4. The Green Mile
(Frank Darabont, 1999)
Cold night air...blew down into our faces. A swirl of dead leaves came with it, and John Coffey caught one of them with his free hand. I will never forget the way he looked at it, or how he crumpled it beneath his broad, handsome nose so it would release its smell.
The Long and Short of It
Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) runs a smooth operation as the officer in charge of a death row prison in 1940's Louisiana. However, the arrival of a new prisoner named John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) upends his entire life. This inmate is not only innocent...he might even be miraculous.
Adaptation Decay
Damn Near Flawless. King's original novel was released in serial form, with six volumes that featured modern-day bookends to ease in new readers. The only significant excision for the film is the loss of those intermediate wraparounds, needless now that the story's a single volume. That means that Frank Darabont doesn't include a sleazy retirement home worker that reminds Edgecomb of Percy Wetmore (Doug Hutchison). I assume it's due to the cult veneration of Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption that he was allowed license to make The Green Mile a bladder-busting three-hour event. With the extra time, Darabont honors King's juvenile sense of humor, his increasing sense of whimsy, and, most importantly, his eye for human behavior. This film includes coulda-been-dropped scenes like Wharton pranking the guards, or Percy Wetmore emptying out a closet in pursuit of a mouse. However, it's because of those sharply observed scenes that we can believe in the magic.
Forget All That - How's the Movie?
I've noticed I often speak of casting when I'm praising these movies. I think that's because Stephen King's best works are founded so completely on his skill at character. The Green Mile is full of Darabont's craft, and who knows, we might hear more about his skills later. But I have to point out that this is an insanely good cast that perfectly matches the material. Tom Hanks grounds the flick with his effortless leading-man skills, but character actors like Jeffrey DeMunn, James Cromwell, Bonnie Hunt, Barry Pepper, Patricia Clarkson, Sam Rockwell, and Doug Hutchison embody their roles. As for the late Michael Clarke Duncan, who died earlier this year, there is no other actor that could've done what he did. None. His John Coffey is a wellspring of emotion, a man so earnestly felt that the term "magic negro" floats away almost immediately; it doesn't hurt that he's more a source of misery and doubt than a source of white empowerment. I'm still convinced that Duncan was robbed of an Oscar for this role. The little statue instead went to Michael Caine for a performance no one remembers in a film no one remembers. Screw you, Alfred.
Alright, but Is It a Good Halloween Flick?
Nope. Once again, King, you've screwed us by inspiring a superior motion picture that has nothing to do with vampires or ghosts. Dammit man, you can't abandon us like this!
Kingwatch 2012
Like most of the "classy" King movies, this one exists on its own terms, and King is nowhere to be seen.
But You Know What Sucks?
4. Children of the Corn
(Fritz Kiersch, 1984)
Children of the Corn is an unholy mess, its single redeeming factor an ironically awesome red-headed villain who constantly shouts, "Outlandaaaah! Outlandaaah! We have your woman! Outlandaaaah!" That's pretty funny, but like Maximum Overdrive, it's a couple minutes of awesome stuck inside dull, dull dull, dull dullery. The flick's nothing more than an extended chase sequence between an out-of-town couple and a community theater cast of Lord of the Flies. The kids chase, the adults flee, the kids chase, the adults flee and then there's eventually a confrontation between the kids, the adults, and, unless I'm mistaken, the evil pollution monster from Ferngully. The ending of the film is a brain-dead wrap-up with the heroes flashing the type of idiot smiles reserved for cows and local political candidates. What a relief to know that this ghost town full of dead parents and homicidal children hasn't dampened their spirits in any way.
Memorably spoofed in the South Park episode "The Wacky Molestation Adventure."
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