09/15/10 - The Green Mile

The Green Mile (1999, 189 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120689/

The Green Mile was one of the IMDb Top 250 that I'd wanted to see for a long time. The only thing holding me back was that 189 minute length. Usually I don't feel like three hour movies and today wasn't really an exception but I forced myself to do the watch while hoping for the best.

The film is based off the Stephen King series of novels of the same name. The main character here is Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) who works on death row in a Louisiana prison. Serving there with him are: Brutus "Brutal" Howell (David Morse), Dean Stanton (Barry Pepper), and Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison). The convicts are headlined by John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) but also features: Eduard Delacroix (Michael Jeter), "Wild Bill" Wharton (Sam Rockwell), and Arlen Bitterbuck (Graham Greene).

The Green Mile presents me with a dichotomy I have not yet met. First, the length of the film is 189 minutes and yet I didn't feel like anything really happened. This is longer than The Deer Hunter, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, or the much more recent Watchmen. In each of those movies I can say without hesitation that a lot of stuff happens. But The Green Mile? I can't say that much does. And yet, here's where the dichotomy arises: I never found myself bored. I don't understand this. I basically sat through 189 minutes of a movie and cannot claim that much really happened but I never felt burdened by this length. This makes no sense to me. Even in Watchmen which has tons of action moments, I found noticeable lulls that made me bored a few times. The Deer Hunter is filled with boring moments as it establishes character development with slow and building tension. I don't think I have a firm answer for what exactly happened here.

I think one thing I didn't like about The Green Mile is that it seemed like it was in small segments. Now, one reason for this might be because the novels were relatively short and came out in serial form over a couple months. I mean a few times it seemed like a picaresque with the movie spending a lot of time focusing on a particular thing. I guess what I'm saying is that in other movies there are overarching storylines that go through the whole film. In The Green Mile I think the only things going through the whole movie were John Coffey and his magical abilities and the "enemy" of Percy (more on this later). For example, we have a "segment" that focuses on the warden's wife. I'll admit that there's a few times before this segment starts where the warden mentions his wife so it's not like this character comes out of the blue, but the problem worsens really quickly and then the group working at the prison addresses it, and then we move on with other stuff. I mean, I feel like nothing could have been done here and there would be little consequences. Sure, it builds character and all that and serves that purpose but for plot purposes it doesn't do much. Other scenes like this are perhaps why I feel not much happened in the whole movie but I'm not entirely sure.

One major plus in The Green Mile is the acting and writing. While I've criticized above how I felt some things were handled, the characters themselves are amazing. Each has enough of a back-story so that they're fleshed out and real. To add to that, the acting talents of Hanks, Morse, Pepper, and Wetmore work great off of each other. It's like the band in Almost Famous: everyone works so well together and it's all because of the little aspects of acting such as shrugs or eye movements or simply the way one stands. These people seem real which is great. A similar statement holds for the convicts. Acting here is top-notch with Jeter probably being the best. He transforms his murderer into an extremely likable guy that we hate to see die - especially the way he dies. Coffey fits what I read described as the "magic Negro" character and I agree with that. It's a stereotype that I feel is hit-or-miss but it works here. Duncan has a break out role as Coffey and does a fine job. He doesn't have to do much acting but he does well with what he has to do. One complaint I have here is that these murderers are made perhaps too likable (with the obvious exception of Wild Bill). I think this is a common complaint of mine about prison movies with convicts. The theme of "yes, they're murderers but they are also human beings" sometimes is made too obvious. Maybe it's that with death row inmates, one can comment on certain aspects of the human psychology more than with other types of characters but I don't know.

Next, a major complaint I have with the film is the how the supernatural is shown. First off, it should be noted that I haven't read The Green Mile series of books. Anyway, my complaint here is in how the disease stuff that Coffey takes in his body is shown as it exits. It basically comes off looking like a bunch of bugs or something. While the CGI here is pretty sorry in 2010 I forgive this (I've mentioned that I think 1999-ish CGI has aged terribly) but I don't forgive how melodramatic the movie makes these scenes. There's practically a Christ-like shot with Coffey having his arms open wide as the "insects" leave his mouth. It's just too much. I can understand the same thing if this over-the-top shot and treatment is left out. In my opinion, handling these healing moments like this clashes with how the rest of the movie is handled. I realize that these are magical moments or whatever and are necessarily supposed to be different but I think the change is too harsh.

Overall, I gave this film a 7/10. While most of my comments were criticism and negatives, there's two gigantic positives. First is that the characters are real and the acting is top-notch. The second is that pacing issue. I was kept entertained thoroughly for 189 minutes without ever feeling bored and anxious for stuff to pick up and move along. These two things go a long way in making a good movie and bump up the movie to the given score.