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 THE
GREEN MILE SHOWS THE BLACKNESS OF THE DEATH PENALTY
Only one film provoked the British public to repeal
the death penalty -- 5 Rillington Place (1971).
Several films have tried to shake up the American public in
a similar manner, most recently Dead Man Walking
(1996) and True Crime
(1999). Now director Frank Darabont ups the ante in The
Green Mile, based on the novel by Stephen King. The
setting is the death row of Coal Mountain Prison in Louisiana
during 1935; the supervisor, Paul Edgecomb (played by Tom
Hanks), has several assistants. The floor of the aisle between
the cells is painted green, so the last walk of those condemned
to death, from their cell to the room with the electric chair,
is known as the "green mile." Edgecomb's philosophy is to
ensure that the last days or years of the men on death row
are as calm and even as happy as possible. Only two characters
in the film are portrayed as malicious -- Percy Wetmore (played
by Doug Hutchison), who has used political connections to
work on death row, and William "Wild Bill" Wharton (played
by Sam Rockwell), a psychopathic killer. All the rest in the
film are portrayed as sensitive human beings. For example,
Edgecomb has nonspecific urethritis, and men in the audience
who have had this malady may notably wince as he urinates
"razor blades." The wife of the prison warden, Hal Moores,
(played by James Cromwell) has an inoperable brain tumor.
To humanize the victims, we follow their idiosyncrasies. Eduard
Delacroix (played by Michael Jeter) revels in finding Mr.
Jingles, a mouse that can fetch a threadless spool. John Coffey
(played by Michael Clarke Duncan) is a 315-pount giant whose
gentleness belies his murder conviction, but he has a special
gift -- the power to heal. Because Duncan heals Edgecomb's
urethritis and restores to life Mr. Jingles after Wetmore
cruelly steps on the pet mouse, Edgecomb arranges to have
Coffey heal the prison warden's wife. In due course we learn
that Coffey was framed for a murder actually committed by
Wharton. On three occasions we see the procedure involved
in administering death by electrocution, a witnessed event
in which certain words are spoken, restraints are attached
to the victim, and levers are pulled.
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Although
the execution of Arlen Bitterbuck (a Native American played
by Graham Greene) is disgusting enough, Wetmore insists on
handling the execution of Delacroix; in so doing, he deliberately
refuses to place the customary wet sponge on his head to ensure
immediate contact between the electricity and the brain, and
what we see is so horrifying that anyone who can bear to watch
the long spectacle of electric volts and fire would surely
want to write their governor to commute every planned execution
until the barbaric practice ceases. The third execution is
of Coffey. Knowing that he is innocent of the crime, he has
something to say when asked for final words. It is at this
point that we grasp the analogy of the quintessential victim
of the death penalty of all time -- someone who performed
miracles, who was condemned of something that he did not do,
and who forgave those whose interpersonal relations are based
on hate rather than love. While the death row prison guards
carry out their assignment to electrocute Coffey, tears fall
on more than one cheek. Afterward, Wetmore is committed to
a mental institution, and the rest of the death row employees
transfer to other prison assignments. As the most eloquent
plea to end the death penalty yet filmed, the Political Film
Society has nominated The Green Mile for an
award for meritoriously raising political consciousness of
the need to advance human rights. MH
CHARLES
DANNEHL CONTRIBUTES A FILM STUDIES COURSE SYLLABUS
Charles R. Dannehl of Bradley University, the newest
member of the Political Film Society, has provided a course
syllabus. His course syllabus is the ninth in the Syllabus
Series. Click here to purchase
the syllabus.
NOMINEES
FOR 1999
DEMOCRACY:
East
of Hope Street, Fight
Club, The
Insider,
Naturally
Native, Three
Kings
EXPOSÉ: Bastards, Cabaret
Balkan, East of Hope Street,
The Insider,
Naturally Native, One
Man's Hero, Three
Kings, Three
Seasons
HUMAN RIGHTS:
The
General's Daughter, The Green
Mile, Hard,
Naturally
Native, One
Man's Hero, Three
Kings, Three
Seasons, Xiu Xiu
PEACE: Cabaret
Balkan, Earth, Light
It Up, One Man's Hero,
Three Kings,
West Beirut
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