WARNING!!!
These previews contain vital plot information and other potentially movie-spoiling stuff!
If you don't want to know, read no further!

THE GREEN MILE

Written by Frank Darabont. From the novel by Stephen King. Directed by Frank Darabont. Starring Tom Hanks, David Morse, Michael Clarke Duncan, Gary Sinese, Barry Pepper, James Cromwell.

This movie has Oscar buzz slathered all over it. It's written and directed by the guy who probably should've won Oscars for doing the same jobs on THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. It stars a guy who has won two Oscars for roles with similar emotional heft as the part he plays here. It's an uplifting story told in an unlikely setting. A period piece. Gritty yet warm. Violent yet humanistic. Horrifying yet heartwarming. This is the type of stuff Oscar voters climb over each other to vote for. But as we've all seen in the past, being a prime candidate for an Academy Award and being a genuinely good film are very often two different things. So is THE GREEN MILE a good film?

If the screenplay is any indication, the answer is 'yes'. A resounding, exhilarating 'yes'.

Before I start talking about the screenplay, and what a good writer Frank Darabont is, I want to say something about Stephen King. And it's a thing that very few people want to believe - Stephen King is, hands down, one of the most talented writers this country has ever produced. There! I said it! I think the guy is great. So I guess that makes me a lowbrow, right? Uh - wrong. I find that most of the people who dismiss King as a writer are people who either (A) think the horror genre is beneath them, or (B) have only seen the crummier movies made from some of his books. To the first group I say... well, there's nothing to say until they remove the sticks from their posteriors. To the second group I say don't trust pieces of junk like LAWNMOWER MAN, or MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, or CHILDREN OF THE CORN. Don't even trust some of the glossier adaptations, like CHRISTINE, or PET SEMATARY or even THE SHINING. The only way to really know how good a writer Stephen King is? ACTUALLY READ HIS BOOKS!

Okay, okay - you don't have time to read his books. You're a busy person, working hard, raising a family, and besides, if you don't finish 'Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus' soon your wife is gonna brain you. There are a few films that can give you a taste of what a talented writer Mr. King is. Check out STAND BY ME. Or MISERY. Or the aforementioned THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. These films succeed in providing a glimpse of what it's like to read the best of King's work. Because for all his haunted hotels, possessed cars and evil clowns, Stephen King's work is about normal, everyday, identifiable human beings. They may, more often than not, be placed in supernatural situations, but King's characters are some of the best drawn everymen and everywomen you'll read. Let's face it, if all King had going for him was his supernatural premises, he'd be just another paperback writer hacking out stories where the wild situations are the only things going for them. In other words, he'd be Dean L. Koontz.

Yup - he's big and he's scary looking... but he's also got
one hell of a secret.

The problem with the movies based on King's horror tales is simple - when condensing an 800 page book down into a 120 page screenplay, you're bound to lose things. And rather than take time away from the scary stuff, the filmmakers tend to scrape away the levels of characterization that make King's books so unique. So what we're left with, for the most part, are movies about haunted hotels and possessed cars, and not about people. But with adaptations of King's non-horror tales, filmmakers have been able to focus on the characters rather than the plots, and the richness of those characters has been allowed to shine through. In STAND BY ME, MISERY and SHAWSHANK, it's the wonderful, interesting, and identifiable characters that made those films so successful. And so it is now with THE GREEN MILE.

I've never read THE GREEN MILE in book form. I think I was turned off by the way it was originally released - in serial form, with new chapters hitting the stores every few weeks. It seemed like a bother, quite frankly. I figured I'd wait for the story to be released in book form after the serialization gimmick had run its course, but I still never got around to buying a copy. And I'm actually glad I didn't, because it allowed me to read Frank Darabont's adaptation with fresh eyes, not influenced by memories of the original. And it's the first time that a screenplay has made me want to read the book it's based on, because it's so rich, and layered, and gripping that I've gotta see what was left out. I have to believe all the good stuff made its way into the script.

Tom showing us his drama face.

This is the part of these script reviews where I usually provide a somewhat detailed synopsis of the plot. You know, the stuff I warn you about at the top of the page. But I'm not gonna do that with this script. I figure you've either read the book and know the story, or you have no idea what the film is about and you're going in blind. Just like I read the script without knowing the story in advance. Now, know this about me - I usually like knowing the story in advance. It doesn't ruin a thing for me. Reading the script before seeing a film is no big deal. But in this case I was glad I didn't know what was coming. I was glad because reading this script was such a riveting experience, filled with surprises and twists and turns and shocks and, well, all the things a really good story should be filled with. I let the script work on an emotional level, letting it guide me along rather than analyzing its craft. And boy am I glad I did, because the script for THE GREEN MILE was one of the best screenplay reads I've ever had. And believe you me, I've read a lot of screenplays. So, because I'm glad I didn't know the plot in advance, I'm not going to be the one to spoil it for anyone else. Go see the movie.

I don't really know what else to say, except that with this film Frank Darabont will prove that the excellence of THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION was no fluke - he's one of the most intelligent and talented screenwriters in the business. I remember feeling a lot of hope when I heard that George Lucas had hired Darabont to write THE PHANTOM MENACE, and I remember being disappointed when I learned that it wasn't true. (I also remember sitting in a theatre watching that film wishing to God that Lucas had hired Darabont to write the damned script!) The scripts for both SHAWSHANK and THE GREEN MILE are textbook examples of how to write an effective, emotional, sentimental story without ever degenerating into schmaltz. These are adult movies, and by that I mean they are movies made for adults, by adults. And in this world of movies seemingly made for those with the attention span of a hyperactive developmentally disabled 8 year-old on a sugar binge, any movie that tries to rise to a higher level is to be commended. And those films that succeed, like THE GREEN MILE, are to be treasured.

MY PROGNOSIS? It'll win audiences, critics and probably a buttload of Oscars. And you know what? If the film is as good as the script it'll deserve everything it gets. THE GREEN MILE will be a very large end-of-the-year-and-on-into-the-new-year hit for Warner Brothers.

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