Reviews of The Green Mile

The Green Mile review

Posted : 3 weeks, 1 day ago on 8 December 2009 07:35 (A review of The Green Mile)

The Green Mile is one of the single most tear-jerking films of all time if not the most. It has a very dark and depressing story which is what I like most. It is a story about God and shows that miracles can and have happened in the past. This is a biblical story about friendship, crime (what man is capable of), love and commitment. Also about what death could be like and what its like to lose your loved ones while you're left behind. A real bastard who I used to know (not anyone on Flixster) recommended it to be and I loved The Green Mile to bits. It was my number two film before I saw Sweeney Todd, Forrest Gump and The Dark Knight. I really love prison films and this has to be my favourite. This film is a very long one but as I watch it more, I tend to find it a bit shorter probably because it is one of my favourite films. I was taken, twisted than blown away again just by watching The Green Mile.


Tom Hanks was amazing in this film as Paul Edgecomb. Paul is the boss of E-Block on the green mile who is suffering from a bladder infection but when he meets John Coffey that changes. Tom has always had a talent of choosing different types of characters and making them powerful and real. Michael Clarke Duncan's performance as John Coffey was one you could just burst into tears by. He is the absolutely perfect actor for John Coffey. There was a lot of tears and pain coming out of John. Despite of what he did, he has some mental problems and is a kind and friendly man. Michael was the best of them all. I really liked David Morse, Jeffrey DeMunn and Barry Pepper as Brutus 'Brutal' Howell, Harry Terwilliger and Dean Stanton. Doug Hutchinson is fantastic as Percy Wetmore. Percy is vile, pathetic a bully and arrogant. He acts like he is the tough guy because his uncle is the governor and he also was probably just raised that way. Percy is one of those character that you would really like to give a good smack around the face. Percy is a perfect example of a bully particularly because he bullies the inmates like Dell and bullies are cowards which Percy is. The reason for this is because when Wild Bill touched him below and kissed his cheek he started whimpering, crying and pissed himself. Sam Rockwell really made me laugh as William 'Wild Bill' Wharton because he was nuts, bad ass and very nasty. Also it is what comes out of his mouth and the way he says the things he says which makes him a pretty funny character. Bonnie Hunt was amazing as Jan Edgecomb because she was very supportive, sensitive and understanding with Paul. Her, Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan are the best in this film.


Frank Darabont creates another masterpiece just like The Shawshank Redemption but is better. Darabont does best prison films. Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile are both Stephen King novels which is another reason why I love The Green Mile so much. The script was very good with a lot of powerful and deeply effective scenes to the characters.


The Green Mile is the most tear-jerking film of all time tied with The Elephant Man. One of Tom Hanks' best films. His best is Forrest Gump. David Morse's best film too after appearing in Contact and Disturbia. This is Sam Rockwell's best performance too. He has been in a lot of recent films and also films from such great directors with great actors. It is a very personal masterpiece that you could just watch again and again and again because of how amazing it is.

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a must see!

Posted : 1 year, 8 months ago on 27 April 2008 01:13 (A review of The Green Mile)

A stellar ensemble, of which Tom Hanks in what is his best performance ever (in my humble opinion), come together in this emotional story of guards and captives, husbands and wives.

If you haven't seen this one, you should go rent (or buy) it now!

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The Green Mile review

Posted : 1 year, 8 months ago on 25 April 2008 06:32 (A review of The Green Mile)

I'd always appreciated Tom Hanks as an actor, but this was the first film that I remember seeing that made me appreciate what a phenomenal talent he really is. It's a slow-burning story regarding the relationship between a group of prison guards and the inmates contained on death-row.

Based on a book of the same name by Stephen King, the film focuses on the arrival of a convicted 8ft tall African-American inmate at 'The Mile' who has been sentenced to death. Rather than fulfilling a ferocious stereotype, he instantly displays himself a gentle giant who is over-emotional and even afraid of the dark.

Hank's warden character builds an emotional rapport with the inmate, but is soon amazed by the otherworldly healing powers that he possesses. Coffee, played by Michael Clarke Duncan, seemingly has the ability to absorb ailments and illnesses out of a person, leaving them completely cured and during the film manages to bring a mouse back to life and cure Hanks of his Urinary Tract Infection. At one point, they smuggle the prisoner out of the jail at the expense of a sadistic new warden and take him to the terminally ill wife of their boss. Again he demonstrates his healing powers and cures her, before being transported back to jail to await execution. The final scenes in the prison are extremely emotional and Hanks conveys the kind of emotional range that highlights his superb abilities as an actor.

The story is told retroactively in the form of a flashback from Hank's character who, decades into the future, is still alive and well - an occurrence he attributes to the extraordinary healing powers of John Coffee that he encountered all those years ago. The film concludes with him proving the details of his story by producing the mouse that Coffee also bought back to life, before dwelling on the fact that although he has lived a healthy and long life, he has had to watch everyone around him die - something he describes as a 'punishment from God for killing one of his angels'. The ultimate conclusion reinforces this observation, when the woman he was telling the story to also passes. Totally tragic stuff, a real tear-jerker!

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