An engaging evening with the mystic side of life.

Rating: 8/10 (13 December 1999)

This reaffirmation of the amount cruelty that only humans can wage on other humans is heart rending and thoughtful. The cast of characters playing prison guards brings to this tale of a mysterious man who is sentenced to death an all too human look at capital punishment, criminal justice and the wages of hate. Because they come to care about their prisoner's, they able to salvage their humanity even though they actually execute these men in the electric chair. The chair is located in a room at the end of a cell block called the Green Mile.
All is well on the Green Mile until the mysterious John Coffey arrives. Coffey is a man that is so big and powerful that the mere sight of him evokes fear. Yet as they get to know him, they all realize that he could not have committed the horrendous crime of which he is accused.
Coffey's miracles start small enough and them elevate to the level of divine intervention. Coffey changes all of their lives by being the kindest and in the end bravest man they had to deal with on the Green Mile. It is the why of this story not the how that makes this movie so compelling.

I only rated this movie an eight (8), because it was so long and it need not be. It took four of us twenty minutes in an ice cream shop after the movie to eliminate 30 minutes.