Awesome.

Rating: 10/10 (13 March 2002)

After many years, and hundreds of films, I really thought that The Godfather was the finished article, it couldn't be bettered.
Until that is, I bought The Green Mile on a whim.
I confess that I am a huge fan of Stephen Kings early work, Carrie, Salems Lot, The Stand,( in which Gary Sinese is tremendous)Christine,etc. Although in my opinion, most of his writing since Misery has been pretty grim.
This is very different indeed.
As an example, when I bought the film, I came home and stuck it in DVD player, just to watch the first 15 minutes, to see if I could get a grip on the plot. I was concerned that it would be another Geralds Game or Delores Claibourne and would be better in the bin.
I watched the first 15 minutes and checked the clock, and found that 50 minutes had passed!!. As i had to go work, I Left it alone.
Later I watched it with my wife, and when it was over, we watched it all again.
This without doubt the best film I have ever seen. I have recommended it to numerous people who have, without fail come back to and said "what a film , this is the best they have ever seen".
Tom Hanks is excellent, and in my opinion gives an Oscar winning performance when he is not even on screen!!, in a portion that he does with John Coffey ( Michael Clarke Duncan), Who tries to explain himself to Hanks.
The opening part of the film, where a posse is searching for two missing girls, is frightening when they catch up with Coffey, you could see someone shoot Coffey, and it wouldn't have been out of place.
David Morse is very good, as always, with a dry wit, that permeates through his role, similar to Victor Borge in a lot of ways.
Doug Hutchinson as Percy Wetmore is tremendous, if ever i wanted to give someone in a film a punch in the face, he is the one. He plays the slimy, backside kissing, hateful, know it all to a tee.
The only flaw I could find in the whole film was James Cromwell. He played his part very very well indeed, but every time I see him in a film, I think of him as Zephram Cochrane in Star Trek - First Contact, Boogying hid brains out.
This is an awesome film, without doubt the best of them all, better than the Godfather, not by much, but better, if you haven't seen it, watch it, and then , watch it again./