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The Green Mile
A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.
1999 · Directed by Frank Darabont · 189 min · Fantasy · Drama · Crime · Screenplay in the scene database · 36 frames
Tagline
Paul Edgecomb didn't believe in miracles. Until the day he met one.
Plot
In 1935, corrections officer Paul Edgecomb oversees "The Green Mile", the death row section of Cold Mountain Penitentiary, alongside officers Brutus Howell, Dean Stanton, Harry Terwilliger, and the sadistic and despised Percy Wetmore, whose connections to the state governor shield him from repercussions. The guards supervise three prisoners: Eduard "Del" Delacroix, whom Percy frequently torments; the violent and erratic William "Wild Bill" Wharton; and John Coffey, a hulking yet gentle and simple-minded African-American man convicted of raping and murdering two white girls after being found distraught while cradling their bodies. John asserts that he tried to "take it back", but could not.
Paul grows doubtful that John committed the crimes and soon discovers he possesses miraculous healing abilities. John cures his crippling bladder infection by absorbing it into himself before expelling it as flies, explaining that he "took it back". After Percy crushes Del's pet mouse, Mr. Jingles, John urgently requests the body and resurrects it, further convincing the guards of his powers.
Fed up with Percy's behavior, the officers let him officiate an execution on the condition that he take a job at Briar Ridge Mental Hospital, afterward. At Del's execution, Percy deliberately neglects to wet the sponge meant to conduct electricity, sentencing Del to an agonizing death. John senses and is overwhelmed by Del's pain, inadvertently transferring some of his power to Mr. Jingles, who scurries away.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Frank Darabont
- Cinematography: David Tattersall
- Edited by: Richard Francis-Bruce
- Music: Thomas Newman
- Production design: Terence Marsh
- Produced by: Frank Darabont, David Valdes
Cast
- Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb
- David Morse as Brutus 'Brutal' Howell
- Bonnie Hunt as Jan Edgecomb
- Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey
- James Cromwell as Warden Hal Moores
- Michael Jeter as Eduard Delacroix
- Graham Greene as Arlen Bitterbuck
- Doug Hutchison as Percy Wetmore
- Sam Rockwell as 'Wild Bill' Wharton
- Barry Pepper as Dean Stanton
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: French, English
- Studios: Castle Rock Entertainment, Darkwoods Productions
- Budget: $60,000,000
- Box office: $286,801,374
- Themes: mentally disabled, death penalty, based on novel or book, southern usa, psychopath, death row, jail guard, supernatural, great depression, prison guard
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