Brilliant, Touching, but Somewhat Disappointing

Rating: Null/10 (31 March 2000)

This movie was a masterpiece of film-making, but being a huge fan of Shawshank Redemption, when I saw that Frank Darabont (director of Shawshank) was directing this, it was on my must see list in a second. True, a powerful performance was given by all characters in the film, some roles more than others, but after sitting through 2 of the 3 hours of the movie, I was growing listless and wanting to leave. The movie just had too many things going on at once, too many small to medium size sub-plots all moving at the same time in different directions. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie as a whole, from the fresh new characters and their struggle to the comic relief of Wild Bill Wharton. Darabont successfully re-creates the dark and brooding atmosphere that was the standard in prisons of that time, although I feel that this movie was a letdown compared to Shawshank.
In wanting to get more from the movie, I took the liberty of buying the six book set of The Green Mile, by Stephen King. Of all the movies I have seen and owned in my 20 years, this one follows the book series almost to the letter. After reading the books, I went and saw the movie again, and got a lot more from it this time. Maybe it was because I went to the restroom before I sat down so I could endure the whole 3 hours in peace..
In closing, The Green Mile will surely go down in history as one of the most powerful and touching movies to ever be produced. I think however, that in movies that are so flawlessly created to re-create reality, in present times or past, adding such a large fantasy element really ruins the whole style of the movie. (a la Forrest Gump) The ability to believe in a 7 foot 450 pound black man with healing powers doesn't really help the reality of the movie much.. the painstaking recreation of the set to make you believe you are really on the mile of the old prison. This is where Shawshank edged this movie. We could all relate to Andy Dufresqne, his struggles, because he was a realistic person, in a very real (but re-created) environment. We could hear and appreciate the playing of the opera over the loudspeaker because Darabont did a super job of putting us there. The scene in the end of Shawshank where Andy is reaching for the sky in the rain is beyond words. Compared to the climax of this film, The Green Mile is "Green" with envy.