The Green Mile

Rated [R], 188 minutes
Starring Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, James Cromwell, Bonnie Hunt
Screenplay by Frank Darabont and Stephen King
Based on the novel by Stephen King
Directed by Frank Darabont
website: www.thegreenmile.com

All fairy tales have good guys, bad guys, innocents a grand and sometimes gory confrontation of some kind and a moral to top it all off. By that measure, Frank Darabont's The Green Mile is a wondrous fairy tale. It is one, though, that doesn't need the moral, which takes the form of a pair of present day bookends that throw the story back in time to 1938. Even the critics without spinal cord damage were having trouble getting out of their seats when the final credits hit the screen, just after the three hour mark.

Other than that it's a pretty good story which plays out very slowly. Like Darabont's last flick, The Shawshank Redemption (also based on a Stephen King prison story), up down sideways on every level it's a beautiful flick.

So we'll ignore the old guy (Dabbs Greer) who wanders around in the woods, and the mysterious cabin in said woods and set our wayback machine for Louisiana's Cold Mountain Penitentiary in the year 1935. There, in the "E" Block, the condemned await their last walk down the lime green painted floor (thus the name) to where ol' Sparky waits to fry their little brains. At one end of the block you will find Head Guard Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) who, with Brutus "Brutal" Howell (David Morse), Dean Stanton (Barry Pepper) and the sadistic li'l worm Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison) talk gently and calmly to those who are about to die. Well, not Percy. He prefers bustin' chops with his night stick or lyin' in wait for Mr. Jingles, the pet mouse trained by prisoner Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter).

At the other end of the block, in the last cell on the left, waits John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan). Roughly seven foot tall, three hundred thirty or so pounds, Coffey's hands are roughly the size of the heads of the two little girls he raped and murdered. When found, Coffey's hands were blood covered, the girl's blonde hair stained red by the same blood. Coffey cried to the sheriff "I tried to take it back!" which was as good as a confession to everyone that heard it.

One by one, the other inmates (Graham Greene, Jeter) take their walks down the mile. Other vicious killers (Sam Rockwell) take their place in the cells. Day by day, Paul Edgecomb becomes more and more convinced that John Coffey is not a murderer at all. The giant is too gentle to be a murderer -- but that doesn't mean he didn't do it. But Coffey's hands seem to have a miraculous power to heal and, once Edgecomb has seen that power, the words of Coffey's confession take on a whole new meaning.

Once you get this far into the flick, what comes next is, truly, miraculous. All the good you see is then properly balanced by a good dose of Stephen King badness. If the pacing wasn't so slow, the enjoyment would have been greater. But the pacing is what the story, a wonderful story, requires. That's why you don't need the bookends. When you see the flick, you'll either agree or disagree.

A couple of Name Stars should be mentioned, though I haven't revealed their subplots 'cuz that would be telling: Bonnie Hunt as Edgecomb's wife; James Cromwell as the Warden and Patricia Clarkson as Melinda, the warden's wife. William Sadler and Gary Sinise both have smaller parts.

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Eight Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to The Green Mile, he would have paid...

$6.50

$7 less four bits for the bookends. The one thing you have to give to Darabont is that he can put together a damn fine crew of folk to make his films. Now if he could only get this Stephen King guy to write something other than prison stories . . . <g>

	Click to buy films by Frank Darabont
	Click to buy films starring Tom Hanks
	Click to buy films starring James Cromwell

The Cranky Critic® is a Registered Trademark of, and his website is Copyright © 1995-2008 by, Chuck Schwartz. Articles by Paul Fischer Copyright © 1999 - 2006 Paul Fischer. All images, unless otherwise noted, are property of,©, ®, T their respective studios and are used by permission. All Rights Reserved. Not to be used or copied for any commercial purpose. Academy AwardT(s) and Oscar®(s) are registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Amazon Honor System

Your Donations feed us

Buy Cranky stuff

Buy movie posters!

BUY THE LATEST DVDs
Star Wars Trilogy (Widescreen) DVD (Full Screen)	Lord of the Rings Trilogy DVD
Marx Bros collection	Alfred Hitchcock Collection
Looney Toons Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Rocky & Bullwinkle Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Star Trek TOS Star Trek TNG Star Trek Films Criterion Collections

TV/Movie Collectibles

online movie critics

We're Kidlet Safe

Search engine
by FreeFind

click to search site

Now in Release:

The Band's Visit
Definitely Maybe
Hottie and the Nottie
In Bruges
Iron Man
Be Kind Rewind
Rambo
Cloverfield
Mad Money
U2 3D

28 Weeks Later
Black Book
Bourne Ultimatum
Brooklyn Rules
Death at a Funeral
Evening
The Ex
Fido
Georgia Rule
Grindhouse
Hairspray
Harry Potter - Phoenix
The Hoax
Hot Rod
I Know Who Killed Me
La Vie en Rose
License to Wed
Live Free or Die Hard
Mr. Brooks
Next
No Reservatons
Ocean's Thirteen
Perfect Stranger
Pirates of Caribbean
Ratatouille
Rescue Dawn
Rush Hour 3
Severance
Sicko
Simpsons Movie
Slow Burn
Snow Cake
Spider-Man 3
Stardust

DVDs on Sale:
300
Alice in Wonderland
Batman Begins
Bambi
Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner
Bridge to Terabithia
Charlie + Chocolate Factory
Cinderella
E.T.
Fantastic Four
Forrest Gump
Gone With the Wind
Harry Potter yrs 1-3 set
Harry Potter Azkaban
The Incredibles
Indiana Jones trilogy
The Lion King
Lord of Rings 12 discs
Mary Poppins 40th LE
Ultimate Matrix set
Miss Potter
Monty Python - Grail
Napoleon Dynamite
Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean 2
Shrek
Shrek 2
Sin City
Sleeping Beauty
South Park Movie
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Star Wars Ep. 1
Star Wars Ep. 2
Star Wars 3 Full Screen
Star Wars 3 l'box
Star Wars Trilogy (4-6)
The Island
War of the Worlds
X-Men
X-Men 2

The Cranky Critic® is a Registered Trademark of, and his website is Copyright © 1995 - 2010 by, Chuck Schwartz. Articles by Paul Fischer Copyright © 1999 - 2006 Paul Fischer. All images, unless otherwise noted, are property of,©, ®, ™ their respective studios and are used by permission. All Rights Reserved. Not to be used or copied for any commercial purpose. Academy Award™(s) and Oscar®(s) are registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.