![]() Arlen Bitterbuck, a convicted murderer at Block E, himself not an easy man, looks at the new inmate from the bottom upwards with caution. The scene emphasizes the fact of how small and even pathetic the guard shouting ‘Deadman walking’ looks next to Coffey. The tail section of the vehicle is relieved once Coffey alights and the first part of his body that we see is his monstrous feet. When we see the character of Michael Clarke Duncan for the first time, his bodybuilding-kind constitution, the visual symbols, and cinematic means: all make an impression of what a giant is just coming to the Mile. In the later scene in the movie with a shotgun in his hands at night, Moores does not have the strength to shoot John Coffey: he instead trusts his friend Paul. The only thing he craves is either a healthy life for his wife or her painless end. He supervises the order and discipline in ‘Cold Mountain’ without using unnecessary violence towards the inmates as well as abuse when he deals with his subordinates, including Paul Edgecomb. In strong contrast to Samuel Norton From ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, an exhausted warden Hal Moores is not a ‘bad’ man. As seen above, we have both ‘good’ characters and villains and neutral characters (including Hal and Melinda Moores) on both sides of the prison bars. ![]() We see villainous, backstabbing, chicken-hearted Percy Wetmore as ‘the worst’ superintendent, a few ‘good’ ones: Brutus “Brutal” Howell, Dean Stanton, Harry Terwillinger, and Bill Dodge, and finally the protagonist character Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks). We see ‘the worst’ convicted inmate: William “Wild Bill” Wharton ( Sam Rockwell), at least two ‘neutral’ or even ‘good’ incarcerated remorseful individuals: Arlen Bitterbuck and Eduard “Del” Delacroix, and finally an innocent man, later revealed to be a miracle in flash: John Coffey ( Michael Clarke Duncan).ĭarabont’s brilliant narrative does the same gradation when it comes to the guarding officers. It is a revealing narrational means, that the story forms its own grotesque scale for evaluation. As the story goes on, the Green mile accustoms us to the fact we should not judge the book by its cover and a few minutes of the characters on screen leaves us with no more than guesses. The elderly people, who are enfeebled by age and diseases, spend their days in accordance with a schedule, compete for choosing the TV channel, and are supervised by hospital attendants dressed in uniform. The short sequence gives its way to the elderly’s people home somewhere in the woods of Georgia, stated by King as a “State-of-the-art retirement complex for the elderly”. Up to a point, the audience is left with no exact clue to the nature of the opening scene. ![]() The movie gets its start with a fragmentarily cut sequence dominated by men with rifles and pitchforks while running across the rural area of Southern states. The topic of power, both physical and mental, its use either for good or for abuse, the degradation of energy with time, and excessive use of privileges: all these forms one of the key topics of Green mile explained in overwhelmingly simple terms. ![]() It took off from there to understand that it’s crucially a half-measure to evaluate the characters, and get deeper into their motivation, fears, and impact on the story, by simply defying who is the convicted and who is a superintendent with a badge. What is more, both Stephen King’s novel and Darabont’s adaptation stay away from tipping over into trivial black-and-white narration with antagonists and protagonists divided by the bar and law. Relatedly, the Green mile by Frank Darabont narrates its story in universal, common to all mankind language and cinematic means, used to draw a metaphor between the day-to-day life and the routine at Block-E at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. On the face of it, the movies about the penitentiary system, prisons, inmates, and jail wardens look too individual, estranged from the common viewer’s reality.
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