The Green Mile (motion picture)

The Green Mile (motion picture), motion picture set on death row in a prison in the American South in the 1930s. The film, which was based on the novel The Green Mile (1996) by American author Stephen King, was released in 1999. Paul Edgecomb (played by Tom Hanks) is the head guard at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. Death row at Cold Mountain has a green floor, and so the final steps of convicts about to be executed are taken along the so-called green mile.

The movie begins in the present with an aged Paul (Dabbs Greer) thinking back on his experiences. The story focuses particularly on one prisoner from the 1930s, a huge man named John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) who was sentenced to die after being convicted of killing two young girls. But Coffey does not seem like a murderer, and Paul comes to realize that Coffey has supernatural healing powers.

Director

• Frank Darabont

Cast

• Tom Hanks (Paul Edgecomb)
• David Morse (Brutus “Brutal” Howell)
• Bonnie Hunt (Jan Edgecomb)
• Michael Clarke Duncan (John Coffey)
• James Cromwell (Warden Hal Moores)
• Michael Jeter (Eduard Delacroix)
• Graham Greene (Arlen Bitterbuck)
• Doug Hutchison (Percy Wetmore)
• Sam Rockwell (“Wild Bill” Wharton)
• Barry Pepper (Dean Stanton)
• Jeffrey DeMunn (Harry Terwilliger)
• Patricia Clarkson (Melinda Moores)
• Harry Dean Stanton (Toot-Toot)
• Dabbs Greer (Old Paul Edgecomb)
• Eve Brent (Elaine Connelly)
• William Sadler (Klaus Detterick)
• Mark C. Miles (Orderly Hector)
• Rai Tasco (Man in nursing home)
• Edrie Warner (Lady in nursing home)
• Paula Malcomson (Marjorie Detterick)
• Christopher Ives (Howie Detterick)
• Evanne Drucker (Kathe Detterick)
• Bailey Drucker (Cora Detterick)
• Brian Libby (Shriff McGee)
• Brent Briscoe (Bill Dodge)
• Bill McKinney (Jack Van Hay)
• Gary Sinise (Burt Hammersmith)
• Rachel Singer (Cynthia Hammersmith)
• Scotty Leavenworth (Hammersmith’s son)
• Katelyn Leavenworth (Hammersmith’s daughter)
• Bill Gratton (Earl the plumber)
• Dee Croxton (Woman at Dell’s execution)
• Rebecca Klingler (Wife at Dell’s execution)
• Gary Imhoff (Husband at Dell’s execution)
• Van Epperson (Police officer)
• David E. Browning (Reverend at funeral)

Trivia

• The Green Mile was the third collaboration between Stephen King and Frank Darabont. Darabont previously directed The Woman in the Room (1983), adapted from a King short story, and The Shawshank Redemption (1994), adapted from King’s novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (1982).

Quote

• Paul: “Sometimes the green mile seems so long.”