The Green Mile (1999)-"R"

Run Time:188 minutes

4 stars out of 4

Frank Darabont's The Green Mile (1999) was one of last year's big Oscar contenders, with 4 nominations, including one for best picture, but no wins. An incredibly powerful film, I can truly say that I enjoyed every minute of the 188 in the total runtime, despite the long period of time. The movie is so riveting that the elapse of time was barely noticed by me, until I read my watch and saw how late it was. The story is narrated by an elderly nursing home patient, who is recalling the strange events that took place on Death Row during the Depression. The man, named Paul Edgecomb (played by Tom Hanks), was at the time a prison guard at Cold Mountain Penitentiary in Louisiana, in a cellblock that had an electric chair and relatively frequent executions. Edgecomb is an honest and decent guard, unlike his coworker Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison), who is a cruel and bullying little man, taking his anger out on the caged up prisoners, who, for the most part, seem pretty decent for Death Row convicts. Then, two new prisoners are admitted to Edgecomb's cellblock, around the same time. One man is John Coffey (Michael Clark Duncan), a massive man over 7 feet tall and incredibly strong (who's ironically afraid of the dark), and who is charged with the rape and murder of two twin girls. The other man is "Wild Bill" Wharton (Sam Rockwell), a savage and criminally insane bank robber who killed several innocent bystanders at his last robbery, one of which was a pregnant woman. Meanwhile, Edgecomb is suffering from a severe urinary tract infection, and is in intense pain whenever he has to urinate. One day Edgecomb is left alone in the cellblock and Coffey motions him over to his cell. He then grabs Edgecomb's crotch in what at first appears to be an attack. Coffey then lets go, starts coughing, and spews out thousands of little particles from his mouth, which I presumed to be Edgecomb's illness. Edgecomb is astonished and a friendship is suddenly struck up between the two, which later expands to the other two kindly prison guards, "Brutal" Howell (David Morse) and Dean Stanton (Barry Pepper), and another Death Row inmate, Del Delacroix (Michael Jeter), a Cajun who seems to have a good heart, despite his crimes. I don't want to go too in depth into the plot, or give away the end of the story, so I'll stop there. I will say, however, that the ending is well worth waiting 3+ hours for, so don't lose patience with this movie. Plot description aside, this film is a beautiful story that is powerful, emotional, and fascinating. The acting is wonderful all around, with great performances from Hanks, Sam Rockwell, Michael Clark Duncan, and Doug Hutchison. The story alone would make this movie worth seeing, but the talented cast, beautiful cinematography, and emotional score all come together to make The Green Mile a truly great example of modern American film, and a moving experience.