Andrea Costantini
•Paul Edgecombe is a very old man and lives in a nursing home. One day, overcome by a sudden sadness, he tells his dear friend Elaine about his life, particularly the events that occurred in 1935 when he was a prison guard in the death row of Cold Mountain. That was the year when the giant John Coffey arrived at the prison and the lives of many people, including Paul, changed. The man was accused of the murder of two children and was sentenced to the electric chair, but after some incredible events, in Paul and some other guards, the certainty of Coffey's guilt began to waver.
It is unnecessary to spend introductory words to explain who we are talking about. Stephen King, the man who has been defined by the world as the King of Thrills, a man who has over fifty novels to his credit, most of which have ended up at the top of the sales charts worldwide, a man who has turned the word 'horror' into something concrete, everyday that creeps under your skin and never leaves. One word would suffice to describe him: genius.
But the King of Horror, in reality, in his long career, has not only told horror stories made up of invented monsters. He has also written novels that talk about horror, the real one made of real monsters that live within the domestic walls of common American homes, monsters that could hide behind the mask that our neighbor wears and turn the quiet of a tranquil life into a hell with no way out.
The first that come to mind are 'Dolores Claiborne,' which deals with domestic violence, or '11/22/63,' which tells a story that changed the world. Despite these stories being built on topics that are anything but fanciful, in King's characters there is always something magical, paranormal. In his novels, they are emphasized but are nothing more than transfigurations of those magics that exist in real life, whether benign or malevolent.
And here we finally arrive at talking about 'The Green Mile,' which perfectly fits into this vein of stories by the King. This masterpiece of literature has been turned into an excellent film by the talented Frank Darabont, who had already amazed the world with another adaptation of King, 'The Shawshank Redemption,' adapted from the beautiful story 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,' present in the collection 'Different Seasons' (and subsequently directed 'The Mist').
And as with the previous work, he hits the mark. He manages to capture perfectly the magic that permeates every page of the novel and transforms it into images that flow on the screen, sweeping the viewer away in all the over three hours of the film's duration, without ever boring him, instead making him a part of a world where things do not go as they should. A world made of cruelty, full of villains, of people willing to tell lies and besmirch the honor of a good person, magical, unique, just to defend what remains of his soul, corrupted by the devil and who would do anything to avoid walking the so-called 'mile,' so much is the distance made of green linoleum that the condemned must walk to reach the old electric chair.
It's an evil that hurts so much, because the whole story revolves around the key role of the good giant John Coffey, whose name is pronounced like the drink but spelled differently, who is the perfect weapon to counter this malevolent presence that the film is permeated with, it is the gigantic magical potion that heals the world from meanness, eliminates it by blowing it away and like a cloud of insects takes flight towards distant places.
His stories have moved the world. Credit for this success also goes to the acting performance of the great (and alas prematurely deceased) Michael Clarke Duncan, who puts on display all his physical presence, bringing to life a character that will never be forgotten. But it is not only the character of Coffey that keeps the viewer glued to the screen (and to the pack of tissues), it is the series of events in the story that, one after the other, weave a plot that leaves one speechless.
One could write pages and pages talking about this work, the book and the film, about how gripping, deep, frightening, and moving it is, risking perhaps spoiling the plot for those who have not yet seen it.
Therefore, the best way to conclude the review is with a piece of advice: take the DVD, put it in the player, turn off the phone for three hours, live and grow with this great adventure.
Or even better, run to the nearest bookstore.
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