"Shawshank Redemption" gone bad

Rating: Null/10 (26 December 1999)

**Warning: the following contains important plot revelations for The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. Please watch both films before reading my statement**
You may think I am describing one movie here. In fact, I am describing two:
A man, falsely accused of a double murder but who was really in the wrong place at the wrong time, is sentenced to a prison in the early part of the twentieth century. There, he meets a man with whom one of the most beautiful friendships in the history of film is started. Alongside this central theme are many other interesting characters and subplots-the brutal prisoners, the guards, a benevolent old convict who befriends an animal and who dies halfway through the movie, and the antagonist: a prison employee who is diabolical to the extreme and who gets what he deserves in the end. Near the end of the movie, there is a plot twist where another prisoner (with bad teeth and an annoying laugh) is shown to be the killer of the two victims whose deaths were previously blamed on the innocent. There are disturbing scenes of violence, moments of tearful happiness, and actions that make you stunned with anger. Also, a classic movie connects the beginning of the film with the end.
The movie is long, but you don't care; it is an epic, heroic tale written by Stephen King (who usually never bothers to assign value to humanity), directed by Frank Darabont, and scored by the talented Thomas Newman.
At the end, however, the two films split into polar opposites. One is, in my opinion, the best ending to a film I've ever seen; the other is the worst.
Yes, The Green Mile is The Shawshank Redemption gone bad. Stealing virtually the same plot from the first film, King reprises the story to fit his usual existentialist style: giving no pardon at all for the wronged and leading us to ponder the "meaninglessness and hopelessness" of our own lives.
King has taken Shawshank Redemption and expunged redemption. In Shawshank, King presents hope and redemption as powerful, valuable commodities in life. However, in TGM, both emotions fail to show and we are left with a manic-depressant movie after which we end up feeling that hope always looses out.
Andy wrote in SR, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things." What happened to that spirit, Mr. King?
Objectively, it is an interesting philosophic exercise to compare and contrast the two films: despite their being nearly identical in setup, Shawshank Redemption ultimately is the most optimistic film you'll ever see while The Green Mile is the most pessimistic.
I give this film 5 stars out of ten, but this rating doesn't mean I think it is an average film. Perfectly acted, directed, scored, and told, (like Shawshank), TGM is an extraordinary film destroyed in the end by Stephen King's uninspiring philosophy of life.
After viewing the rotten ending of the Green Mile, it's hard to remind oneself that it came from the same author of the Shawshank Redemption.
As for the end monologue, I'm sorry, Mr. King, but most of us feel that our lives are more than just "walking the green mile." Hearing the old man drone on about how terrible life is made me want to scream Andy's famous line from Shawshank Redemption:
"Get busy livin', or get busy dyin'."
*****/(out of ten)