The Green Mile is my favorite movie. Some spoilers will ensue (sorry!).
It has been for the past 3 years, as nothing I've seen after that fateful summer day made me change my mind. But for those 3 years, I've never been able to accurately describe why it is I love that movie so much. The ending was horrible; that is, it made you feel horrible. There's Tom Hanks (no context necessary there) and Michael Duncan, two actors with the best chemistry I've seen in a movie. But what more is there to that?
I wasn't sure until last week when I watched it again, except this time with the knowledge of a 1 semester, 2 week-old AP Lit student. As we've learned, poetry and pose (and all of art, for that matter) is about capturing a moment in life and showing it to others. This is an ugly moment that The Green Mile captures, ugly and revolting…and accurate. Of course they execute the John Coffey because he's black; that was their definition of justice in that time period. However supernatural Coffey's powers are, it might as well not have existed in the eyes of most white men. A very existential judgment to make in the name of justice, but this same convoluted thinking is also why any person convicted is considered innocent until proven guilty; no evidence, no proof, then no conviction. The director succeeds in capturing this moment, to keep in mind the monstrous as well as the virtuous sides of humanity that should never be forgotten. And no matter how much I cried about it, the justice of that time period would not have changed. That is the beauty of this movie above all others; justice is served in a negative light here, leaving the audience extremely, without a doubt, gnashing-your-teeth, I'm-going-to-email-the-director-about-this, angry. Angry, and sad, and shocked, and a whole bundle of inexplicable emotions that you can't place your finger on.
Most movies aren't like that, only because an angry audience can do horrible things to your ratings, I can only imagine. At least, that's how I felt watching The Shawshank Redemption, which oddly enough shares the same director as The Green Mile. The ending was a bit too fulfilling, it was definitely too good to be true. Yeah, John Coffey may have had unnatural powers that sucks evilness out of people's mouths, but I find that incredibly more realistic than digging through a prison wall and finding success after 19 years in prison. He should have died in prison, whether he was an innocent man or not; that would have better captured "the moment in life," where injustice exists in a man who just happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time. A conventional movie can't give out unhappy endings.
But books can. Who is there really to blame? The author? Oh please, he/she couldn't care less. You can have an unacceptable, yet rich ending that leaves just enough open ends to make you question what really happened, while being substantial enough to leave you satisfied (if even a bit angry). That's why The Green Mile still remains my favorite movie to this day; it acts like a book. I'll try very hard not to ruin anything, but everything in that movie is convoluted, much like a book. Symbols are twisted, allusions are turned inside out, and the ending will break you. The Green Mile does this brilliantly; it takes a giant of a black man with the kindest heart and the most unbelieving power of healing and life…a physically black man who is a figurative Jesus Christ in the prominently white South. He is the Jesus that anonymously saves lives without expecting anything in return, who would not hurt a fly. And this Jesus dies by the hand of man. What?!
What are the implications of this? That the eyes of man can't see graciousness and religious sanctity if it were right under their nose (or sitting in an electrocution chair?) That we are blind to prejudice that supercedes even Jesus-like figures? Who's right? Who's wrong? But of course there are no clear answers; like a good book makes you question without getting answers, The Green Mile does the same. All it does is capture that grotesque moment, a moment in our human history that needs to be remembered so it won't be repeated. The rest is up to you, viewer/reader.
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