Listener Suggestion... The Green Mile

In the spirit of the movie we are reviewing I thought it would be humorous to make the show notes excessively long so that it would take you three hours to read them but it turns out that a) no one reads the show notes anyway and b) that would take me an extremely long time so instead you can recreate that experience by simply looping over these next sections a few thousand times.  Frank Darabont had already directed the Stephen King adaptation THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, initially a box office disappointment which at some point was apparently unanimously declared a modern classic, before he worked on bringing another of the Maine-born authors stories to the screen with 1999's THE GREEN MILE. Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) is a Warden Supervisor at Cold Mountain Penitentiary's Death Row, given the movies titular nickname because of the green linoleum floor which leads from the doomed prisoners cells to the electric chair. Assisted by a team including David Morse's powerful but respectful Brutus, Barry Pepper's youthful Dean and Jeffrey DeMunn's humane Harry, his aim is to provide condemned men with dignity in their last days, an endeavour complicated by the sadistic Percy (Doug Hutchison), foisted upon him by virtue of the state governor's nepotism. When the physically imposing but gentle and childlike John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan),  sentenced to death after being convicted of the rape and murder of two young girls, joins the rest of the inmates on Death Row, inexplicable events will bind both prisoners and guards for the rest of their lives. It's fair to say that Darabont takes his time breathing life into King's characters on screen; the movie has a whopping 189 minute run time and focuses heavily on drama and relationship building before introducing the supernatural elements to the story. Thankfully it is a superb array of actors that he has assembled, with the late Duncan giving perhaps a career best performance (Kingpin aside), a truly unforgettable villain in Hutchison's Percy and a talented ensemble cast featuring the likes of Bonnie Hunt, James Cromwell, Sam Rockwell and mouse-fondler Michael Jeter. I didn't join the rest of the Dads for this review so I have no idea what they are going to say. I imagine at least one of us finds this maudlin, over-wrought and just too long. If I had been there, I might have talked about the troubling 'magical negro' aspect to the story (quoting Spike Lee there my friends, don't judge me) so consider yourself lucky you were spared that. Most of all I'm wondering just how long they will spend talking about the part where Michael Clarke Duncan touches Tom Hanks's penis. I reckon some of the guys could do 3 hours on that alone.You can now text us anonymously to leave feedback, suggest future content or simply hurl abuse at us. We'll read out any texts we receive on the show. Click here to try it out!We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at [email protected] or on our website baddadsfilm.com. Until next time, we remain... Bad Dads