Green Mile (Blu-Ray/Digibook) (1999)

"Above all a cracking good yarn that earns its laughter, its wonder and its tears.  Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
"So moving, so memorable, so magically produced, it's going to delight millions of movie fans and sweep the Oscars.  Christopher Brandon, TNT RoughCut

Editor's Note Director Frank Darabont's second adaptation of a Stephen King prison tale (the first being 1994's nearly flawless THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) is a hopeful charmer with a hint of the supernatural. The story focuses on Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), a Louisiana security guard who works on death row during the Great Depression. When John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), a gigantic black man convicted of raping and murdering two white girls, joins the other prisoners on the row, Paul's life is forever altered. Coffey doesn't fit the mold of a psychopathic killer; he's kind, gentle, and afraid of the dark. As the story progresses, Edgecomb learns that there is something more than simple goodness to Coffey. Building to a hopeful climax, Darabont once again proves that he is King's most loyal cinematic translator. The film features uniformly excellent performances in leading and supporting roles, notably Duncan as Coffey; David Morse and Barry Pepper as Hanks's fellow prison guards; and Michael Jeter as condemned killer Edward Delacroix.

	Barry Pepper
	Graham Greene
	William Sadler
	Gary Sinise
	Jeffrey DeMunn
	Bonnie Hunt
	Michael Clarke Duncan
	Doug Hutchison
	Sam Rockwell
	Michael Jeter
	Harry Dean Stanton
	Dabbs Greer
	Tom Hanks
	Eve Brent
	David Morse
	Patricia Clarkson
	James Cromwell
	Frank Darabont - Screenwriter
	Richard Francis-Bruce - Editor
	Terence Marsh - Production Designer
	Thomas Newman - Composer
	David Tattersall - Director of Photography
	Karyn Wagner - Costume Designer
	Stephen King - Source Writer
	Frank Darabont - Producer
	David Valdes - Producer
	Frank Darabont - Director

THE GREEN MILE, based on a Depression-era tale by Stephen King, tells the story of the unusual bond that is formed between Paul Edgecomb, a Louisiana security guard, and John Coffey, a gentle and gigantic inmate on death row.

"This big man is about to pull off your ears. Aren't you going to listen to him?"----Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), regarding John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan)

"On the day of my judgement, when I stand before God, and he asks me why did I kill one of his true miracles...what am I gonna say? That is was my job? My job?"----Paul Edgecomb to John Coffey

Variety
"...[A] powerful and meticulously crafted drama....Hanks excels..." p.56-70

Entertainment Weekly
"...[Hanks] is on par with his career-best work....A long walk to a worthwhile destination..." -- Rating: A- 06/16/2000 p.67

Chicago Sun-Times
"...There are several sequences of powerful emotion in the film....It tells a story with beginning, middle, end, vivid characters, humor, outrage and emotional release..." 12/10/1999 p.35

Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
"We think of this place like an intensive care ward of a hospital." So says Paul Edgecomb, who is in charge of Death Row in a Louisiana penitentiary during the Depression. Paul (Tom Hanks) is a nice man, probably nicer than your average Louisiana Death Row guard, and his staff is competent and humane -- all except for the loathsome Percy, whose aunt is married to the governor, and who could have any state job he wants, but likes it here because "he wants to see one cook up close." One day a new prisoner arrives. He is a gigantic black man, framed by the low-angle camera to loom over the guards and duck under doorways. This is John Coffey ("like the drink, only not spelled the same"), and he has been convicted of molesting and killing two little white girls. From the start it is clear he is not what he seems. He is afraid of the dark, for one thing. He is straightforward in shaking Paul's hand--not like a man with anything to be ashamed of...The movie is a shade over three hours long. I appreciated the extra time, which allows us to feel the passage of prison months and years. Stephen King, sometimes dismissed as merely a best-seller, has in his best novels some of the power of Dickens, who created worlds that enveloped us and populated them with colorful, peculiar, sharply seen characters. King in his strongest work is a storyteller likely to survive as Dickens has, despite the sniffs of the litcrit establishment...By taking the extra time, Darabont has made King's The Green Mile into a story which develops and unfolds, which has detail and space. The movie would have been much diminished at two hours--it would have been a series of episodes without context. As Darabont directs it, it tells a story with beginning, middle, end, vivid characters, humor, outrage and emotional release. Dickensian. - Roger Ebert