Just what you'd expect from Stephen King- tremendous! (Warning- spoilers- do not on any account read this if you haven't seen the film).

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 2003)

I want everyone else who hasn't seen The Green Mile to get as much pleasure out of it as I did so if you haven't seen it I'd rather you didn't read my review. Anyway, when it comes to suspense Stephen King always delivers the goods and this film is no exception. Like The Godfather movies it is a very short three hour movie. It never drags and you never lose interest. It is a Christian allegory. John Coffey is a Christ figure and his initials indicate this. His attorney doesn't know where he came from and says it seems he came down from the sky. He has the power to perform miraculous acts of healing. A further likeness to Jesus is that it is a man called Paul who tells of him. Coffey is an intimidatingly big man but he has a child-like fear of the dark. He also has a child-like pleasure in the simple things in life like when he points out the constellation of Cassiopeia and says "there's Cassie, the old lady in the rocking chair". It is touching the scene where he says he had a dream about having the two wee lassies he was wrongly convicted of murdering sitting on his knees and they're all laughing with pleasure at the mouse, Mr Jingles, and his incredible antics. When Wild Bill grabs his arm the truth about these two murders is transmitted to him although Wild Bill doesn't realise it. He in turn transmits it to Paul but it is not admissible evidence in court. John Coffey will still be executed for a crime he didn't commit. Paul offers to carelessly leave a few doors unlocked so as he can make good his escape but John Coffey, much like Jesus, agrees to go to his execution. The two villains of the piece are Wild Bill and Percy Wetmore. Wild Bill is a psychopathically evil man. Percy is childish rather than child-like. He acts like a spoiled child and enjoys bullying people who are weaker or more disadvantaged than himself. But, like a lot of people who are so inclined, he is basically a coward. He wets himself when Wild Bill, with his penchant for putting his hands through the bars of his cell and grabbing people who are within easy reach, grabs him and he wets himself with fear (maybe his surname is a reference to this). He is prepared to go to any length to kill Mr Jingles for the sheer pleasure of it. He is looking forward to his transfer to the state mental hospital and it is divine retribution by John Coffey that results in him ending up there, not as a warder but as an inmate after being an instrument in Wild Bill's come-uppance. Another instance of his sadistic nature is how he sabotages Del's execution so as it is prolonged, agonising and horrifying. One of Del's victim's relatives gleefully says, as he's being strapped into the electric chair, "Satan's imps are a-awaitin' and the fires of hell are well-stoked". But she, like everyone else, is horrified when she sees what happens, in fact the people watching Del's sabotaged execution are so shocked and horrified by what they see a riot breaks out and they try to force their way out the locked doors. After Del's agonising death, Percy says "I didn't know the sponge was supposed to be wet" and another warder punches him in anger at the way Percy is insulting the intelligence of him and the other warders. Apart from Percy, the warders are surprisingly compassionate men given the job they have to do. Maybe they believe that even convicted murderers are due an easy time during their last remaining months on this Earth. Anyway, excellent.