”It’s
my
punishment. I have no illusions of Immortality. But I will have wished for
death, long before death finds me. In truth, I wish for it already. I lie in
bed most nights thinking about it. And I wait and I think about all the people
I have loved, now long gone. And I think about all of us walking our own Green Mile.”
Mr. Paul Edgecomb(Tom Hanks), now some 108 years old man says these words to his
friend. They possibly now are living in an old age home where all are
assembled together to enjoy an evening of watching television together. Upon
seeing a romantic dance sequence from movie Heaven,
Paul gives a small shriek and moves away from the room. His friend follows
him into another room and finds him sobbing. Paul then narrates her the year
1935 of his life. It was the year of deep depression. It was the year he was
suffering with an awful urinary infection. And more than that it was the year
of John Coffey and two dead girls. A very significant year of his life when he
was a prison guard at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. He was in charge of death row
and supervised all the executions. He was 44 then. Usually death row is called The
Last Mile. They called theirs
The
Green Mile.
1935: Paul was referred as Boss by inmates and he was a good boss. He always behaved politely to the prisoners
trying to make them feel relaxed before each walks the green mile. At any point
of time, there were minimum three inmates at death row and Paul had a set of 6
people assisting him. One day comes an immensely huge prisoner John Coffey
(Michael Duncan). Arrested on the charges of raping and later murdering two
minor girls, John was sent to death row. Contrary to his huge structure and his
crime, John displays a sorrow look on his face, is afraid of dark and first words
he speaks on seeing Paul is, “I couldn’t
help it. It was too late. I tried to take it back but it was too late.”Paul
notices innocence in his words which could not be substituted for penance. But
John was a criminal and a convicted one. What no one knew was John possessed
supernatural powers.
John kept to himself most
of the times. And given any moment starts crying. He showed his first powers
when he cured Paul’s urinary infection just by a touch. Later, he raises a rat
from the dead. In fact, the rat is one of the central characters in this heart
rending drama. Lovingly called Mr. Jingles by his owner(another inmate by name
Del); the rat gets stamped intentionally by one of the assistants of Paul’s,
Percy. Percy is a sadistic b@stard who enjoys hurting the inmates at any given
moment. Paul and Co detest him but can not do much as Percy is well connected.
One day comes another inmate William
(Sam Rockwell). William is charged with many murders and is quite sadistic too
a la Percy and makes everyone’s life miserable including Paul’s. One day when
John happens to grab hold of William’s arms, he realizes(through his
supernatural powers) that William is the actual killer of those two minor
girls. John comes up with another supernatural act of his and makes Percy kill
the William. When confronted by Paul, John touches him and makes him see what
had transpired actually the day two girls were killed, that he was innocent and William was the actual one
who raped and murdered the girls. Paul finds himself with a lump in his throat.
He knew that no matter what, he can not convince jury and John indeed gets
electrocuted.
Cut to present: Paul
thinks that this is why he is still alive although being 108 years old. He
tells his friend that He had a feeling for long that John did pass some magical
powers to him when he touched him while making him visualize the reality of the
two murdered girls. He also feels that this could be a punishment from god as
he could not stop the execution of John.
Let me tell you why you SHOULD NOT miss this. The Green Mile is a simple story and the one which can
moist even the driest of eyes. Tale of an extraordinary man with supernatural
powers can be easily dismissed as unlikely by many. And dismissed it should be.
If only, you want to dismiss one of the finest stories told in one of the
finest movies ever made. If only, serious cinema was never your type. If only,
you hated Casablanca, Schindler’s List,
The Pianist, The English Patientkind of cinema. Now, many who haven’t
watched Green Mile yet would find this quite shocking to see me putting it in
the same category as the above ones. As the above ones showcased the brutal realities
of human life yet a deep hope somewhere down for a better life. These movies
touched cords somewhere and so does The Green Mile.
When Paul asked John for his last wish, he replies saying he wish to see the movie Heaven and Paul & Co do arrange a screening for him. Paul and
his assistants could not stop themselves from lamenting their grief whilst
executing John(probably the first time in The
Green Mile’s history, they were shedding tears for a convicted prisoner).
Watch this last sequence of the movie and tell me if you do not get a churn in
your stomach. And this is the reason why the old Paul in beginning cries after
seeing the same dance sequence from the movie Heaven. And below is the excerpt from that dance sequence sung by the hero to his love.
Heaven, I am in heaven
And the cares that hung around me, Through the
week,
Seems to vanish like a, Gambler’s lucky streak,
And my heart beats so, That I can hardly speak,
And I seem to find, The happiness that I seek,
When we are out together, Dancing cheek to cheek,
Heaven, I am in heaven.
P.S. The movie is based on the novel of same name by Stephen
King. The movie got nominated in various categories for Oscars of 1999.
