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The Green Mile (1 Viewer)

k8ie

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Nov 7, 2005
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HSC
2006
thought id just post this for a related text with the justice game. ive noticed theres hardly anything for the justice game and its related texts...so if anyone has anything PLEASE post it...
this is some class work with the movie that we did...

THE GREEN MILE directed by Frank Darabont, 1999
Adaptation of a novel by Stephen King
Nominated for 4 academy awards
Starring Tom Hanks as Paul Edgecomb and Michael Clarke Duncan as John Coffey

Set in 1935 at Cold Mountain Penitentiary – cellblock E, The Green Mile provides a visual representation of death row that challenges its modern audience to reflect upon value and attitudes related to capital punishment. Some US states still practice capital punishment.

Scene Description
3 Reflections, sets the context of 1935 for following flashbacks that is the film

4 Dead man walking & Delacroix’s fingers establish Percy Whetmore as cruel and lacking in humanity. 4 kind wardens & 1 cruel. Percy is the odd man out. Characterization.

10 Opposing attitudes represented through metaphors used in dialogue between Paul Edgecomb and Percy Whetmore. Each man defines his truth – “You’d do best to think of this place as an intensive care ward”
“I think of this place as a bucket of piss to drown rats in”

11 Walking the mile rehearsal. Note setting and editing. Why a rehearsal? How does it influence our response to Bitterbuck’s execution? What were we not prepared for?

12 Bitterbuck’s humanity. Close ups. What ‘truth’ is the film maker representing here? How? What is the purpose of this scene and its position between the previous and the next?

13, 14 Bitterbuck’s execution. Soundtrack. The clock. Link to “An Execution” and “A Victorian Hangman Tells His Love”
Contrast with Delacroix’s execution later in the film.

30, 31 Delacroix’s execution. By this point Del’s humanity has been established through the plot device of Mr Jingles, signifying that ‘he wouldn’t hurt a mouse’. Contrast with Percy’s cruelties which expose his lack of decency and humanity so it is he the audience is influenced to condemn. Irony. A scene of many contradictions representing the emotional climax of the film. Graphic imagery that intends to shock.

49, 50 Innocent John Coffey walking the green mile. Revelation of Coffey’s innocence highlights the prejudices leading to the conviction of poor, uneducated black men over – represented in American gaols for generations. Compare his execution with Del’s. How does the film maker hope the audience feels at this point? Only 1 out of the 4 condemned men on the green mile are represented as evil. How does this influence our notion of justice?
Note the wardens’ compassion and grief in close-ups. Percy is absent. Coffey’s truth: ‘Kill ‘em with love. It’s the only way all over the world.’

Symbolism in characters names.
Wardens: Paul Edgecomb, Brutus ‘Brutal’ Howell, Harry Terwilliger, Dean Stanton, Percy Whetmore.
Condemned Men: Arlen Bitterbuck, Eduard Delacroix, John Coffey, ‘Wild Bill’ Wharton
 

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