Review of The Green Mile (1999) by Mitchell S — 13 Sep 2017

It's not a personal favorite for me.

It's very Stephen King, very Frank Darabont.

And if you love those guys, you don't understand.

If you don't so much love those guys, I think you feel me.

The movie has a huge following because it's.

*Optimistic.

*Has a warm and soothing very linear narrative.

*About men bonding and finding inner peace.

*Doesn't really challenge the audience in terms of realism or complicated morals and ethics (good and evil are very simple lessons).

*Is filmed beautifully with a wonderful score (that's Darabont).

*Has a pretty good moral of the story: Work with society as much as you can to be a positive influence...if you're not appreciated, move on and don't look back.

*Had a great cast.

I think where it truly succeeded, and where The Green Mile failed, is that Shawshank tempered the emotional manipulation and the fantastic "miracles" of Stephen King's story, and focused more on the suffering of human beings for most of the movie, with a happy conclusion for the main characters.

The Green Mile got cocky and wanted way too much emotional catharsis from us, without earning it. The pathos it built was strange and uncomfortable. The characters were so over the top Evil and Good it wasn't nearly as affecting.