Synopsis
Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) walked the mile with a variety of cons. He had never encountered someone like John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), a massive black man convicted of brutally killing a pair of young sisters. Coffey had the size and strength to kill anyone, but not the demeanor.
Beyond his simple, naive nature and a deathly fear of the dark, Coffey seemed to possess a prodigious, supernatural gift. Paul began to question whether Coffey was truly guilty of murdering the two girls.
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‘The Green Mile’ is a 1999 American fantasy drama film, written and directed by Frank Darabont and based on Stephen King’s 1996 novel of the same name. It stars Tom Hanks as a death row corrections officer during the Great Depression who witnesses supernatural events that occur after an enigmatic inmate (Michael Clarke Duncan) is brought to his facility. David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, Doug Hutchison and James Cromwell appear in supporting roles.
The film premiered on December 10, 1999, in the United States to positive reviews from critics, who praised its visual style and performances. It was a commercial success, grossing $286 million from its $60 million budget, and was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Duncan, Best Sound and Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published.
Production
Darabont adapted Stephen King’s novel, ’The Green Mile’, into a screenplay in under eight weeks.
The film was shot at Warner Hollywood Studios, West Hollywood, California, and on location in Shelbyville, Tennessee, Blowing Rock, North Carolina and the old Tennessee State Prison. The interior sets were custom built by production designer Terence Marsh. “We tried to give our set a sense of space. A sense of history. And a sense of mystery, in a way. We chose the elongated cathedral-like windows because there is a very mystical element in this movie, a supernatural element it presented us with lots of opportunities”, he said. The electric chair was also a bespoke design, and was inspired by real prisons which have the device.
Casting
Hanks and Darabont met at an Academy Award luncheon in 1994. Stephen King stated he envisioned Hanks in the role and was happy when Darabont mentioned his name. Hanks was originally supposed to play elderly Paul Edgecomb as well, but the makeup tests did not make him look credible enough to be an elderly man. Because of this Greer was hired to play the older Edgecomb.
Duncan credited his casting to Bruce Willis, with whom he had worked on the film ’Armageddon’ one year earlier. According to Duncan, Willis introduced him to Darabont after hearing of the open call for John Coffey. Basketball player Shaquille O’Neal was considered for the role of John Coffey.
Morse had not heard about the script until he was offered the role. He stated he was in tears by the end of it. Darabont wanted Cromwell from the start, and after he read the script, Cromwell was moved and agreed.
Soundtrack
The official film soundtrack, ’Music from the Motion Picture The Green Mile’, was released on December 19, 1999 by Warner Bros. It contains 37 tracks, primarily instrumental tracks from the film score by Thomas Newman. It also contains four vocal tracks: “Cheek to Cheek” by Fred Astaire, “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby” by Billie Holiday, “Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?” by Gene Austin, and “Charmaine” by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians.
Critical response
‘On Rotten Tomatoes’ the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 6.83/10. The website’s critics consensus states, “Though The Green Mile is long, critics say it’s an absorbing, emotionally powerful experience.” At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A” on an A+ to F scale.
Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 3 1⁄2 out of 4 stars, writing, “The film is a shade over three hours long. I appreciated the extra time, which allows us to feel the passage of prison months and years ... it tells a story with beginning, middle, end, vivid characters, humor, outrage and emotional release”. Writing for ’Entertainment Weekly’, Lisa Schwarzbaum also took note of the film’s length, but praised Tom Hanks’ “superior” performance and Darabont’s direction.
“Darabont’s style of picture making is well matched to King-size yarn spinning. The director isn’t afraid to let big emotions and grand gestures linger”, she said. ‘San Francisco Chronicle’s’ Edward Guthmann thought the cinematography was “handsome”, and the music was “florid and melodramatic”. He added, “Darabont is such a committed filmmaker, and believes so earnestly and intensely in the stories he puts on screen”.
Desson Thomson of ’The Washington Post’ called the storytelling “brilliant”, and said, “From its deceptively easygoing beginning to the heart-wrenching finale, ’The Green Mile’ keeps you wonderfully high above the cynical ground.”
However, some critics had a less positive response. Kirk Honeycutt of ’The Hollywood Reporter’ opined, “By inflating the simple story with a languorous pace, pregnant pauses, long reaction shots and an infinitely slow metabolism, Darabont has burdened his movie version with more self-importance than it can possibly sustain.” While complimenting the production design and soundtrack, the critic from ’Timeout’ magazine thought some scenes were tiresome and the film “suffers from a surfeit of plot threads and characters”.
Writing for the BBC, Clark Collis took issue with some of the plot’s unrealistic elements and thought the film was too long.
David Ansen of ’Newsweek’ thought ’The Green Mile’ was weaker than Darabont’s previous film, The Shawshank Redemption (1994). He stated, [The Green Mile] is a “lumbering, self-important three-hour melodrama that defies credibility at every turn.”