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"The Green Mile," written and directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tom Hanks (Toy Story 2, You've Got Mail) as a death row prison guard Paul Edgecomb is an enjoyable movie when viewed at face value. I must confess I did not read the novel by Stephen King. So I do not know how much of the screenplay is King or Darabont. The movie begins in a senior citizens rest home. It is not until you are asking yourself what does this have to do with the movie we came to see, that it dawns on you and the movie flashes back, and we are on the green mile. Good verses evil. Right from the start you can tell the good from the evil and the two never come together. Michael Duncan (Armageddon) plays the gentle giant wrongly convicted John Coffey, "just like the drink, only spelled different." Duncan does an outstanding job as an illiterate wanderer sentenced to die for the brutal rape and murder of two very young girls. The scenes are predictable, but well acted. The emotion brought to the surface as we witness the executions by electric chair, are powerful and turbulent. For a moment there, I began to re-evaluate my own views on the death penalty. It wasn't until I realized I was swallowing a bigger pill than capitol punishment, when my view of the movie changed dramatically. I came to see a picture about an innocent man on death row. How ironic, don't they all claim to be innocent? Coffey/Duncan was sorry he couldn't take it back. We learn later just what he meant. We witness the miracles that Coffey can perform and we believe them. We even want him to do more. We hear Hanks ask why would God give a man like Coffey these gifts if he could have done what he was convicted of. Now the pill we swallowed and almost choked on because it we were distracted by the antics of evil is the idea that Coffey was a modern day version of Christ. Oh yes, and we still crucified him. Even though we knew he was an innocent man, we washed our hands of it. Coffey raises the dead, heals the sick and passes what he knows on to his disciple's. He is executed with two other guilty men and the apostle Paul goes on to tell the story, well you already know this story. If you can look past the blatant symbolism and predictable sequence of events and even sit through almost three hours of a well acted movie, then this one is worth seeing. I did not get to see explosions or even Tom Hanks butt, well maybe the latter was a good thing; I did get to see an entertaining movie. I give this movie eight couches out of 10, because the electric chair scenes were wild. Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:45:46 AM |
