The Green Mile

The Green Mile is a 1999 American magical realism fantasy crime drama film directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tom Hanks, the late Michael Jeter, the late Michael Clarke Duncan, the late Harry Dean Stanton and Barry Pepper. The film is based on the 1996 book of the same name by Stephen King. This marks the first time in five years that Frank Darabont directed a film since The Shawshank Redemption in 1994. It's also the final film to star Dabbs Greer.

Plot
Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) walked the mile with a variety of cons. He had never encountered someone like John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), a massive black man convicted of brutally killing a pair of young sisters. Coffey had the size and strength to kill anyone, but not the demeanor. Beyond his simple, naive nature and a deathly fear of the dark, Coffey seemed to possess a prodigious, supernatural gift. Paul began to question whether Coffey was truly guilty of murdering the two girls.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The story is well written.
 * 2) Extraordinary performances by Tom Hanks among the rest of the cast.
 * 3) The premise of fantasy in prison is interesting.
 * 4) It was a good way for Tom Hanks to end his '90s career and enter into his 2000s career with films like Cast Away, Catch Me if You Can and The Polar Express.
 * 5) The dark tones are somewhat reminiscent to the tones of The Shawshank Redemption.
 * 6) The flashbacks from 1935 look fantastic.
 * 7) Death like John Coffey's last words are very moving and tragic (Similar to Brooke's story in "The Shawshank Redemption").
 * 8) Mr. Jingles is an adorable mouse and it was interesting that he got to live a long life unlike most mice.
 * 9) Amazing Cinematography, that is similar to Stephen King movies.
 * 10) Great soundtrack.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Due to its duration of almost three hours the movie becomes somewhat dull.
 * 2) In some dubbing of the film, the voices of Bonnie Hunt, Sam Rockwell, James Cromwell and Graham Greene are heard weak or forced.
 * 3) Despite being tragic, the scene in which Eduard "Del" Delacroix dies is somewhat grotesque.
 * 4) Percy is really much extremely unlikable character. Thankfully, he does get his comeuppance.

Reception
The Green Mile received positive reviews from critics as well as widely acclaimed by audiences, who praised its visual style and performances, although its length received criticism. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 6.83/10. The website's critics consensus states, "Though The Green Mile is long, critics say it's an absorbing, emotionally powerful experience.". At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert awarded The Green Mile a three and a half out of four stars and stated in his review "By taking the extra time, Darabont has made King's The Green Mile into a story which develops and unfolds, which has detail and space."

Box Office
The Green Mile opened at #2 on its opening weekend with a domestic gross of $18,017,152. The film's total domestic gross was $136,801,374. In foreign markets, it grossed $150,000,000. The overall box office gross was $286,801,374 against its $60 million budget.

Awards and nominations
The Green Mile was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture, but lost to American Beauty. However, it did win three awards for Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films including Best Supporting Actor for Michael Clarke Duncan. It also won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Tom Hanks as Favorite Actor.

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Trivia

 * Stephen King met with Frank Darabont at an Academy Award lunch ceremony in 1994 and Stephen told Frank that he had the hopes that Hanks would be in the lead role after he finished publishing The Green Mile.