The Green Mile

Stunned silence once again descended on us at the end of Frank Darabont's latest film, The Green Mile. What a marvellous film this is. Based on Stephen King's best-selling serialised novel, the film tells the story of a Death Row prison guard and the relationship he develops with one very unusual inmate. It's 1935, and Paul Edgecomb, played by Tom Hanks, is working at Cold Mountain Penitentiary as the head guard, in charge of a small group of prisoners who are awaiting execution in the electric chair. Most of his colleagues are reasonably nice guys, considering the job they're doing, all except one. Percy Wetmore is a hostile, despicable young man who takes perverse pleasure in being horrible to everyone else. He enjoys watching the electric chair close up, and wants nothing more than to stand up-close and give that final order, "Roll on two!" He gets his wish, and a whole lot more besides, in typical Stephen King style.

This is not a horror film, but a film about the supernatural powers of a seven foot tall black man, John Coffey, played by Michael Clarke Duncan in his first starring role. Coffey has been convicted of raping and murdering two little girls, the only proof of this being that he was found holding their dead bodies in his massive arms. The fact that he is a simple-minded gentle giant seems to have been overlooked, and the fact that he is a black man in the South in the 30's was really the only 'proof' they needed to send him to the chair. But he is no ordinary man, as Paul Edgecomb soon discovers. I won't tell you what happens, you have to go and see it. If you believe in miracles, you'll love this film. Even if you don't, you might be convinced otherwise. This is acting at it's best; Hanks and Duncan are especially good, as is David Morse who plays another kind-hearted guard.

The Green Mile is over three hours long. Sometimes that can be too much to take, but in this case it's just right in order to fully develop the characters and tell the story properly. Much of the film is set in the prison block, and this can be a little harrowing. There is some comic relief when the guards do a test run of the electric chair, there are some sweet moments involving a tame mouse, and there are some very unpleasant scenes involving an execution that goes horribly wrong. Definitely not for the faint-hearted.

All in all, even considering its morbid theme, this film is uplifting in many ways, and it got me thinking yet again about the issue of capital punishment. As Mahatma Ghandi once said, "An eye for an eye, and sooner or later the whole world will be blind".