The Green Mile is a 1999 fantasy crime drama directed and written by Frank Darabont. The film was originally adapted from Stephen King’s novel of the same name that was released in 1996.
The movie stars Tim Hanks alongside the late Michael Clarke Duncan, with supporting roles from James Cromwell, David Morse and Bonnie Hunt. Told in a flashback format, the film tells the story of Paul Edgecomb (Hanks) and his time working as a death row corrections officer during the Great Depression. He recounts the many supernatural events that he experienced.
The film has received a number of positive reviews from critics over the years, and received four Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sound, and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.
Clarke won the Best Supporting Actor award, while Patricia Clarkson won Best Supporting Actress, and the film itself won Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film at the 2000 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and horror. It’s as riveting as the gambling online NZ has to offer, and just as rewarding too.
The Story
The story starts in Louisiana in 1999, where Paul Edgecomb is residing as a senior resident. He begins to cry while watching the film Top Hat, and when his friend Elaine becomes curious as to why, he explains the experiences he had as a younger man working in death row, a facility still around today where only the worst of the worst go.
It flashes back to 1935, and Edgecomb is shown as the supervisor of the facility that houses a number of inmates sentenced to death. We meet his supporting officers, and before long a new prisoner arrives in the form of John Coffey, a physically imposing but challenged man who was convicted for the murder and rape of two young girls in the area. Despite his crimes, it becomes apparent that Coffey is a gentle and thoughtful individual, and becomes scared at night when the lights are turn off.
The officers witness John perform a number of miracles, including healing Edgecomb’s bladder infection, resurrecting a dead mouse, and completely removes the cancer that was killing Melinda Moores, the wife of the warden. Another inmate is received into the facility in the form of William Wharton, an extremely unhinged mass-murderer who causes endless trouble for both the officers and the other inmates. We learn that Coffey was falsely accused of his crimes, being blamed due to his colour, and that the two young girls were actually murdered by Wharton. Wharton, who is eventually murdered by another officer, Percy Wetmore, after Coffey takes the pain and suffering from Moores and transfers it to Percy. John is then executed shortly after, but does not struggle, welcoming the peace of death after a life of suffering and abuse.
After being taken back to present time, Elaine begins to ponder how old Edgecomb is, and he reveals that he’s 106 years old, and that when John healed his infection, he blessed him with longevity, along with Mr. Jingles, the mouse that John resurrected.