The Green Mile
Parents say
Based on 18 reviews
Kids say
Based on 73 reviews
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The Green Mile
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Green Mile is a 1999 movie based on a Stephen King novel in which a newly incarcerated man on Death Row has a miraculous gift. The film hasn't aged well, most notably in the way it leans on the "magical Black person" stereotype that dehumanizes Black characters by turning them into supernatural helpers of White main characters. Disability is also poorly rendered, as people with mental disabilities are shown as either extremely violent or extremely meek, evil or angelic, with nothing in between. In the film's most graphic scene, a man is brutally killed by a botched electric chair execution: He screams in excruciating pain as his skin visibly and audibly sizzles; comment is later made about how the smell of the execution will linger in the prison for a long time. A man is shown sitting in a field with two dead little girls in both arms. Audiences hear use of the "N" word, other slurs like "f--got" and "retarded," and the obsolete "colored" designation. Frequent profanity includes variations on "f--k." In a tense standoff with one of the incarcerated men, a guard wets his pants. Themes of racism, criminal justice, capital punishment, miracles, and faith even in the direst environments and the treatment of adults living in nursing homes are conveyed throughout this movie and may provoke discussion and debate between parents and mature teens.
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What's the Story?
In THE GREEN MILE, Paul Edgecombe (Tom Hanks) is a Depression-era Louisiana prison guard. His responsibility is overseeing Death Row, called "The Green Mile" because of the color of the floor between the cells and the electric chair. Newly incarcerated John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) is a Black man convicted of raping and murdering two little White girls. He's a gentle man with the mysterious ability to heal. Edgecombe treats the other characters with kindness, incarcerated and colleagues alike. In sharp contrast, antagonists like another guard or one of the incarcerated men are petty and cruel.
Is It Any Good?
This is a compassionate and well-intended movie with outstanding direction. The plot veers into melodrama at times, with at least one coincidence that's overly convenient, but the humanity of the guards keeps the movie on track most of the time. Hanks plays his most recognizable character type: someone fair, kind, and capable. Bonnie Hunt's performance as Edgecombe's loving wife is a pleasure to watch. Doug Hutchison is terrific as Percy, the nephew of the governor's wife who's assigned to work for Edgecombe and whose combined arrogance and insecurity lead to disaster. And while it's unfortunate that Duncan is forced to shoulder an amalgam of stereotypes, his stellar performance showcases Coffey's innocence and goodness.
It's pretty easy to make a movie where the hero saves the Earth from asteroids or blasts the villains into smithereens, because those kinds of battles give us lots of very cool stuff to look at. It's a lot harder to make a movie that highlights the heroism of small gestures. Teens, who may feel that the problems of the world are too overwhelming to address, can learn from this movie that a small courtesy can have an enormous impact. Just be ready to discuss the ways in which The Green Mile reduces Black and mentally disabled characters into stereotypes.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the idea that a person might have an extraordinary talent to heal, where that power might come from, and what the responsibilities and burdens might be. Must that ability be accompanied, as it is in John Coffey, with the agonizing experience of "feeling the pain of the world"? Can someone be a healer without experiencing the pain they relieve in others? What can be healed, and what cannot?
The movie is primarily set in two institutional locations: a prison and a nursing home. What are the similar and different ways in which these two places are shown, and how do they play into the movie's overall themes and messages?
What would be the challenges in adapting a novel into a movie? Are novels generally better or worse than the movies based on them? What are some examples of each?
Discuss the character of John Coffey. Is it positive to see a Black character depicted to such angelic levels of "goodness," or is it flattening and dehumanizing? Is it benign or troubling that a Black man with a mental disability is shown willing to accept death by electric chair when he had the opportunity to safely escape?
Movie Details
- In theaters: December 10, 1999
- On DVD or streaming: June 13, 2000
- Cast: Bonnie Hunt, Michael Clarke Duncan, Tom Hanks
- Director: Frank Darabont
- Studio: Warner Bros.
- Genre: Drama
- Character Strengths: Compassion, Integrity
- Run time: 188 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: violence, language and some sex-related material
- Last updated: May 3, 2022
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