ESSAY

The serial novel The Green Mile by Stephen King was adapted to the screen in 1999 by director Frank Darabont. The film stars Tom hanks as Paul Edgecomb, the protagonist of the film who is a corrections officer at Cold Mountain penitentiary. Michael Clarke Duncan stars as John Coffey, a man who is convicted of a double homicide in which he did not commit. Although the film was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay I feel that the film is merely a generalization of the book that does not fully elaborate upon what the book does.

Throughout the novel Paul Edgecomb is telling Elaine Connelly his story of his time at Cold Mountain penitentiary and the man, John Coffey, who turned out to be a miracle-maker when he was originally thought to be a murderer. The novel Switches back and forth between Paul being at his nursing home and his time in 1935 at Cold Mountain. The film also integrates this into the film but not as prevalently as the novel.

The film excludes multiple characters and events that take place in present day in Paul’s old age at the nursing home. A character that is excluded completely from the film is Brad Dolan, a character who is a worker at the nursing home Paul lives. He is portrayed as a present day Percy Wetmore as he is unusually and unnecessarily cruel to Paul when he tries to go on walks and spend time with Elaine, the woman at the nursing home whom he fancies. Brad Dolan Treats Paul like Percy would the prisoners many years ago on the green mile. Along with Brad Dolans character being excluded from the film, multiple events involving him, Elaine, and Paul’s wife are also left out of the film.

The film excludes an event where Elaine, at the nursing home, smokes a cigarette to trigger the fire alarms. She does this so that Paul can sneak off without being hassled by Brad Dolan. Paul sneaks off to go visit Mr. Jingles who he keeps in an old shed. He eventually introduces Mr. Jingles to Elaine which does not happen in the film. Another very important part of the novel that is not part of the film is when Paul explains the death of his wife to Elaine. He tells her of the bus crash which took the life of his wife but left him unscathed. He expresses his spite for the god in which he believes controls his fate as John Coffey did before he was executed as he wanted.