Green Mile

The film ‘Green Mile’ was taken from a novel written by Stephen King. ‘Green Mile’ was directed by Frank Darabond in 1999. The film was set in 1935 in Alabama – Louisiana in state Penitentiary but the film also starts and ends in the present day this is called a bookend technique. The themes of the film are race, religion and the death penalty. The green mile is the route to the electric chair, which you walk down after being on death row. They call it the green mile as linium green lights light up the floor leading up to the chair, old sparkie, also it is allegedly a mile to the chair.

At the start of the film we see men running threw cotton fields with guns in slow motion. The sounds are distorted and the music is dramatic and tense. We do not know why the men are running as Paul, the main character played by Tom Hanks, awakes. The screen fades to black and you hear whispering voice. The black screen fades to show a pair of big ocean blue eyes and the radio starts to play. The eyes are of Pauls and at this stage we realise he was dreaming. For the practice execution toots fills in for the person being executed, they do this because the guards no that he doesn’t cause any trouble.

During the practice execution toots makes an obscene joke and uses foul language, the prison guards found this funny but Paul does not find this amusing. Percy watches the practice to learn for when he performs the execution. He sits in a darkened booth, the light shines on his face giving him an evil look. He is very interested to know why they wet the sponge before placing it upon his head, this is important later in the film. At the end of the practice execution jingly music starts playing, the mouse is back! Mr Jingles supervises what they are doing.

This shows comedy within the film. During the extract where john coffee heals Malinda we see the special powers of john coffee. The guards decide to take john to help the prison governess wife Malinda who has cancer. First they put a sleeping pill in a drink and lets wild bill drink it. They then put Percy into a straight jacket and put a sock in his mouth and put him in the dark room. They then sneak john out, he is amazed by the stars he sees above. He arrives at the house and whilst he is taking away the bad stuff we see the house shaking and the light flickering.

She gives him a necklace which represents save travel. John returns to his cell and it looks like he is chocking on the bad stuff. There is a camera shot on Percy in the padded cell and when the bright light appears Percy looks up blinded by the light he looks at john coffee, his eyes full of fear. The screen shots show shows john coffee putting the ‘bad stuff’ out of him into Percy, this shows him in a trance, the camera closes into his face. You then hear a sound effect of gun shots, as Percy kills wild Bill.

John coffee shoes Paul who really killed the two girls that he is on death row for. The flashback is very important as it shows you who actually kills the girls and proves the innocence of john coffee as the actual killer is wild Bill. The technique is clever and proves john coffees powers are in deed special, the problem is that this evidence can never be used to prove johns innocence therefore he must remain o death row. You then see Percy being taken to the mental hospital, which he was going to work at but now is a patient there.

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