Incredible characters and emotion come together to make an amazing film.

Rating: 9/10 (10 October 2015)

I won't go so far as to say that this movie is perfect, but it's easily one of the best-crafted films I've ever seen. It bleeds character and emotion of all kinds. It's not very pleasant to watch the whole time despite the joy of some scenes. In the end, it leaves you with a bittersweet aftertaste that you're not likely to lose for a while. As with the Shawshank Redemption, Frank Darabont is not afraid to horrify us by showing some of the worst treatment that men can give each other. But he rewards us with the righteous actions of the protagonists.
Our protagonists are clearly good men who make the best of their job of execution. Paul Edgecombe is our typical passive Tom Hanks character who happens to be present for incredible events, but comes out changed because of it. The secondary protagonist is falsely convicted child murderer John Cofey, a gentle giant with incredible powers and kindness. We get some exposition of the other guards and have reason to sympathize for them. They know how to treat their prisoners, whether by giving them the best death they can under the circumstances, or cracking the whip when necessary. We get to know a few of the other prisoners as well, particularly Dale and Wild Bill. It's great that the two of them have such incredible contrast because it shows us that bad men are still human but that they are also still dangerous. So having the foil of Wild Bill makes us like Dale that much more. Then comes our antagonist, Percy. Now, there are some villains that we're meant to just hate or just love, but Percy is someone that we love to hate. He abuses his privileged background by making the prisoners lives as miserable as he can. The thing that I think really makes him so detestable is that he stays within the rules of the law, but not within the rules of common decency. And he really shows us how bad you can legally be. His actions during Dale's execution are just about the epitome of adding insult to injury. Whenever I thought that the other guards were punishing him too cruelly, I would think back to Dale's execution and think, "Yeah, he deserves every bit of that." There are a few other minor characters such as the warden Hal and his wife, Paul's wife, and Arlen the first man they execute. Despite what problems people might have with the three-hour runtime, I would argue that it was definitely worth making the movie that long because of how good it developed the characters.
There isn't really a plot outside of the constant character development unless you count the progression of revealing John Cofey's powers and innocence. In these scenes there are a lot of setups and payoffs with the three people that John heals. I think having John heal Paul of a urinary infection was a good move. At first, the choice of ailment seems kind of gross, but making it something that personal and painful I think engages the audience a little better than something like a stomachache would. Then, we see John's power have an emotional impact when he revives Mr. Jangles and cures Hal's wife. One last story point I want to comment on is the development of the electric chair. We get the basics on how the whole execution process works, then see the peaceful death of Arlen. An hour or so later we see Dale's horrible execution and the horrors that occur when something "goes wrong". Then at the end, we have the beautifully sad death of John. I don't know quite why, but I thought the sequence that those were shown in was perfect.
The script is nice and consistent with each character and has pretty realistic dialogue. The acting is top notch because the actors are there to act and not to pose as models or anything like that. There aren't any great camera angles or tricks, but I guess it was well shot.
I would recommend this to just about everybody, even people who don't like long movies. There might be some scenes where you have to close your eyes due to emotional impact rather than gore. I guess the only reason you shouldn't watch it is if you don't like serious movies or have trouble paying attention. Aside from that, I see no reason for anyone to not at least give this a try. Overall Rating: 8.9/10.