The Green Mile
This is part of an old movie review I did on The Green Mile directed by Frank Darabont. Enjoy.
The visual imagery and powerful filmic aesthetics experienced when watching The Green Mile, amplify the arresting quality which Stephen King’s literary descriptions provided the reader. Therefore, unlike many adaptations, the film does not ruin or distort the novel’s value, and rather than forcing a sharp competition, the two complement each other.
Frank Darabont may as well receive the full credit for this occurrence, but as most critics have commented, The Green Mile is the second King prison adaptation he directed; the first being The Shawshank Redemption, a film which could have been more adequately titles as, “The Shawshank Revenge”; but this is simply speculative. These films are almost antithetical. The latter tells a story about escape and outsmarting the system, while the former film pictures the system’s triumph and the individual’s accepting a “spiritual” rather than physical redemption and escape.
This delineates another Green Mile theme which Christianity, although not all forms or sects, can be reconciled with. For example, Jesus Christ, the rock upon which the faith is based, provides a salvation which is spiritual, emotional, and mental primarily and physically, socially, and politically secondarily. In other words, Christians have not been saved from all physical earthly pains and constrains immediately, but most would argue it is a life long process ending in a final judgment and new bodily resurrection. John Coffey’s life seems to exemplify this concept. Because sin exists in the world, namely rape, murder, and racism, he is forced to suffer many pains, receiving frightening visions, unjust imprisonment, inability to prove his innocence, and ultimately a painful, dishonorable death. Despite his “good deeds”, namely miraculous healings and showing mercy, he cannot escape the immediate physical pain, nor the emotional and mental, but he understands that ironically, the execution is a gift. He will finally be free; no longer will he be encumbered by his prophetic visions which reveal the evil surrounding him.
Interestingly, Boxoffice Magazine’s Kim Williamson surmised, “after seeing [Frank] Durabont’s The Green Mile, a movie goer might want instead to go to church."
The visual imagery and powerful filmic aesthetics experienced when watching The Green Mile, amplify the arresting quality which Stephen King’s literary descriptions provided the reader. Therefore, unlike many adaptations, the film does not ruin or distort the novel’s value, and rather than forcing a sharp competition, the two complement each other.
Frank Darabont may as well receive the full credit for this occurrence, but as most critics have commented, The Green Mile is the second King prison adaptation he directed; the first being The Shawshank Redemption, a film which could have been more adequately titles as, “The Shawshank Revenge”; but this is simply speculative. These films are almost antithetical. The latter tells a story about escape and outsmarting the system, while the former film pictures the system’s triumph and the individual’s accepting a “spiritual” rather than physical redemption and escape.
This delineates another Green Mile theme which Christianity, although not all forms or sects, can be reconciled with. For example, Jesus Christ, the rock upon which the faith is based, provides a salvation which is spiritual, emotional, and mental primarily and physically, socially, and politically secondarily. In other words, Christians have not been saved from all physical earthly pains and constrains immediately, but most would argue it is a life long process ending in a final judgment and new bodily resurrection. John Coffey’s life seems to exemplify this concept. Because sin exists in the world, namely rape, murder, and racism, he is forced to suffer many pains, receiving frightening visions, unjust imprisonment, inability to prove his innocence, and ultimately a painful, dishonorable death. Despite his “good deeds”, namely miraculous healings and showing mercy, he cannot escape the immediate physical pain, nor the emotional and mental, but he understands that ironically, the execution is a gift. He will finally be free; no longer will he be encumbered by his prophetic visions which reveal the evil surrounding him.
Interestingly, Boxoffice Magazine’s Kim Williamson surmised, “after seeing [Frank] Durabont’s The Green Mile, a movie goer might want instead to go to church."
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