If you don't really know a man until you walk a mile in his shoes, try walking the Green Mile in those shoes.
In Stephen King's prison drama The Green Mile, the title refers to the final walk a Death Row prisoner takes to the execution chamber.
It is at the end of the hall that he is strapped into an electric chair to pay for his earthly crimes.
Filmmaker Frank Darabont has lovingly brought King's serialized novel to the screen.
At just under three hours, it's a bit too loving a treatment.
King's slight religious allegory does not merit the reverential, self-indulgent treatment Darabont lavishes on it.
More's the pity, because even with its debilitating length, it still manages to be a powerful and inspirational drama about tolerance and forgiveness.
The events in The Green Mile are seen as a flashback.
Paul Edgecomb (Dabbs Greer) is a resident at a retirement home. One night, he bursts into tears while watching an old Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical.
His sorrow is so great, he is finally willing to share an amazing secret with one of his fellow residents.
In 1935, Paul (now played by Tom Hanks) was the head guard on Death Row at a Louisiana prison.
Because he couldn't actually save those people in his charge, Paul made it his goal to bring dignity to their final weeks.
Into his hands is delivered a giant of a man named John Coffey, who is to be executed for the rape and murder of two small girls.
It's a heinous crime that sickens Paul, but he is determined to find some shred of forgiveness in his heart. That's not too hard.
Coffey turns out to be a gentle, loving soul with miraculous powers. He simply has to be an instrument of Heaven, not Hell.
The Green Mile might have generated more tension and suspense if Paul and his fellow guards tried to have Coffey's sentence commuted, if not reversed.
No such luck. Instead, they just watch as the weeks tick away and wash their hands of his innocent blood like the Pontius Pilates they are.
Hanks delivers a stalwart performance that is commendable for its restraint. Even when he faces evil incarnate in the form of a psychotic prisoner named Wild Bill (Sam Rockwell) and a demented guard named Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchinson), Hanks manages to hold Paul's disgust and anger in check. The other three guards and two prisoners are equally serene.
As the Depression-era martyr, Michael Clarke Duncan is positively beatific. He's like Lenny in Of Mice and Men -- a simple man who could not possibly be responsible for such a brutal crime, even if he somehow committed it.
Duncan radiates a kind of ethereal power. It's the kind of performance that could deservedly win him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.
At the other end of the scale, the same is true for Hutchinson, who is just as memorable for being entirely despicable.
The Green Mile is not a movie that takes a stance on capital punishment. Its concerns are far nobler.
It wants to retell the story of an innocent man who is condemned and executed for a trumped-up crime.
The man whose initials are JC has spent his life working miracles, yet even those who have witnessed his heavenly gift refuse to intercede on his behalf.
Still, he forgives his executioners even as they apply his crown of thorns, which is now a helmet of electricity.
Technically this is a most impressive film, but in the end, it is the sincerity of all the performances that brings a kind of credibility to the mystical heart of the film.
If Darabont didn't have Hanks and an impressive ensemble of supporting players in his court, it would have been almost impossible for the audience to suspend disbelief during the walk down the Green Mile.
(This film is rated AA)
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