Stories brought to life on the screen

Table of Contents:

• “The Green Mile” by Stephen King
• “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë – Coming soon – Subscribe for updates
• “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” by Heather Morris – Coming soon – Subscribe for updates

“The Green Mile”

The serial novel “The Green Mile” by Stephen King saw the Hollywood lights in the late 90’s, in a phenomenal film adaptation. Famous names, like Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan, starred in the movie, all together under Frank Darabont’s directing.

Even though the book and the movie are both considered a complete masterpiece, each for its own qualities, there are few differences which are meant to determine, for sure, the quality of your reading/watching experience.

• How similar is the movie to the book?
• The plot line of “The Green Mile”
• The characters & quotes of “The Green Mile”
• The language and the details of “The Green Mile”
• Funny Facts about “The Green Mile” movie
• The book review of “The Green Mile” – Read here my review

Movie vs book

The best way to “consume” this story is gradually. Reading the book and then watching the movie would really be a favor you do to yourself. In the end, I feel like the book and the movie complete each other in a really expressive way. While the book gives the story “texture” and symbol, the movie offers image, sound and an entertaining watching experience overall.

You can read further information relating to the book in the book review. It explains more broadly aspects like the meaning of the title and the symbols which are presented along the story. Reading the review will offer you a more complex perspective upon this remarkable story.

The plot line

I appreciated, most of all, the closeness of the movie plot line to the original story. I was fascinated to see again, this time on screen, the key moments of “The Green Mile”. They were not really deepened, at least not as much as I consider it might’ve been needed. It gave me the impression of some flashbacks, put together only to create a story. In the end, that’s what it was: Paul Edgecomb’s memories and John Coffey’s still untold story. Therefore, shorting the scenes and making them more simple might’ve been a thoughtful detail for summarizing around 400 pages into a 3 hour movie.

John Coffey’s “outside walk” was really complexly developed in the book. While the book narrator insisted on the guards’ second thoughts and the really long car ride, the movie shows the watchers, in the first place, how the guards succeed getting a free way outside, without any witness. The rest of the movie sequence is very poor presented, moving fast forward to the scene in which John heals Melinda Moores.

Even though the movie scenes, key moments for the course of the events, were really poor compared to the novel, I was pleased that those sequences were at least included. I think the director could’ve highlighted more the general atmosphere and side details of the sequences, but I can’t actually be disappointed in the movie.

It was a nice experience watching it and finally associating a face to the characters. A movie is never going to strictly follow the book, so the original story will always be more “fruitful”. Nevertheless, watching the film adaptation gives us the occasion to see, on a second time, the characters, the details and hear all the amazing quotes which keep themselves stuck on our mind. The film adaptation of “The Green Mile” is generally a true masterpiece, I must admit. It’s a movie… a story… which I recommend to every category of readers and movie watchers. It’s not a movie created to suit certain tastes, but to get emotional every watcher with fine movie tastes.

The characters & quotes

In the movie, it was paid a special attention to the intrigue of the story. It had an engaging effect upon me, keeping me with my breath held from the very beginning. Character’s actions and personality, like Wild Billy’s, were exaggerated in a manner meant to highlight their role in the course of events.

As a reader, who enjoyed and savored the book story, this movie, in order to gain my appreciation, had to respect at least 80% of the original work. The characters’ gestures were strictly shown as in the book, thing which won my heart for sure. I was pleasantly satisfied with the proportion in which some of the most famous book quotes were also used in the movie. Nothing compares to hearing your favorite quotes and seeing your favorite moments on screen, which is such a sweet experience!

The language & details

The attention for details was a plus, considering the atmosphere of the story and setting, and the character’s gestures and dynamic as well. Even though, it was also a minus because of the changed course of events and the lack of priority in highlighting enough the key moments of the story. I felt like there were some incomplete scenes, missing some details which, from my point of view, were crucial for each character’s journey, like John Coffey’s first reaction when he saw the electric chair. It was rather disappointing missing the opportunity to deepen the emotional side of the story.

It might sound confusing, but the setting was completely changed in my mind because of the language which was used in the movie. The movie language was, most of the time, decent, and made the film adaptation appropriate for a larger audience, being an R rated movie. The book was far more violent and uncensored, but it made the action more credible for the setting of the story. It increased the hard conditions of the atmosphere, it simply completed it. Therefore, I think it wasn’t the best idea to have the language softened

Another big difference between the two is the lack of morbidity from the movie. As the book descriptions turned my stomach upside down, I wasn’t really unhappy seeing that they are missing from the movie. They gave the story and to the events, which took place in the room of the electric chair, a harder to digest effect upon the readers. Even so, I think a movie which would’ve insisted on this aspect would’ve been too rough.

The movie doesn’t tell us all the morbid details, but actually shows them. There are a few scenes which I found extremely disturbing due to the presented images of the dead bodies, and that is why I don’t recommend this movie to the very young watchers, who might be affected by the sensible content.

Regarding the analysis of the movie, The Artifice has a really great article, called “The Green Mile: Exploring Emotional Responses”, in which they approach the creation process of the movie, analyzing some of the production choices and the characters’ framing. Nevertheless, for a more complex and broadly movie review, you should also read Maxim Chornyi’s article relating to the movie. There’s no movie aspect which the latter didn’t approach: a complete, really informative and also entertaining analysis.

Funny Facts

• Bruce Willis was the one who recommended Michael Clarke Duncan for John Coffey’s role
• Tom Hanks (playing Paul Edgecomb) insisted that the prison guards, in spite of the bad lightning, would wear hats. This detail was meant to bring the movie adaptation as close as possible to reality.
• There were actually more than one mouse which played Mr. Jingles. The shots were taken so that the watcher wouldn’t observe the mouse was changed between the shots. Taking the needed footage took more than one month and special “trainers” were brought on the movie set to instruct the mice.
• Michael Jeter (playing Eduard Delacroix) has improvised the words of his last prayer. He also hired a dialect couch to enter deeper in his role and to actually BECOME the famous Eduard Delacroix

You can find more funny facts regarding the movie production of “The Green Mile” in the “Behind-The-Scenes Stories from ‘The Green Mile’ ” and “The Green Mile: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Stephen King Movie” blog articles.

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