As for the story it is based on a novel of Stephen King. Though I am not particularly fond of this writer, the creators of the movie certainly did a good job out of this one. The director Frank Darabont likes prison theme, he made another excellent film The Shawshank Redemption also based on King's story.

The film tells us about a period of life of a prison ward somewhere in a Southern state. Paul Edgecomb and his comrades work in Block E, which is more commonly known as the Green Mile. This is a block for death convicts and the green mile metaphorically and literally is their last fragment of road to walk.

The film depicts various types of wards and prisoners. It shows that not all of them are complete rascals but some of them are very humane and good people. In fact there is some kind of codex of behaviour between prisoners and wards. And the whole story is shown from the point of view of the wards: it shows that they are people capable to feel sympathy and compassion. Watching death of their victims didn't make their hearts hard stoned. They are people with their own problems and their own private worlds. The film depicts complicated relations between wards and prisoners and among wards themselves. And even an animal involved: a mouse who played its role in building certain relations among those people.

At the beginning we see Paul as an old man. The main part of the film is made like a flashback: he tells a story of his life to his friend from a nursing house. Certainly it takes some extraordinary event to shock Paul's career and completely change it, and there was such event. The first unusual thing was when they brought them a prisoner accused of a double murder. On the first sight his guilt is unquestionable but he does not behave like a murderer. As the further events take place Paul begins to doubt if his new custody, a big black man Johnny Coffey, is really guilty...

The film has several layers that brings to it depth. The bad and the good is not so obvious as it seems. Paul lives in the world where other rules exist. The appearance might be deceptive. And probably one of the clearest ideas of the movie is that executions cannot be a routine process.

Paul has a very good control of the things but even he cannot go against society. He is powerless to help an innocent man. But he does as well as he can. The two worlds in which he lives has different rules.

Tom Hanks as Paul, Michael Clarke Duncan as Johnny are startling but the other actors play marvelously too. And the work of the director of photography is really magnificent. They play with facial expressions that is quite unusual for American movie.

This film didn't get any Academy Awards. There are several reasons. First, it was a year of good movies. The second: this film has certain philosophical context. The award-winner American Beauty is much more flashy and in a way more appeals to the public.

In a word, The Green Mile is an excellent movie with a perfect balance of all its components. It is a wonderful psycological drama that will undoubtly attract your attention. I also highly recommend The Shawshank Redemption that also plays with the theme if guilt and innocence related to prison.

Back to Movie Reviews                               Back to Home Page