August 1, 2017
There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to
confess to something he would rather not admit, for fear of being thought of as
“less than a man.” It’s early in this adventure of daily blogging, but, well,
the time has come. I do hereby now confess – there have been scenes in movies
where I cry. I know, I know, not a big deal at all, you say. But, for me, it’s
a sticking point, because it means I let the film capture me rather than being
the critical, observational student of film.
Since we are being all open here, I will go one better and
tell you of one particular scene that I literally cannot watch. I have walked
out of rooms because the scene was coming up. I once walked out of a pavilion
at Walt Disney World because the scene was part of a montage. Even now, past
the age of fifty, the scene tears me apart inside when I am trapped and cannot
look away. Intrigued, aren’t you…?
Okay, it’s a scene from Walt Disney’s Dumbo. Dumbo’s mother
has been locked inside a circus wagon and cuffed by one foot to the flooring.
Dumbo has been treated badly, and is very sad. Timothy Mouse leads him over to
the wagon. Dumbo’s mother hears him, and tries to go the window to see him, but
her chains keep her just shy of being able to see out the window. So she lowers
her trunk to caress her baby. The animators gave such sensuality to that
elephant’s trunk… it moves all over her baby, as if making a memory, and Dumbo
openly weeps as he entwines his trunk in hers, grasping for the one “person”
who can make him feel better – his mother. And, the evil bastards in the Disney
Studios put a piece of music with the scene, a song called "Baby Mine," that… oh
my god… and when Dumbo has to leave??? Just… damn…
Well, here… watch it for yourself…
Anyway… I tell you all that to tell you this… There is one
of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen on film based on the power of
movies to completely take your soul to a new level. The movie is The Green
Mile.
Tom Hanks stars as Paul Edgecombe, a veteran prison guard in
the 30’s. He is the lead guard on Death Row, known as The Green Mile, at Cold Mountain
Penitentiary. He and his other guards keep a quiet life for their prisoners.
They treat their charges with respect, and the prisoners, in turn, treat their
guards with the same respect. Over the space of a few days, though, three men
enter The Mile, and change the lives of the guards forever. One is Percy
Wetmore, an egotistical bully of a man, who comes into the Mile as a new guard.
The second is William “Wild Bill” Wharton, a convicted murderer who has nothing
left to lose, so he acts like a crazed maniac most of the time. And the third
is a giant of a man named John Coffee, “like the drink, but not spelled the
same.” John is a huge man, over seven feet tall and built like a brick wall. He
is a convicted murderer as well, but his simple-minded ways do not match the
descriptions of his horrific crimes. Nonetheless, he is living on borrowed time
on Death Row.
Boss Edgecombe, as he is known to the prisoners, is suffering
from a terrible bladder infection as the movie begins. He is in terrific pain,
but he is managing as best he can. When “Wild Bill” arrives on the Mile, he
puts up a fight, and Edgecombe takes a massive shot to the… uh.. groin, which
makes his bladder infection pain even more excruciating. He orders the others
to take Wharton down to the infirmary, and collapses in the passageway between
the cells. Suddenly, he hears John Coffey calling out to him. Edgecombe slowly
moves toward Coffey’s cell, and before he knows what it happening, Coffey grabs
him and pulls him into the bars, where Coffey drops one hand to his groin and
grasps.
By doing so, Coffey is able to literally suck the pain away
from Edgecombe, then allow the pain to escape his mouth in the form of what
look like houseflies, which dissolve soon after escaping Coffey’s mouth.
Edgecombe slowly backs away from Coffey, realizing that the pain in his body is
gone. He also realizes that there is much more to John Coffey than anyone truly
understands.
Later, after a humorous search for a mouse that has invaded
The Mile, the mouse, now known as Mr. Jingles, becomes a pet to one of the
prisoners, a condemned arsonist named Eduard Delacroix. Percy Wetmore, the sniveling
little new guard, cannot stand the fact that Delacroix is allowed even the most
basic happiness while on Death Row, takes an opportunity and stomps Mr. Jingles
to death. Again, Coffey calls out to Edgecombe, telling him to bring Mr.
Jingles to him. Once Coffey has Mr. Jingles in his hands, he performs his “magic”
again, sucking the death away from the little mouse, and allowing him to run
back to Delacroix across the passageway. When Edgecombe sees this, he truly
believes Coffey is something more than just a convicted murderer, and goes
about finding out the truth of Coffey’s case.
I will let you enjoy the rest of the movie, with maybe a
small spoiler or two coming up.
I have always found it remarkable that the best movies made
from Stephen King books are made from books which are not the stereotypical
King works. There are no underground clowns here, no rabid St. Bernards, no
plagues that wipe out most of humanity. This story is about human beings who
discover more about themselves. Director Frank Darabant has recognized this
point, and has turned two of King’s (arguably) lesser-known works into works of
art through filmmaking. The Green Mile is one, The Shawshank Redemption is the
other. The only other director who has grasped this point is Rob Reiner, who
turned a story in the same collection The Shawshank Redemption came from into
one of the best coming-of-age movies ever made, Stand By Me.
Darabant’s casting in The Green Mile is flawless. Hanks, of
course, leads the show with grace and purity of talent, but Darabant also backs
Hanks up with a crew of actors who are just amazing to watch. David Morse, who
was the lead bad guy in last night’s movie, plays guard Brutus “Brutal” Howell,
a 6’ 4” hulk of a man himself, who still has a heart and has not become as
jaded as some would. Jeffery DeMunn, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting
several times, is Harry Terwilliger, another guard who acts almost as the
conscience of the team. Barry Pepper, as Dean Stanton, the youngest guard on
the crew, has the most emotional tie to the group, looking at them all as
father figures, yet wanting to achieve his own status and make the group proud.
But, let’s talk about three of the other supporting actors
here. First, there is Sam Rockwell, in what was proven to be his break-out role
as Wild Bill Wharton. He is every bit the crude, rude, conscience-free bastard
that you would think a Death Row inmate might be. He literally doesn’t give a
damn about anyone and anything. Later in the movie, when we find out just how
evil Wharton can be, it’s almost like the entire audience collectively gasps in
recognition of what role he really plays in the story. Michael Clarke Duncan,
who plays John Coffey, had been relegated to a few stand-out small appearances
in movies like Armageddon, making a career of sorts out of playing the
humongous, scary, threatening character, usually some second in command to a
crime boss or the like. Here, though, he is a secondary hero, a character so
troubled by his mysterious power that he honestly wants to be executed, just so
he can stop feeling the pain of others all around him. While Edgecombe and the
other guards see Coffey as a gift of God, Coffey has spent his entire life
feeling as though he was cursed. His lack of education has only enforced this
idea. Coffey is a good man, a strong, heroic man, trapped in the mind of a
punished child, whose only longing comes from escaping the torment of others
and finding peace.
The third actor I want to talk about is Michael Jeter. He is
probably best known, outside of this movie, for his role as the bumbling
assistant coach on Burt Reynolds’ TV show, Evening Shade. If you have children
who were born after the year 2000, you may know him as Mr. Noodle on Sesame
Street and Elmo’s World. But Jeter had a very impressive line of movie work
until his untimely death in 2003. He had a very underrated spot as a homeless
man who became friends with Jeff Bridges in The Fisher King, but here, in The
Green Mile, his true strength of talent shines. His Eduard Delacroix is a man
tortured by his own acts. He did not mean to kill anyone in the fire that he
started, but those dead souls have so haunted him since, he has become, well,
for lack of a better word, crazy. He is a sad, cowardly man. Until Mr. Jingles
comes into his life. The adoration and love he shows for this little mouse is
probably more love than Delacroix has ever received in his life. There is a
scene, just before Delacroix is to be executed, where he, Edgecombe, and Howell
are in Delacroix’s cell, talking very quietly about his coming execution. Delacroix
has no fear of the electric chair, his main concern is what will become of Mr.
Jingles. He offers Edgecombe the mouse, but Edgecombe, rather humorously, turns
down the offer, telling Eduard that he lives way out in the woods, and he knows
Mr. Jingles would not like it out there in the dark, scary woods. Finally,
Brutal Howell, the mean-looking guard, pipes up, telling Delacroix of a place
in Florida called “Mouse World,” where trained mice get to go and live out
their lives in a circus tent, where they all get to perform and play and enjoy
their little mousy lives. Watch Michael Jeter’s face as this story is told to
him. He goes through so many emotions, you can almost count them as they float
across his face. Distrust, skepticism, relief, happiness, relief, sadness, and
many more. His Delacroix is finding his last will and testament, of sorts,
being taken care of by the men who were supposed to be his guards, but,
instead, have become his friends. Edgecombe and Howell feel the same way, they
are preparing to say goodbye to a man who has been a part of their lives for a
long time. Yes, they are the ones who are throwing the switch, but neither Delacroix
nor the guards look at it like that. They see it as the natural order of life
as they know it. It is a beautiful moment. 
And, speaking of beautiful moments, I want to address the
one I began talking about at the first of this post. As it comes time for John
Coffey to be executed, Edgecombe and the guards ask him if he would like them
to turn their backs and let him escape. Coffey chides them, telling them he
doesn’t want them to get in any trouble. But he does have a last request. He
has “never seen a flicker-show,” meaning he has never seen a movie before. So,
late one night, Edgecombe and his crew sneak Coffey into the prison theatre
room and screen Fred Astaire’s Top Hat for him. During the classic dance number
“I’m In Heaven,” the camera shows the guards smiling and nodding at one
another, then it slowly moves to Coffey’s face. In that moment, Michael Clarke
Duncan’s face is a picture of pure heavenly grace. He is smiling angelically,
completely enraptured by the graceful dancing of Astaire and Rogers. The camera
lingers on him forever, it seems, while the light from the projector booth
forms a saintly halo around Coffey’s head. It is a scene of pure brilliance,
showing both the magic behind Coffey’s life, and the magical power of a movie.
If you have not seen The Green Mile, and I do not know how
that is humanly possible, but, if you haven’t seen it, do so immediately. If
you have seen it, watch it again. Frank Darabant knows how to find the humanity
of Stephen King’s characters, and he gets the absolute best out of every actor
he casts. If you want to double your fun, watch The Green Mile, then back it
with The Shawshank Redemption, but hey, that’s almost too much genius for
mortal man…
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