MovieRob’s Birthday Bash of Favorites 2020 (#38 of 47) – The Green Mile (1999) – Encore Review 4

January is my birthday month, so I decided that I would try and do something quite unique and special for this milestone in my life. I will be turning 46, so I decided to watch 47 (46+1 for good luck) of my all time favorite movies in a random order over the course of this month. I have reviewed every one of these films already, but I will now give new perspectives on them all. Every one of these films received a 10/10 scoring from me. Some of these reviews will contain spoilers so if you have never seen them before, I recommend that you read some of my previous reviews of the film that were spoiler free before reading on…

Hope you enjoy!

This is film #38 of the 47.

Let’s continue with… The Green Mile (1999)

Initial Viewing Memories – Saw this in the theater on opening night because I am a fan of Frank Darbont films and was so amazed by what he was able to do with this kind of story and make it so relevant and accessible to everyone.

“I’ve done some things in my life I’m not proud of, but this is the first time I’ve ever felt in real danger of hell. ” – Paul Edgecomb

Number of Times Seen – Too many to count (Theater, DVD, 6 May 2013, 27 Oct 2013, 22 Oct 2015, 1 Jun 2018 and 23 Jan 2020)

Link to original review – Here, Here, Here and Here

Brief Synopsis – A prisoner with extraordinary abilities is sent to death row and forms a strange connection with his jailers who are each affected in different ways by this “gentle giant” who doesn’t seem capable of committing the crimes he is accused of.

My Take on it – One of the best adaptations of a Stephen King novel.

Like with his work on The Shawshank Redemption (1994), writer/director Frank Darabont once again is able to take a prison story written by King and adapt it into a spectacular film.

This film takes its time developing the various characters which adds so much more emotional depth to the story as things begin to play out.

The cats is superb and Tom hanks does an amazing job in the lead role.

He is helped by a great supporting cast who make us believe this kind of story even more.

The story has a great mix of realism and magic in order to feel as if it’s set in the real world yet has a character with unique supernatural powers.

Michael Clarke Duncan is the perfect choice as John Coffey and was deservingly nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his work in this film as the gentle giant.

The story plays out really well and we get a clear idea of who all of these characters are as things unfold at a great pace.

The dialogue is great to listen to and helps brings things to a place where we can really feel for these characters the whole way through.

Love the way that certain aspects of the supernatural themes explored here don’t need to be explained at all and things are easily taken at face value as being believable.

The story is build up really well and things are tied together so well that things are quite satisfying, if not emotional by the very end of this three hour plus film which has no lulls in the story that would make things boring or tedious along the way.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – According to director Frank Darabont, Doug Hutchison (Percy) was given the squeakiest shoes he had ever heard. He thought this was the greatest bit of fate, and a “perfectly wonderful, annoying character trait” that he kept it in the movie, and you can hear sometimes how loud his shoes are. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (10/10) (no change from original review)