions quick and effective, he leaves it dry, causing the execution of Eduard Delacroix (Jeter) to malfunction dramatically.

Meanwhile, a violent prisoner named "Wild Bill" Wharton (Rockwell) had arrived, to be executed for multiple murders committed during a robbery. At one point he seizes John's arm, and John psychically senses that Wharton is also responsible for the crime for which John was convicted and sentenced to death. John "takes back" the sickness in Hal's wife and regurgitates it into Percy, who then shoots Wharton to death and falls into a state of permanent catatonia. Percy is then admitted to Briar Ridge Mental Hospital as a patient rather than an administrator. In the wake of these events, Paul interrogates John, who says he "punished them bad men" and offers to show Paul what he saw. John takes Paul's hand and says he has to give Paul "a part of himself" in order for Paul to see what really happened to the girls.

Paul asks John what he should do, if he should open the door and let John walk away. John tells him that there is too much pain in the world, to which he is sensitive, and says he is "rightly tired of the pain" and is ready to rest. For his last request on the night before his execution, John watches the film Top Hat. When John is put in the electric chair, he asks Paul not to put the traditional black hood over his head because he is afraid of the dark. Paul agrees, shakes his hand, and John is executed.

As Paul finishes his story, he notes that he requested a transfer to a youth detention center, where he spent the remainder of his career. Elaine questions his statement that he had a fully grown son at the time, and Paul explains that he was 44 years old at the time of John's execution and that he is now 108. This is apparently a side effect of John giving a "part of himself" to Paul. Mr. Jingles, Del's mouse resurrected by John, is also still alive — but Paul believes his outliving all of his relatives and friends to be a punishment from God for having John executed, and wonders how long it will be before his own death.

 

Cast

• Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb. The main protagonist of the film. He is a kind but stern man. He is married and has one grown son. However his urinary bladder infection prohibits him from being intimate with his wife.
• Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey. The secondary protagonist of the film. He heals people's sickness and pain by just "taking it back." He is said to just fall out the sky. He is convicted to death after he is found with the two corpses of Cora and Katie.
• Bonnie Hunt as Jan Edgecomb. Jan is Paul's wife. She is soft spoken and a good cook.
• David Morse as Brutus "Brutal" Howell. Brutus is described as a gentle giant. He is the biggest of all the guards. However he shown to be kind hearted while playing with a mouse on the Mile. He is a single man with no mentioned family. He hates Percy but must keep the peace to keep his job.
• Doug Hutchison as Percy Wetmore. Percy is a sadist who enjoys bringing other people pain. He broke three bones of inmate out of annoyance. He is hated by everyone he comes into contact with. However his political connections keep him safe from harm.
• Sam Rockwell as "Wild Bill" Wharton. Is the most violent volatile inmate on the Mile. He enjoys antagonizing the guards and even urinates on Harry. He is a racist. Referring to John as a nigger and stating that blacks should have their own electric chair. He hates lawmen, Brutus calls him Wild Bill and he (Wharton) reacts violently and says he prefers being called Billy the Kid.
• Michael Jeter as Eduard "Del" Delacroix. A cajun inmate that enjoys humor. He enjoys John and keeps to himself. His crime is never known in the film. He becomes friends with Mr. Jingles, the block's pet mouse.
• James Cromwell as Warden Hal Moores. Much like Paul, Hal is soften spoken but stern when needed. His wife in the film is terminally ill and their isn't a cure for her cancer. He is shown to love her deeply.
• Patricia Clarkson as Melinda Moores. Hal's terminally ill wife.
• Barry Pepper as Dean Stanton. Dean is the youngest of the guards and is soft and at times naive. He has a wife and two kids, it is reveled in the film he is expecting a third child. He becomes the most attached to John as he is the only one crying when its time for him to be put to death.
• Jeffrey DeMunn as Harry Terwilliger. Harry is the oldest guard. He has a wife and two daughters. He is shown to be a conservative man who enjoys his job.
• Harry Dean Stanton as Toot-Toot. A trustee of the prison.
• Dabbs Greer as Old Paul Edgecomb
• Gary Sinise as Burt Hammersmith
• Graham Greene as Arlen Bitterbuck. A Cherokee man who rarely speaks. Like Del, his crime is never said in the movie.
• William Sadler as Klaus Detterick
• Bill McKinney as Jack Van Hay
• Eve Brent as Elaine Connelly