I hate this film.

Rating: 2/10 (1 February 2002)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I really don't understand how anyone with a critical sense can like such a film. I mean, I'm not a cynical person, but I truly can't stand 100%-righteous characters such as Coffey, Hedgecomb and all the other nice death row wardens. I'm not a 5-year-old kid and I can't watch The Green Mile without being sarcastic. How can any spectator accept the way this tall black guy is playing? And what did Frank Darabont expect spectators to react watching his so unfair and unhappy fate? Did he want us to burst into tears? Come on! The Shawshank Redemption was shot a few years ago by the same director. It was a prison movie like this one but it was a good one for it avoided too many melodramatic effects and because the characters played by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman were above all human characters. Those played by Tom Hanks and every other cast member aren't humans. They are nothing but all-American icons and I hate that. Besides the death penalty issue is the heart of the film. Does Darabont seriously tackle it? Never! In The Green Mile, being legally executed appears to be something which has to be taken for granted by every citizen, no matter if people die in some awful way (i.e. Eugène Delacroix, the guy with the lovely mouse), and no matter if an innocent guy sometimes gets toasted. At the end of the film, old Hedgecomb confesses that he couldn't stand executions anymore after Coffey died. So what did he decide to do? Did he organize public protests and demonstrations against this punishment? No! He just left the penitentiary and found another job. What a hero! What an activist! Sorry, everyone, but all this really sucks.