What is the movie The Green Mile about?

Question

This is specificly to "Life Is Too Short" but anyone is welcome to answer.

Answer 1

Death Row guards at a penitentiary, in the 1930's, have a moral dilemma with their job when they discover one of their prisoners, a convicted murderer, has a special gift.

Paul Edgecomb is a slightly cynical veteran prison guard on Death row in the 1930's. His faith, and sanity, deteriorated by watching men live and die, Edgecomb is about to have a complete turn around in attitude. Enter John Coffey, He's eight feet tall. He has hands the size of waffle irons. He's been accused of the murder of two children... and he's afraid to sleep in a cell without a night-light. And Edgecomb, as well as the other prison guards - Brutus, a sympathetic guard, and Percy, a stuck up, perverse, and violent person, are in for a strange experience that involves intelligent mice, brutal executions, and the revelation about Coffey's innocence and his true identity.

Answer 2

The Green Mile Filming Locations

Answer 3

If you haven't seen the movie, read the books. Stephen King wrote this novel in a 4 "pocketbook" set and I think he has since re-written to a single volume. either way it's only about 450 pages (tiny for King). It will make the movie so much better, King will put such vivid images in your mind and the movie is close to the book (rare isn't it?). Having read the book then seen the movie, I came away with a whole different appreciation for one of Maine's (and the world's) best authors.

Answer 4

This movie is about death row. Tom Hanks, who is narrating the movie I think to his wife, he tells her that death row in most prisons is called "the last mile" but at the prison he worked at it was called "the green mile." It is a long movie, but it's very touching and follows the story between the officers and some of the criminals. I just love this movie. Makes me cry everytime. You should watch it, I'm sure you'll like it.

Answer 5

and don't forget... it was written by Stephen King as a six part series book. Read the book because there is so much more involved then the movie shows.

Answer 6

I think about 2 1/2 hours!

Answer 7

This is open to discussion and there are basically several answers to the question

Answer 8

The Green Mile (film)
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The Green Mile

Promotional poster for The Green Mile
Directed by Frank Darabont
Produced by Frank Darabont
David Valdes
Written by Novel:
Stephen King
Screenplay:
Frank Darabont
Starring Tom Hanks
David Morse
Bonnie Hunt
Michael Clarke Duncan
Barry Pepper
James Cromwell
Doug Hutchison
Patricia Clarkson
Music by Thomas Newman
Cinematography David Tattersall
Editing by Richard Francis-Bruce
Distributed by Warner Bros. (USA theatrical/worldwide DVD)
UIP/Universal (non-USA theatrical)
Release date(s) December 10, 1999
Running time 188 minutes
Language English
French
Budget $60 million USD
IMDb profile
The Green Mile is an Academy Award-nominated 1999 drama film, directed by Frank Darabont and adapted by him from the Stephen King novel The Green Mile. The film stars Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb and Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey.

The movie is primarily about Edgecomb and his life as a prison guard on Death Row in the 1930s. The movie is told in flashback by the protagonist in a nursing home and follows a string of supernatural and metaphysical events upon the arrival of convicted murderer John Coffey.

For the 2000 Academy Awards, the movie was nominated for four awards (Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Writing: Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published) but won none of them.

Contents [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Featured cast
3 Trivia
4 Deviations from source material
5 Filming locations
6 Soundtrack listing
7 Awards and nominations
8 References
9 External links



[edit] Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The Green Mile is a story told in "flashback" by an elderly Paul Edgecomb in a nursing home. He tells a friend about the summer of 1935 when he was a prison guard in charge of Louisiana death row inmates. His domain was called "The Green Mile" because the condemned prisoners walking to their execution are said to be walking "the last mile" here, on a stretch of green linoleum. The main feature of the cellblock was "Old Sparky," the electric chair.

One day, a new inmate arrives. He is seven-foot tall (about 2.1 meters) John Coffey, a black man convicted of raping and killing two young white girls. Coffey immediately shows himself to be a "gentle giant", keeping to himself, afraid of the dark and being moved to tears on occasion. Soon enough, Coffey reveals his extraordinary healing powers by healing Edgecomb's urinary infection and bringing a mouse back from the dead. Later, he would heal the terminally ill wife of the warden. Although it is clear that Coffey has a degree of control over his power, when asked to explain it, he says only "I just took it back, is all."

At the same time, Percy Whitmore, a vicious, sadistic guard who takes pleasure in intimidating and injuring inmates, exasperates everyone else in the cellblock. However, he "knows people in high places" (he was the nephew of the governor's wife), preventing Edgecomb or anybody else from doing anything significant to curb his deviant behavior. What Whitmore wants is to be put "up front" (i.e., in charge) during an execution: then, he promises, he will transfer himself to another government job (as an officer in a mental institution) and Edgecomb will never hear from him again.

Afterward he hedges on his promise. Meanwhile, a violent prisoner named William Wharton arrives, due to be executed for a multiple murder he committed during a robbery. At one point he grabs Coffey's arm, and Coffey senses that Wharton is also the true killer of the two girls, the crime for which Coffey was falsely convicted and sent to death row. Coffey then uses his powers to impel Whitmore to empty his gun into Wharton, and then fall into a permanent catatonic state. Stunned by these events, Edgecomb queries Coffey, who says he "punished" those men, then takes Edgecomb's hand and imparts the vision that he saw when Wharton touched him, of what really happened to the girls; a vision which Edgecomb finds nearly unbearable to endure. Wharton is dead at Whitmore's hand, and Whitmore ends up as an inmate at the very asylum he was to have managed.


John Coffey being escorted to his execution by Edgecombe (Hanks)and Brutus Howell (Morse). Due to the emotional performance he showed in the film, Michael Clarke Duncan was nominated to the Academy Award's Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting RoleNotwithstanding Coffey's incredible abilities and the wrongness of his conviction, he ends up being executed, due in large part to geographically-based racial overtones (the movie was set in the American South, during a period of racial segregation). The story proper ends there, and Edgecomb says that he subsequently transferred from death row to a juvenile facility, where he spent the remainder of his career.

The story then returns to the present, where Edgecomb explains to his friend why he is able to remember the events of 1935: he is in fact 108 years old and still in excellent health. This is a seeming side-effect of Coffey's life-giving power. Mr. Jingles, the mouse resurrected by Coffey, is also still alive — but Paul sees it as his just dessert for not stopping Coffey's execution that has outlived all his relatives and friends. As he puts it, he has had to walk his own Green Mile..."but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long."


[edit] Featured cast
Actor Role
Eve Brent Elaine Connelly
Brent Briscoe Bill Dodge
Patricia Clarkson Melinda Moores
James Cromwell Warden Hal Moores
Jeffrey DeMunn Harry Terwilliger
Michael Clarke Duncan John Coffey
Graham Greene Arlen Bitterbuck
Dabbs Greer Old Paul Edgecomb
Tom Hanks Paul Edgecomb
Bonnie Hunt Jan Edgecomb
Doug Hutchison Percy Wetmore
Michael Jeter Eduard Delacroix
David Morse Brutus "Brutal" Howell
Barry Pepper Dean Stanton
Sam Rockwell 'Wild Bill' Wharton
William Sadler Klaus Detterick
Gary Sinise Burt Hammersmith
Harry Dean Stanton Toot-Toot
Bill McKinney Jack Van Hay


[edit] Trivia
This article's trivia section has too much trivia. To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, the article requires cleanup.
Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.
The prison guards wear uniforms to aid the film's visual style, even though they were not in use at the time in which the movie is set.
The music played over the loudspeakers in the retirement home as Old Paul Edgecomb first walks out of his room is the same as that which the nurses played at medication time in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).
While many of Stephen King's novels are set in the author's native Maine, The Green Mile takes place in Louisiana. However, the surname of the main character — Edgecomb — is the name of a town on Maine's mid-coast.
The electric chair featured in the film was built from the original designs of an example named "Old Sparky", which is part of the museum/tour of the Moundsville State Penitentiary in West Virginia. The prison was one of the finalists for the final shooting location. "Old Sparky" has been a common nickname for the electric chair in a number of states that used it.
A teaser trailer, gradually revealing Mr. Jingles to be making his way about the electric chair, was shot but not used. With no other creature present to give a sense of scale, it was decided that the close-ups of the mouse made it resemble a rat.[1]
Tom Hanks also starred with Gary Sinise in Forrest Gump and Apollo 13. In The Green Mile, Sinise has a cameo as the prosecutor whose case put John Coffey on death row.
Tom Hanks and Barry Pepper also co-star in Saving Private Ryan
Ten years before the release of the book, an episode of the sci-fi/fantasy show Amazing Stories featured a nearly identical plot. In the episode, entitled 'Life on Death Row', an inmate (Patrick Swayze) discovers he can heal even death at a touch. As authorities rush to halt his execution and the world debates the morality of the decision, the twist ending reveals that every inmate and guard healed by the power now also possess the power as well.
Commentators pointed out some comparisons between John Coffey and Jesus Christ, i.e. that their initials were both "J.C.", that they both possessed healing powers, and that they were put to death by the state.

[edit] Deviations from source material

The book coverThe Green Mile is, for the most part, faithful to Stephen King's original novel. There are, however, a few slight alterations.

The novel is a written story, delivered by the elderly Edgecomb to his fellow nursing home patient, Elaine. Each of the six volumes includes both an entry in the Green Mile story, as well as brief bookend scenes taking place in a modern day nursing home. These scenes included not only Paul's relationship with Elaine, but also his interaction with a sadistic employee, Brad Dolan, who reminds him of Percy Wetmore, his Green Mile co-worker. It is these interactions that cause him to remember 1933, his last year on the Mile. In the film, Brad Dolan is left out completely, and the bookend sequences only take place at the very beginning and end of the movie. Instead of Dolan, it is watching the 1935 film Top Hat that provokes the flashback, and this film is added to the main storyline as well, in which John Coffey's last request is to be able to see a "flicker show" (motion picture) before he is executed.
In the book, Hal Moores has an assistant named Curtis Anderson. He does not appear in the film, and his lines and scenes are given to Moores instead. Other inmates of the Green Mile who did not have speaking roles, and are inconsequential to the plot, are also omitted.
The first and second volumes of the book are told out of chronological order. The first book begins with the arrival of John Coffey, and provides details of the murder for which he is convicted. At this point in time, inmate Eduard Delacroix already has his pet mouse, Mr. Jingles, and another inmate, Arlen Bitterbuck, has already been executed. The second book goes back in time, to before Coffey is brought in, to explain where Mr. Jingles came from, and who Bitterbuck was. The film re-arranges these events so that Coffey's arrival is the first event to take place, and all others follow it.
In the book, strong evidence — ignored by the authorities — is presented to the reader of Coffey's innocence in Edgecomb's eyes: for example, the tracking dogs' confusion at the site of the girls' murder resulting from the murderer and the girls' bodies leaving in different directions. In the movie, however, John Coffey grabs Paul Edgecomb's hand and along with transferring 'life' to him, he also shows Edgecomb who really killed the two girls.

[edit] Filming locations
The following is a list of filming locations for The Green Mile:

Blowing Rock, North Carolina, USA
Columbia, Tennessee, USA
Lewisburg, Tennessee, USA
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Nolensville, Tennessee, USA
Shelbyville, Tennessee, USA

[edit] Soundtrack listing
The Green Mile (Original Soundtrack)

Soundtrack by Various Artists
Released December 14, 1999
Genre Soundtrack
Length 74:15
Label Warner Bros.
Professional reviews
All Music Guide (3/5) link

The Green Mile soundtrack contains mostly instrumental pieces scored by Thomas Newman. Below is a listing of the songs (and their track numbers on the CD) that weren't composed by Newman.
8. "Cheek to Cheek" performed by Fred Astaire – 2:38
19. "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" performed by Billie Holiday – 3:27
27. "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" performed by Gene Austin – 2:52
34. "Charmaine" performed by Guy Lombardo & His Royal Canadians – 2:25


[edit] Awards and nominations
1999 Academy Awards (Oscars)

Nominated - Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role — Michael Clarke Duncan
Nominated - Best Picture — David Valdes, Frank Darabont
Nominated - Best Sound Mixing — Robert J. Litt, Elliot Tyson, Michael Herbick, Willie D. Burton
Nominated - Best Adapted Screenplay — Frank Darabont
2000 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)

Won - Best Supporting Actor (Film) — Michael Clarke Duncan
Won - Best Supporting Actress (Film) — Patricia Clarkson
Won - Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
Nominated - Best Director — Frank Darabont
Nominated - Best Music — Thomas Newman
2000 BMI Film & TV Awards

Won - BMI Film Music Award — Thomas Newman
2000 Black Reel Awards

Won - Theatrical - Best Supporting Actor — Michael Clarke Duncan
2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards

Won - Favorite Actor - Drama — Tom Hanks
Nominated - Favorite Supporting Actor - Drama — Michael Clarke Duncan
Nominated - Favorite Supporting Actress - Drama — Bonnie Hunt
2000 Bram Stoker Awards

Nominated - Best Screenplay — Frank Darabont
2000 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

Won - Best Screenplay, Adaptation — Frank Darabont
Won - Best Supporting Actor — Michael Clarke Duncan
Nominated - Best Picture
2000 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

Nominated - Best Supporting Actor — Michael Clarke Duncan
Nominated - Most Promising Actor — Michael Clarke Duncan
2000 Directors Guild of America

Nominated - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures — Frank Darabont
2000 Golden Globe Awards

Nominated - Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture — Michael Clarke Duncan
2000 Image Awards

Nominated - Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture — Michael Clarke Duncan
2000 MTV Movie Awards

Nominated - Best Breakthrough Male Performance — Michael Clarke Duncan
2000 Motion Picture Sound Editors (Golden Reel Award)

Nominated - Best Sound Editing - Dialogue and ADR — Mark A. Mangini, Julia Evershade
Nominated - Best Sound Editing - Effects and Foley — Mark A. Mangini, Aaron Glascock, Howell Gibbens, David E. Stone, Solange S. Schwalbe
2000 People's Choice Awards

Won - Favorite All-Around Motion Picture
Won - Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture
2001 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (Nebula Award)

Nominated - Best Script — Frank Darabont
2000 Screen Actors Guild Awards

Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Cast
Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role — Michael Clarke Duncan

[edit] References