Stephen
Kings The Green Mile was first published in 1996 as a serial novel in six
volumes, before it was later published as a single full length novel and is
classified, as if classifications matter, as a magical realism book.
The Green
Mile the story of the supervisor of a 1930’s death row facility in Louisiana, Paul
Edgecombe, and his encounter with an inmate, John Coffey, who demonstrates some
strange healing and empathic abilities.
The book was
made into a feature film in 1999 starring Tom Hanks, in the role of Paul
Edgecombe and the late Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey. The film was
nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor, for Michael
Clark Duncan and Best Picture.
This
brilliant story by Stephen King is narrated in the first person by Paul
Edgecombe as he recounts to the reader his encounter with John Cofee, a 6’8 powerfully
built black man who has been convicted of the rape and murder of two little white
girls on a farm.
As John
Cofee, awaits his execution date, we discover that not only is he a sensitive soul,
but he has some kind of magical healing power, which first manifests itself when
Cofee heals Edgeombes’ painful bladder infection for him and later resurrects a
mouse from the dead.
The Green
Mile is only a horror story in so far as its setting on Death Row and in its depiction
of execution by the electric chair. Aside from that it is an incredible and tale
in which Stephen King touches on so many different social and moral issues that
it will make your head spin and it will make you think. There is more than just
an element of racism, in the way that Cofee is presumed guilty regardless of
any facts that might be later uncovered and both the book and the film will
make you question the rights and wrongs of capital punishment. There is even an
element of religion in the plot with John Cofee’s healing abilities, resurrection
powers and his general demeanour.
As you
follow The Green Mile, you really feel that you get to know the characters from
the main protagonists through the vile fellow inmate on The Green Mile, William
"Wild Bill" Wharton to the sadistic guard, Percy Wetmore. As ever, if
you are one of the few people on the planet that don’t know the story, we are
not going to ruin it for you in this review, but, we will tell you that if it
doesn’t have you in tears at some point, then you should get your doctor to
check out your emotion chip!
In The Green
Mile film, Tom Hanks portrays the Character of Paul Edgecombe and Michael Clark
Duncan’s nomination for Best Supporting actor in the film is very well
deserved. Whether you are a film buff or an avid reader, definitely give The Green
Mile a go; it’s well worth the effort.
“Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation.”
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“Sometimes there is absolutely no difference at all between salvation and damnation.”
Please share on your social network site if you like this page...........Thanks
