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The Green Mile (1999)
In director Frank Darabont's fantasy drama/prison
film about the recollections of a mid-1930s prison guard, mostly
told in flashback - named about the tiled green linoleum flooring
of the Death Row facility at the Cold Mountain Correctional Institution:
- the scenes of the supernatural powers of illiterate,
mystical child/giant and faith healer - black condemned convict
John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), who was being punished for
an alleged crime (the rape/murder of two young white girls) that
he didn't commit; after blowing life into the crushed body of a
small brown mouse (Mr. Jingles) (owned by fellow prisoner Eduard "Del" Delacroix
(Michael Jeter)), a bright glow emanated and the mouse was resurrected
- in addition, the healings of 44 year-old Louisiana
death row prison guard Paul Edgecomb's (Tom Hanks) serious bladder
infection, and the terminal brain tumor of Chief Warden Hal Moores'
(James Cromwell) wife Melinda (Patricia Clarkson) (Coffey sucked
the illness from her mouth); Paul realized Coffey's miraculous power
and innocence: "I do not see God putting a gift like that into
the hands of a man who would kill a child"
- the scene of the botched, deliberately-sabotaged
execution of Delacroix, when his flesh was literally fried and caught
on fire as he slowly and painfully died; mean-spirited, vengeful
guard Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchinson) had deliberately not wet the
sponge used to quickly and efficiently conduct the electricity into
Delacroix' body
Delacroix' Painful Execution
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- the startling sequence of sadistic guard Percy,
who was infected with the evil taken from Melinda's body, and after
becoming crazed, he shot William Wharton another mass murderer
(the one really responsible for Coffey's alleged crimes), dead
in his cell
- the execution of the doomed and noble Coffey by
the electric chair who urged his death ("I want it to be over
and done with...I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the
world every day. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass")
- and the moment Coffey shared his gifted power with head death row
prison guard Paul as he was being electrocuted -- and sang "Heaven,
I'm in heaven... heaven... heaven..." - from the movie Top
Hat; Paul agreed that a required black hood wouldn't cover
his head, because he feared the dark. Edgecomb pronounced: "May
God have mercy on your soul," and then hesitated for a long
time before giving the fatal order. He first shook Coffey's hand
as he remembered his words, spoken in voice-over: "He kill them
wi' their love. That's how it is every day, all over the world"
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Prison Guard Paul Edgecomb
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- the bittersweet ending in which Edgecomb, revealed
to now be a 108 year-old man (Dabbs Greer) in a retirement home
and bestowed with the 'gift of life', where every day he still
fed a piece of dry toast to gray-haired Jingles; and his speech
about outliving all of his friends and families, regarded as his
punishment: ("I'm 108 years old, Elaine. I was 44 the year
that John Coffey walked the Green Mile. You mustn't blame John.
He couldn't help what happened. He was just a force of nature.
Oh, I've lived to see some amazing things, Ellie. Another century
come to pass. But I've, I've had to see my friends and loved ones
die off through the years. Hal and Melinda, Brutus Howell, my wife,
my boy. And you, Elaine. You'll die, too. And my curse is knowing
that I'll be there to see it. It's my atonement, you see. It's
my punishment for letting John Coffey ride the lightnin'. For killin'
a miracle of God...You'll be gone like all the others. I'll have
to stay. Oh, I'll die eventually. Of that I'm sure. 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
thinkin' about it. And I wait. I think about all the people I've
loved, now long gone. I think about my beautiful Jan, how I lost
her so many years ago. And I think about all of us walkin' our
own Green Mile, each in our own time. But one thought more than
any other keeps me awake most nights. If he could make a mouse
live so long, how much longer do I have? We each owe a death. There
are no exceptions. But, oh, God, sometimes, the Green Mile seems
so long")
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John Coffey's Alleged Crime
Mr. Jingles
Life Blown into Mr. Jingles' Body
The Miraculous Healing of Melinda
Percy Infected with Evil
Coffey's Execution
108 Year-Old Edgecomb in Nursing Home
Mr. Jingles
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