Apr 23, 2001 02:42 PM
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…one of those scenes that I will never forget – the big, dark giant looking to the ceiling and a host of little flies swarming towards the camera – maggots, flies insects - metaphors of disease and curse. Simply mindblowing - its been over a year since I saw the movie and this scene is so alive in my head!
Tom Hanks - the jailor and a determined set of people working for him in the most dreaded jail with killers and mad guys who do unthinkable things. The guys condemned all await painless execution by the electric chair. The setting is that of a slightly dark, dire jail, where it is the outskirts of a city set way back in this century where the lives of the jailors is weaved into the lives of the inmates. Through the movie one cannot escape the dreaded feeling of being amongst God’s own concentrated bunch of bad people with the constant, consistent feeling of impending death.. The focus - an Afro American convict who is found with 2 girl twins in his lap where he is rubbing their blood smeared little blond tresses and wailing. He is instantly convicted for the murder. But among them all, he is one man you are convinced cannot be bad in any way – he has the capacity to heal completely whatever the disease and as he takes away the disease from you, he erupts the disease in a swarm of flies that fill the room. But he is condemned to death by the electric chair like all the others.
Tom Hanks does his job the way he needs to – strict but considerate. Not to miss an irate subordinate that is there only for the pleasure of the goriness of the death sequence and boy the way he does get his kicks is something you have to see for yourself. Stark realities of life set in jobs that no sane person would want to do but one has to do with a touch of the supernatural through the gentle giant. A must see for any and every movie buff who likes seeing life’s vast spectacle of emotions and for the different scenes that the film cuts through and the effects through sheer, skilled camera work.
