the green mile

[ruffneck23]

And whats a stephen king adaptation supposed to feel like then?

apart from perhaps carrie , CRAP


stop looking for trouble GD

 

[Grandma Death]

apart from perhaps carrie , CRAP


stop looking for trouble GD

Narr the majority of the film adaptations are shite but we cannot ignore the good ones:

Dead Zone
Shawshank Redemption
Stand By Me
Green Mile
Salems Lot and even IT isnt that bad.


Sides which I dont look for trouble-trouble finds me

 

[PacificOcean]

its boring, too slow, anti-climax ending...just completely overrated.

Agree.

And it's far too long. They could have easily chopped an hour off it's running time without losing the story.

It reminded me of an afternoon movie on FIVE.

Also, can anyone tell me why it was rated 18? There is no horror, violence, sex or strong langague in it.

 

[radiohead]

there was a fucking execution

e2a: i liked it.. above average film

 

[ruffneck23]

Narr the majority of the film adaptations are shite but we cannot ignore the good ones:

Dead Zone
Shawshank Redemption
Stand By Me
Green Mile
Salems Lot and even IT isnt that bad.


Sides which I dont look for trouble-trouble finds me

ok , i agree with those

 

[Orang Utan]

Good film, but not as good as the Shawshank Redemption...

Both sentimental tripe

 

[PacificOcean]

there was a fucking execution

And that made it an 18? Are they worried kids are going to copy killing each other in electric chairs?

And anyway I saw an episode of the Simpsons on at 7pm Sky One which had Mayor Quimby being electrocuted in an electric chair and much, much worse violence in the 15 rated Doom.

 

[kyser_soze]

The black character is there as a representative JC character - he's been wrongly imprisoned despite having a healing power...I think the accusations of racism against this are utter bollocks.

The Shawshank is a far better film tho - Green Mile is just a little bit too magical reality and obviously emotionally manipulating films.

So lemme get this straight - because he's black and a 'simpleton' it's racist, but if he'd been white and a simpleton it would've been what - insulting to intellectually challenged people?

 

[ruffneck23]

The black character is there as a representative JC character - he's been wrongly imprisoned despite having a healing power...I think the accusations of racism against this are utter bollocks.

thats what i thought ( the racist issues = bollox ) cos if there really was a feeling of racism , why wasnt there a public out cry when it was released???

 

[kyser_soze]

Incidentally - while I agree with Neva that the Sony ads weren't racist, I also agree that they were provocative enough to start the conversations about them being racist; that the message for anyone who knows anything about PSP was that the 'new' black&white PSPs were available and you could use wireless to go head to head with them - anyone remotely familiar with pre-existing PSP campaigns would have been able to work that one out.

However, as far as Neva's comments go about there being no intelligent advertising executives, I would ask have you actually worked in advertising? I worked in it for over a decade and met less ignorant and stupid people than I have in any other job I've worked in - the main crime for most was being intelligent with a fairly narrow frame of reference rather than actually being stupid.

And that joke about writing a novel is as old as the hills.

 

[radiohead]

And that made it an 18? Are they worried kids are going to copy killing each other in electric chairs?

And anyway I saw an episode of the Simpsons on at 7pm Sky One which had Mayor Quimby being electrocuted in an electric chair and much, much worse violence in the 15 rated Doom.

simpsons is a cartoon, dude.. it's hardly graphic is it.

and i bet they had a "don't watch if you're a muppet" message at the start too

it's all down to semantics; some things in a film automatically make it an 18. doom's makers must have carefully avoided those things

anyway soz didn't mean to be snappy.. just pointing out that there is both violence and horror!

 

[Louloubelle]

So lemme get this straight - because he's black and a 'simpleton' it's racist,

yes, that's it! why didn't I think of putting it that simply?
*bangs head againt wall*

why not actually bother to read the links, they give a very interesting account of a certain stereotype that the character we are discussing falls very neatly into

is that stereotype racist?

well, it depends, IMO, on your definition of racist

It's not burning crosses at the bottom of the garden racist, it might not be stabbing someone in the street racist, but it is defining African characters as secondary plot devices whose main purpose is to assist the (european) hero and fulfilling the same function as talking magic animals in mythology, and to by using his or her special magic powers to help the hero in triumphing and winning at the end of the day, completely uninterested in his own aspirations (he doesn't have them of course) it might just possibly be racist. Just a bit

I'd be interested in your perspective on this
http://www.fortheretarded.com/magicnegro.php

just in case you don't feel inclined to read all the earlier links too, you might find this helpful.

Here are what I call the Five Points of the Magical Negro; the five most common attributes:

1. He or she is a person of color, typically black, often Native American, in a story about predominantly white characters.
2. He or she seems to have nothing better to do than help the white protagonist, who is often a stranger to the Magical Negro at first.
3. He or she disappears, dies, or sacrifices something of great value after or while helping the white protagonist.
4. He or she is uneducated, mentally handicapped, at a low position in life, or all of the above.
5. He or she is wise, patient, and spiritually in touch. Closer to the earth, one might say. He or she often literally has magical powers.

from Reno's earlier link here
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20041025/kinga.shtml

 

[Neva]

However, as far as Neva's comments go about there being no intelligent advertising executives, I would ask have you actually worked in advertising? I worked in it for over a decade and met less ignorant and stupid people than I have in any other job I've worked in - the main crime for most was being intelligent with a fairly narrow frame of reference rather than actually being stupid.

And that joke about writing a novel is as old as the hills.

Yeah I wasn't being entirely serious there. I've never worked in advertising and have absolutely no clue about the people in the industry. Sorry if I offended you or anything.

I stand by my comments about adverts though. Living in a city, watching TV, browsing the internet etc I see hundreds each and every day and the ratio of good to bad is pretty poor imo

 

[lizzieloo]

great film but does anyone know what the book was like?

I read the book before the film was made. Was a good book, it made me cry which I've never done when reading a book before

 

[Orang Utan]

The book was a serial in its original format, wasn't it?

 

[kyser_soze]

Ah, so if this character is played by a white person in a black film, would that be racist? Would it be racist if this character was played by ANY non-white person?

Load of bollocks - the character described above, minus the 'black' is a character found in millenia of storytelling found in literature all over the world - whomever wrote this needs to look at the history of storytelling and characterisation since it's been around. The fact is if Coffey was a white guy he'd still be a character that is there as a plot device for Tom Hanks prison warden, and then, naturally, it wouldn't be racist...

 

[lizzieloo]

The book was a serial in its original format, wasn't it?

Yes, my friend read it like that. Good money spinner I suppose

http://www.horrorking.com/gm1.html

 

[PacificOcean]

Ah, so if this character is played by a white person in a black film, would that be racist? Would it be racist if this character was played by ANY non-white person?

Load of bollocks - the character described above, minus the 'black' is a character found in millenia of storytelling found in literature all over the world - whomever wrote this needs to look at the history of storytelling and characterisation since it's been around. The fact is if Coffey was a white guy he'd still be a character that is there as a plot device for Tom Hanks prison warden, and then, naturally, it wouldn't be racist...

Maybe I missed the point of the film, but wasn't the point of the story that if he wasn't black he wouldn't have been executed?

 

[Louloubelle]

So is there a white / european equivalent?

The Magical European

1. He or she is a white person, in a story about predominantly African characters.
2. He or she seems to have nothing better to do than help the African protagonist, who is often a stranger to the Magical European at first.
3. He or she disappears, dies, or sacrifices something of great value after or while helping the African protagonist.
4. He or she is uneducated, mentally handicapped, at a low position in life, or all of the above.
5. He or she is wise, patient, and spiritually in touch. Closer to the earth, one might say. He or she often literally has magical powers.


Maybe such a character does exist in films and literature

I just can't think of one right now

 

[ymu]

Maybe I missed the point of the film, but wasn't the point of the story that if he wasn't black he wouldn't have been executed?

No. He was executed because he was found holding the dead bodies of two little girls who had been raped and murdered. As it happens he was trying to bring them back to life, but he did not have the capacity to explain - all he said was that he had "tried to take it back" (his words for healing people, taken by others to mean that he had hurt them in the first place, which he hadn't).

All the other inmates of the "Green Mile" (Death Row) are white. There are three executions in the film (and another extrajudicial one). The film is anti-death penalty, but it's not making any points about disproportionate use of the death penalty for black convicts. There is a brief scene suggesting that his lawyer did not try too hard and did not see him fully as a human being - he drew a comparison to a dog that turns nasty, which would fit with attitudes in the 1930's (as well as JC being a "simpleton") - but there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence for a particularly horrible crime and a suspect who wasn't trying to defend himself, so it was hardly a biting commentary on racial attitudes.

 

[Louloubelle]

On reflection it seems to me that the Magical Negro is something that Jung talked about in his descriptions of the human psyche, although he didn't name the character*.

IMMIC this would be an archetypal figure consisting of both shadow and trickster elements. In other words, this character is a manifestation of the unowned and denigrated (literally) aspects of the human psyche, which of course have great wisdom and value if we own them.

A similar role is played by talking animals in myth and dreams and I think both the talking animals and the magical negroes represent the instinctive and unowned aspects of the European psyche.

Jung worked with Europeans. I have no idea what the African / Asian / native American equivalent to this character would be and obviously neither did Jung.

Is the character racist?

Depends what you mean by racism I suppose.

To a european, the characters make a lot of sense because the African character isn't really a character in his own right, he isn't even African, the darkness of his skin signifies his shadow qualities. He is a collective internal object / archetype of European people.

I can fully understand why some people express some concern over the representation though, not least of which because African people are people in theor own right (obviously), not just bit players in European peoples collective heroic quest.

* edited to add that Jung was IMO pretty awful at writing about race but his writings are interesting especially in relation to his own racism. Even so I have found that a lot of his writings about the 'shadow' and its representations in dreams (usually of a black or dark skinned person) to be pretty accurate, at least as much as it relates to white people

 

[PacificOcean]

No. He was executed because he was found holding the dead bodies of two little girls who had been raped and murdered. As it happens he was trying to bring them back to life, but he did not have the capacity to explain - all he said was that he had "tried to take it back" (his words for healing people, taken by others to mean that he had hurt them in the first place, which he hadn't).

All the other inmates of the "Green Mile" (Death Row) are white. There are three executions in the film (and another extrajudicial one). The film is anti-death penalty, but it's not making any points about disproportionate use of the death penalty for black convicts. There is a brief scene suggesting that his lawyer did not try too hard and did not see him fully as a human being - he drew a comparison to a dog that turns nasty, which would fit with attitudes in the 1930's (as well as JC being a "simpleton") - but there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence for a particularly horrible crime and a suspect who wasn't trying to defend himself, so it was hardly a biting commentary on racial attitudes.

You are right, my memory of the film is a little hazy since the last time I saw it was at the cinema back in 1999.