Emotional pornography

Rating: 4/10 (29 August 2001)

I use that expression cautiously and deliberately. This film hides its massive illogic and implausibility behind emotional manipulativeness and cheap tear-jerker tricks. Fans of the film who may be reading this will naturally object as though I am invalidating their tears. But please consider that your tears were coaxed out by a crude setup. Some complaints: 1. Where on earth would one find such compassionate prison guards? To quote Mahathir Muhammad, "Either one gets callouses on one's heart or you bleed to death." 2. In the South of 1935, not even the white liberals would treat a black man with such dignity, let alone prison guards. 3. How would a patrician white woman thank an illiterate and dirty black man for saving her life? With a hug? 4. Once John Coffey sees Wild Bill, why would his only words be,"He's a bad man!"? Why did he say nothing? 5. After visiting Coffey's lawyer, why did Paul say nothing to any legal authority? 6. The execution of Delacroix was annoyingly unrealistic. A botched execution (and there have been many) would never be anywhere nearly as gruesome. 7. Finally, and this is the point at which I hated the movie, there were MANY opportunities for the guards to get Coffey's case re-opened, even if he didn't cooperate. But that would have turned it into a courtroom drama, not a religious-like story of redemption, suffering and eternal punishment.