Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Green Mile (1999) - Duncan and great ensemble raise Darabont's second prison epic

3/18/2021

The Green Mile (1999) - Duncan and great ensemble raise Darabont's second prison epic

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Ensemble of the Year: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, Sam Rockwell, David Morse, Michael Jeter, Bonnie Hunt, James Cromwell, Patricia Clarkson, Harry Dean Stanton, Doug Hutchison + Best Epic Movie of the Year + Best Prison Movie of the Year + Best Religious Movie of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Michael Clarke Duncan

Tom Hanks painted neatly up in retro 1930s/1940s poster style defines this fine poster for Frank Darabont's The Green Mile

On a Louisiana death row in the middle of the 1930s the deeply unusual, black giant double-murder convict John Coffey arrives, and his special abilities are to turn life as they know it upside down for the staff and other prisoners there.

The Green Mile is written and directed by French-born American master filmmaker Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption (1994)), whose 2nd feature it is. It is an adaptation of Stephen King's (The Talisman (1984)) same-titled 1996 novel.

The story is King in his metaphysical corner, which I sometimes have a hard time with; The Stand (1994, miniseries) being the worst proponent for the adaptations of these writings. The Green Mile arrives as something like a new gospel, a disguised Christ story, which is specifically American in the relation between the predominantly white society and its black minority, and in its relation to the black male specifically.

It is a forceful and enormously handsomely produced film with strong photography (by David Tattersall (The Matador (2005))) and performances; particularly Michael Clarke Duncan (Kung Fu Panda (2008)) is incredible and magical as Coffey. Tom Hanks (The Post (2017)) is good but stands in Duncan's colossal shade here, as well as formidable supporting performances from Sam Rockwell (Woman Walks Ahead (2017)) especially, but also from David Morse (16 Blocks (2006)), Michael Jeter (Dream On (2006, TV-series)), Bonnie Hunt (Stolen Summer (2002)), James Cromwell (The Queen (2006)), Patricia Clarkson (Elegy (2008)), Harry Dean Stanton (Sand (2000)) and Doug Hutchison (Moola (2007)).

The Green Mile is a long film with an incredible twist to it, which I also have some difficulty stomaching. Also here it is a bit much for my taste. It seems an attempt to match and exceed Darabont's preceding, masterful King adaptation, also prison-set Shawshank Redemption, and for all the wonderful elements in The Green Mile, this probably foolhardy ambition fails.

Frank Darabont: The Majestic (2001) - Soaring sentiments and production values in Darabont's under-appreciated Movie

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 60 mil. $

Box office: 286.8 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.78 times its cost)

[The Green Mile premiered 6 December (California) and runs 189 minutes. Darabont reportedly wrote the script in less than 8 weeks. Hanks was paid 20 mil. $ for his performance, one third of its over-all coast. Shooting took place from July - December 1998 in Tennessee, North Carolina and California, including Los Angeles. The film opened #2, behind Toy Story 2, to a 18 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 8 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#5-#4-#2-#5-#5-#5-#5) and grossed 136.8 mil. $ (47.7 % of the total gross). It was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Picture to American Beauty, Supporting Actor (Duncan) to Michael Caine in The Cider House Rules, Editing to The Matrix and Adapted Screenplay to John Irving for The Cider House Rules. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, among many other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #27 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Spirited Away (2001). It additionally made in excess of 17.4 mil. $ in domestic home video rentals alone. Darabont returned with The Majestic (2001). Hanks returned in Cast Away (2000); Duncan in The Whole Nine Yards (2000). The Green Mile is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

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3/18/2021

The Green Mile (1999) - Duncan and great ensemble raise Darabont's second prison epic

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