The Green Mile (1999)

User Review

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  Barneyonmovies

  8 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: 'The Green Mile,' is a classic example of fantasy storytelling being used to work through real-life thematic questions. A mysterious prisoner John comes to death row possessing a power to heal and harm, and with both he and the prison guards playing god from very different positions, quandaries around retribution and redemption and the inevitability of death begin to emerge. There's a lot of very big territory to cover largely from within the confines of one prison block, but writer/director Frank Darabont does a pretty brilliant job because he crucially focuses on building well-executed segments which deal with a web of different but interconnected ideas.
  
  There's the dilemma surrounding a mouse that one inmate has befriended and an extremely touching moment in which the guards attempt to give the man a fantasy future for the mouse with which to die. There's the ambiguity of some inmates' guilt which throws into question whether it's ever really right to take someone's life in retribution. There are moments where characters take time to enjoy the simple beauties of life whether their death is shortly inevitable or indeterminate. And the whole thing concludes with a message about how long life can be when absorbing so much pain and suffering in the world, but that forgiveness and justice makes it all easier to live with.
  
  That amount of reach does make for an occasionally muddy and incoherent thematic narrative without one strong through-line (very unlike Darabont's comparable Shawshank Redemption), but what it does mean is that the film remains continually thought-provoking whilst keeping you brilliantly on your toes. Darabont really seems to enjoy indulging all the avenues the story has to offer, though with each one he also crucially resists the temptation to explain things away. You never know what John's abilities are caused by or how what he does works for example; you're instead asked to suspend disbelief and look at the many consequences of his actions to dissect the dilemmas raised.
  
  On a narrative level you're simply kept guessing, and that should come as no surprise as playing with the audience is something that Darabont has always done. Take the opening scenes of this film as an example. We start with the hunt for something unknown, and then cut to an old man in what appears to be a care home. We're not sure what the significance of any of that is for some time as Darabont leaves the audience guessing. That kind of slow, mysterious, visual storytelling without any explanatory dialogue keeps your eyes firmly fixed on the screen longing to find out what happens, and that's a technique employed throughout. Such effective engagement in the narrative is furthered by the fact the characters are all built so well - something further helped by the fact individual segments or moments are used to delve into themes rather than sweeping statements. The performances back that up brilliantly too, particularly from the two central men in their differing god-like positions - Tom Hanks as the ever-likeable and respectable prison-guard, and Michael Clarke Duncan as the continually mysterious John.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: The reach of the narrative and the segmented nature of it means it's not as coherent an experience as it might have been if it shortened its reach a little, despite the attempt at a neat tie-up conclusion. In other words, one or two tangents or segments could have been cut out to make it a little easier to read (and indeed a little shorter), but to do so may have equally detracted from its great layers.
  
  VERDICT: A highly thought-provoking film that uses its story of two men in god-like positions over life and death to delve into all sorts of thematic questions, Frank Darabont's 'The Green Mile,' breaks its complex narratives into individual segments. The execution of each is utterly masterful, though it has to be said it's not the most coherent cinematic whole.

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