The Green Mile (film)

Darabont adapted Stephen King's novel, The Green Mile, into a screenplay in under eight weeks.[5]

The film was shot at Warner Hollywood Studios, West Hollywood, California; and on location in Shelbyville, Tennessee; Blowing Rock, North Carolina;[6] and the old Tennessee State Prison.[7] The interior sets were custom built by production designer Terence Marsh. "We tried to give our set a sense of space. A sense of history. And a sense of mystery, in a way. We chose the elongated cathedral-like windows because there is a very mystical element in this movie, a supernatural element [...] It presented us with lots of opportunities", he said.[8] The electric chair was also a bespoke design, and was inspired by real prisons which have the device.[8]

The film title refers to the stretch of green floor that the hallway inmates walk down before they are to be executed by electric chair.[9]

Hanks and Darabont met at an Academy Award luncheon in 1994. Stephen King stated he envisioned Hanks in the role and was happy when Darabont mentioned his name.[5] Hanks was originally supposed to play elderly Paul Edgecomb as well, but the makeup tests did not make him look credible enough to be an elderly man.[10] Because of this Greer was hired to play the older Edgecomb, his final film role. John Travolta was offered the role of Paul Edgecomb but turned it down.[11]

Duncan credited his casting to Bruce Willis, with whom he had worked on the film Armageddon one year earlier. According to Duncan, Willis introduced him to Darabont after hearing of the open call for John Coffey.[12] Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal was offered the role of John Coffey but turned it down.[13][14] Josh Brolin was considered for the role of William "Wild Bill" Wharton.[10]

Morse had not heard about the script until he was offered the role. He stated he was in tears by the end of it.[5] Darabont wanted Cromwell from the start, and after he read the script, Cromwell was moved and agreed.[5]

The official film soundtrack, Music from the Motion Picture The Green Mile, was released on December 19, 1999, by Warner Bros. It contains 37 tracks, primarily instrumental tracks from the film score by Thomas Newman. It also contains four vocal tracks: "Cheek to Cheek" by Fred Astaire, "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby" by Billie Holiday, "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?" by Gene Austin, and "Charmaine" by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians.

In the United States and Canada, The Green Mile opened on December 10, 1999, in 2,875 theaters and grossed $18 million in its opening weekend, placing second at the box office, just behind Toy Story 2 with $18.2 million, however, it finished first for the week with $23.9 million compared to Toy Story 2's $22.1 million for the week.[15][16] It remained at number two in its second weekend and in the top 10 for 10 weeks but never reached number one for the weekend.[17] It went on to gross $136.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $150 million in other territories, bringing a worldwide total of $286.8 million, against its production budget of $60 million.[17] It was the second highest-grosser in Japan for the year with a gross of $55.3 million.[18]

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 136 reviews with an average rating of 6.80/10. The website's critics consensus states, "Though The Green Mile is long, critics say it's an absorbing, emotionally powerful experience."[19] At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[21]

Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half out of four stars, writing, "The film is a shade over three hours long. I appreciated the extra time, which allows us to feel the passage of prison months and years ... it tells a story with beginning, middle, end, vivid characters, humor, outrage and emotional release".[22] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Lisa Schwarzbaum also took note of the film's length, but praised Tom Hanks' "superior" performance and Darabont's direction. "Darabont's style of picture making is well matched to King-size yarn spinning. The director isn't afraid to let big emotions and grand gestures linger", she said.[23]

San Francisco Chronicle's Edward Guthmann thought the cinematography was "handsome", and the music was "florid and melodramatic". He added, "Darabont is such a committed filmmaker, and believes so earnestly and intensely in the stories he puts onscreen".[24] Desson Thomson of The Washington Post called the storytelling "brilliant", and said "From its deceptively easygoing beginning to the heart-wrenching finale, The Green Mile keeps you wonderfully high above the cynical ground."[25]

Conversely, some critics had a less positive response. Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter opined, "By inflating the simple story with a languorous pace, pregnant pauses, long reaction shots and an infinitely slow metabolism, Darabont has burdened his movie version with more self-importance than it can possibly sustain."[26] While complimenting the production design and soundtrack, the critic from Timeout magazine thought some scenes were tiresome and the film "suffers from a surfeit of plot threads and characters".[27]

Writing for the BBC, Clark Collis took issue with some of the plot's unrealistic elements and thought the film was too long.[28] David Ansen of Newsweek thought The Green Mile was weaker than Darabont's previous film, The Shawshank Redemption (1994). He stated, The Green Mile is a "lumbering, self-important three-hour melodrama that defies credibility at every turn".[29]