It’s just another normal day on the Green Mile for prison guard Paul Edgecomb. That is until huge John Coffey is sent there. Unlike the hulking brute that Coffey looks like, he is in fact kind at heart. Whilst watching over Coffey, Edgecomb learns that there is more to Coffey than can be seen. –IMDb
Three-time Oscar nominee Frank Darabont was born in a refugee camp in 1959 in Montbeliard, France, the son of Hungarian parents who had fled Budapest during the failed 1956 Hungarian revolution. Brought to America as an infant, he settled with his family in Los Angeles and attended Hollywood High School. His first job in movies was as a production assistant on the 1981 low-budget film, Hell Night (1981), starring Linda Blair. He spent the next six years working in the art department as a set dresser and in set construction while struggling to establish himself as a writer. His first produced writing credit (shared) was on the 1987 film, Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, A (1987), directed by Chuck Russell. Darabont is one of only six filmmakers in history with the unique distinction of having his first two feature films receive nominations for the Best Picture Academy Award: 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption (1994) (with a total of seven nominations) and 1999’s The Green… read more
One of my favourite all time films, and, like the person below me, I know it is fairly stereotypical but this is the film that got me interested in the first place and though it is a big step down in quality from the rest of my top 15 (although still for me a 5 star achievement), I love this film and it will always have a place in my heart, I love The Green Mile.
I love this one. I agree that the characters are steretoypical. I agree that the story is straightforward. In my head I know that this film is far from perfect, and could even have been better with stronger source material or a more creative casting. But it touches me in it's simplicity. I guess it all comes back to the difference between a good movie and a favorite movie.
As an experience it's as powerful as I remembered, but I didn't realise at the time how manipulative it is; how shrewdly it coddles the audience into taking no responsibility for its moral judgments. All the characters are black and white, with no shades of grey. People are either truly innocent or truly evil, and while we're encouraged to be moved by the suffering of these innocents, we're also encouraged to take perverse pleasure in the retribution against the evil ones, even if the severity of their punishment is cruel and unjust. In this sense, the film plays to the very worst aspects of human behaviour, even if the intent is ultimately well-meaning.
I think you're right, although I'd attribute a lot of those traits to its position as Christian allegory.
Why is there so much hate for the movie on this website, it is definitely in my top 5 and it is the film that got me into films! The cast all round is wonderful and the story is amazing!