Fell short if intended to be a Christ allegory

Rating: Null/10 (21 August 2000)

WARNING - THIS REVIEW CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS
Though this film had its poignant and powerful moments (as well as serving as an indictment of the death penalty), such moments failed to add up to a coherent whole for me, especially if Stephen King and Frank Darabont were intending to make a symbolic parallel (as it seemed they were) between John Coffey and the other "J.C." - Jesus Christ. Whatever their intentions, it was clear that the Coffey character was functioning more as a symbol of innocence in a fallen world than as a "normal" flesh- and-blood human being.
However, the film did not really succeed as a redemption story in that the sympathetic "good" characters surrounding Coffey remain sympathetic and good, while the unsympathetic "bad guys" (i.e. Percy and Wild Bill) remain unsympathetic, or at least "unredeemed", as far as what is shown to the viewer. I suppose one could see Delacroix as a redeemed man, although he's already redeemed when the viewer is introduced to him. Also, if Coffey is intended to be a Christ-figure, one of the most confusing plot developments (if I am interpreting it correctly) arises when Coffey employs one "bad guy" (Percy) as an instrument to kill another "bad guy" (Wild Bill) because Coffey had gotten a glimpse into the evil in Wild Bill's heart. Therefore, one cannot truly see Coffey's death (though presumably undeserved) as a loving substitutionary sacrifice by an innocent one for a guilty one, in that Coffey had already exacted his own judgment on Wild Bill - the "guilty one" in the film who "deserved" to die. Such a storyline is not consistent with the biblical story of Christ, in which the innocent Christ bore the judgment that all human beings equally deserve, as no human being can claim to be "less evil" or "better" than another human being, since all are equally in need of the divine grace and forgiveness offered in Christ.
As I said, this film has its moving moments, but if filmmakers are attempting to go for pretty obvious Christ-symbolism, they would do well to check their story for consistency with the original.