MOVIES THAT MATTER
Because they don't make 'em like they used to...
Warner Home Video
Green Mile, The (Special Edition)
Director
Frank Darabont
Classification
18
Genres
Drama, Suspense, Suspense
DVD Relese Date
1999
Description
Miracles happen in unexpected places, even in the Death Row cell block at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. There John Coffey, a gentle giant of a prisoner with supernatural powers, brings a sense of spirit and humanity to his guards and fellow inmates. Tom Hanks leads a stellar ensemble (including Michael Clarke Duncan as Coffey) in this emotional, uplifting story of guards and captives husbands and wives prisoners and a remarkable mouse named Mr. Jingles and on another level, of a moviemaker and his source. That filmmaker is Frank Darabont, who returns after his 1994 directorial debut, The Shawshank Redemption, to adapt another tale by Stephen King into stirring, crowd-pleasing entertainment, nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Cast
Tom Hanks, James Cromwell, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Clarke Duncan, Michael Jeter, Graham Greene, Doug Hutchinson, Barry Pepper, Patricia Clarkson, Harry Dean Stanton, Gary Sinise, William Sadler & Sam Rockwell
Fun Film Info
The name for the character John Coffey was lifted from a college professor, Rev. John Coffee. Stephen King had met him once and really liked his name and used it in "The Green Mile". Reverend Coffee taught history classes at Emerson College in Boston Massachusetts. He retired in May 2005. The prison guards wear uniforms to give the movie a better feel, even though uniforms weren't in use at the time in which the movie is set. Originally, Tom Hanks was going to play the Old Paul Edgecomb but the makeup tests didn't make him look credible enough to be an elderly man. Dabbs Greer was cast instead as the older Paul Edgecomb.
Quotes
Paul Edgecomb: What do you want me to do John? I'll do it. You want me to let you walk out of here and see how far you get? John Coffey: Now why would you want to do a foolish thing like that? Paul Edgecomb: When I die and I stand before God awaiting judgment and he asks me why I let one of HIS miracles die, what am I gonna say, that it was my job? Old Paul Edgecomb: They usually call death row the Last Mile, but we called ours the Green Mile, because the floor was the color of faded limes. We had the electric chair then. Old Sparky, we called it. I've lived a lot of years, Ellie, but 1935 takes the prize. That was the year I had the worst urinary infection of my life. That was also the year of John Coffey and the two dead girls.