Written By: Caleb Tiedemann (’25)
“I’m tired, boss. Tired of bein’ on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. Tired of not ever having me a buddy to be with, or tell me where we’s coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I’m tired of people being ugly to each other. I’m tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There’s too much of it.” – John Coffey
The Green Mile is the tale of Paul Edgecombe’s experience as a prison guard on death row. When a gentle giant John Coffey is sentenced to death, Paul and the other guards are confronted with Coffey’s mysterious healing power and do everything to stave off his execution. The Green Mile is one of those movies that leaves the viewer with so much to think about. It touches on themes of friendship, innocence, sadism, love, and guilt. Each character is so marvelously crafted to represent one of those themes throughout the movie. John Coffey represents innocence, Paul Edgecombe represents guilt, Brutal Howell represents friendship, Percy Wetmore represents sadism, and Eduard “Del” Delacroix represents love. All of these characters and all of these representations are wonderfully done with each actor giving their utmost in terms of performance. From a technical aspect, The Green Mile is in capable hands. Frank Darabont handles the camera with perfection, highlighting such visceral and raw emotional scenes. He manages to break brilliant performances from every actor. Percy is one of the vilest characters to ever exist in cinematic history and disgusts me in a way that can only be answered by throwing punches. I have to hand it to Doug Hutchinson for his performance because he gives one of the most despicable portrayals of a character. On the opposite side of the spectrum is John Coffey: a gentle giant with a very special gift. These characters are the foundation of what can be considered such a morally complex movie. Death Row is a hot topic in certain circles from the legal perspective and this movie does much to highlight the sadness and brutality of an organized death. The climactic ending is potent and seers itself into your heart and mind hitting every perfect emotional beat. The final walk on the Mile proves to be emotionally detrimental and morally convoluted. One of the themes that stuck out to me was the similarities between Christ’s crucifixion and Coffey’s death. Both were innocently convicted and killed men with special gifts of healing. Just some interesting food for thought. I cry over a lot of movies and this one was no exception. I do truly love film in a way that I can hardly explain until a movie, such as this, comes along and shows everything good about the movie-making industry. ★
