Good verses Evil Review of The Green Mile

Rating: 10/10 (22 September 2016)

The Green Mile is a prison drama based on the novel The Green Mile by Stephen King. The major characters in the film are: Paul Edgecombe played by Tom Hanks he is the main officer in charge of the inmates that are on death row. Paul is a compassionate officer and tries to keep things calm for the inmates and tries to keep things very orderly. Jan Edgecombe played by Bonnie Hunt is Paul's wife. Jan bakes cornbread for her husband and the inmates. Hal Moores played by James Cromwell is the warden of the Louisiana penitentiary. Hal has an ailing wife at home who suffers from a brain tumor. John Coffey played by Michael Clark Duncan a large black man sentenced to die for raping and killing two small girls, he possess a unique ability to "feel" good and evil in the world and has the ability to do miraculous healings. He is a simple person, quiet and even afraid of the dark. Percy Wetmore played by Doug Hutchison is the governor's nephew, he agitates inmates rather than dealing with them with any type of compassion he does several things throughout the film that are just to upset the inmates, one example is stomping on Mr. Jingles. All of the guards dislike Percy. William "Wild Bill" Wharton played by Sam Rockwell is a rowdy and rude as well as aggressive inmate with almost a crazy personality, Edward "Del" Delacroix played by Michael Jetter is an inmate with a gentler demeanor about him who takes care of and plays with a pet mouse, he knows his execution is drawing near and worries what will happen to Mr. Jingles after he is gone. Mr. Jingles played by a mouse who initially is the pet to Del and is given to John after Del's execution, the mouse is in the movie throughout and with Paul when the flashback returns to Paul telling his wife Jan about the John. Although there are really several themes in this movie from miracles to life and death. The major theme of the movie is good and evil. Throughout the movie it is very easy to see that the characters are defined as being good or evil. This movie utilizes flashback to portray a story of death row inmates specifically the story of John Coffey and his unique ability to heal and take the "bad" away from people. Paul is telling his wife Jan, the story of John Coffey, an inmate sentenced to death on the Mile. (He is very large in stature a very big man about 7 feet tall and approximately 300 lbs. The camera angels in the movie are pointed up making him look quite large when they are pointed at him and then turned down when they are looking at the other inmates and officers to portray how huge this man is.) Paul who is the head officer on the mile is a gentle and compassionate person. He tries to treat the inmates with dignity helps to keep things calm. Paul struggles with the morality of having to put John to death as an inmate on death row, knowing that he possesses the ability to heal people. John was convicted of raping and killing two little girls at a home he worked at. He comes to the mile as a simple person, one that is not very educated and gentle, even afraid of the dark. John has a unique gift of being able to heal and see the "bad" in the world. Dialog is very important in the film because it makes it easy to understand just who John is. He doesn't use big words and he's soft spoken. Upon coming to the mile he even asks Paul if the lights would be left on because he is afraid of the dark. Paul comes in with a really bad urinary tract infection and John heals it. When he "takes away" the infection he blows out a matter out of his mouth and coughs quite a bit. Disbelieving what has just happened, Paul knows it is a miracle and that there is more to John than meets the eye. He continually throughout the movie shows his miracles. At one point Percy steps on Mr. Jingles, Del's mouse and leaves it for dead, John asks for the mouse and revives it in front of Paul. Mr. Jingles heads back to the cell with Del. After Percy botches Del's execution by not wetting the sponge on his head before he is electrocuted prolonging his death and causing him to catch fire, Paul and the others lock him in solitary confinement. During which time Hal's wife has taken a turn for the worse in regards to her brain tumor. Paul and Brutus sneak John out of his cell and take him to Hal's house where John heals her. When Paul asks John about it, John took Paul's hand and showed him a little bit of what he could see, he also gave him a glimpse of what really happened the day he was accused of raping and killing the two little girls. When the time comes before John is to be executed Paul asks him what he should do. He is trying to figure out within himself how he can commit a man with a gift of miracles to die and how he will answer when God asks him why. John tells him he has to do it, and that he is tired. "Tired of all the ugly" All of the characters are clearly defined in the personalities of who is good and who is evil throughout the film. Although this is a long movie, it is an excellent movie to watch. The dialog and camera angles add a great deal to enhancing the roles of the characters. This movie can be compared to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, although Harry and Ron are fighting good and evil straight forward, Paul fights with it internally.