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Review added January 13, 2005.
The Green Mile
:: DVD Review |
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Studio:
Warner Home Video |
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>> Review
Equipment |
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Video:
1.78:1
(Enhanced for 16:9) |
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Length:
181
Minutes |
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Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 (384kbps) En/De |
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Subtitles: En/Ice/Du/De/Bu/Sv/No/ |
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Video Format:
PAL |
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Fi/Da/It/Ar/Ro |
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Layer Change:
95:17 |
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Disc Format:
RSDL DVD-9 |
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Average Bit-Rate (A+V):
X.XXMbps |
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Disc Capacity Utilised:
X.XXGB |
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Region Coding:
4 |
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:: The Film
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Audio/Video Details
The Green Mile is Frank Darabont's
second film adaptation of a Stephen King novel, the first
being the phenomenally popular The Shawshank Redemption. The
two films are very similar in tone, and likely to appeal to
the same audience. The Green Mile's pace is slow at times,
and while definitely a tearjerker it's not exactly a
'feel good' movie. Like The Shawshank Redemption it mixes
frequent humour with occasionally shocking brutality, and
has a dramatic emotional payoff.
The year is 1935, the Depression
is at its peak and Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) is a prison
guard at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Cold Mountain.
Edgecomb supervises E Block, otherwise known as death row,
along with three other prison guards: Brutus "Brutal" Howell
(David Morse), Dean Stanton (Barry Pepper) and Percy Wetmore
(Doug Hutchison).
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Edgecomb is a decent man, as are Howell and
Stanton, treating the prisoners with respect. Wetmore is new
to the facility and unlike the others revels in making the
prisoners' lives miserable, putting him at odds with his
fellow guards. E Block's current residents include Eduard
Delacroix (Michael Jeter) and Arlen Bitterbuck (Graham
Greene). Days in the block pass uneventfully, but life on
the 'Green Mile' (as the guards call death row) is forever
changed with the arrival of an extraordinary new prisoner.
John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) is a gentle giant of a
man who has been convicted of raping and killing two small
girls, but isn't all that he appears, possessing an
extraordinary ability. Coffey and his miraculous gift will
forever change Edgecomb's life, and those of everyone on the
Green Mile.
The Green Mile has an awful lot going for
it; it has a great cast, a skilled director, and a nicely
crafted script. I liked it a lot. The only things I wasn't
completely happy with were the film's extremely slow pace and
the unnecessary number of brutally graphic and disturbing
execution scenes. I'm quite sure that the excision of thirty
minutes or so of material would have helped.
The Shawshank Redemption was quite a film to follow up, and
while The Green Mile doesn't manage to reach the
quality of its illustrious predecessor, it still manages to
sit comfortably beside it. Recommended.
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Video
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This 1.78:1 anamorphically-enhanced transfer is very good.
There were virtually no film artefacts and the picture was
sharp and clear throughout the film's not insubstantial
length. Colours are often subdued but are rendered
faithfully, looking natural and well saturated, with
occasionally dazzling colour. The picture is very sharp
with actors' faces displaying an impressive amount of
detail, and entirely without the aid of edge enhancement.
Blacks are fairly good, but weren't always as deep as I
would have liked, erring on the greyer side of black on
more than one occasion, and shadow detail is often washed
out, lacking any real detail or information.
There are very few instances of aliasing and
shimmer, and those present are quite minor and never
distracting (as at 2:56, 10:17 and 108:27). Grain is
visible throughout the film, but only distracting during
the film's first seven minutes, becoming more noticeable
during low light scenes. The grain appears to be inherent
to the film stock used, so can't really be held against
the transfer. There were no visible compression artefacts,
which is really quite impressive for a film of this
length, and the overall transfer is of very high quality
and unlikely to disappoint. Four and a half stars.
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| :: Audio
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The film's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is basically
functional, with a few dramatic flourishes. The front
soundstage is centre-channel oriented, with most of the film's
quieter scenes monophonic in nature. When the front soundstage
is allowed to open up, the front channels contain a nicely
recorded, expansive score and quite a few directional cues,
although audio pans are fairly rare. The LFE channel is used
surprisingly often for a dialogue-driven film, reinforcing the
score and the film's more dramatic moments. The soundtrack's
overall bass presence is often quite spectacular (nearly
making me jump out of my chair on one occasion), with some
dramatically deep slabs of bass.
The surround channels are used
frequently, reproducing the film's score in concert with the
front channels and containing many ambient effects. Discrete
directional effects are fairly rare, but impressive when
called upon (birdcalls, cars and thunder, for example).
Dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, but
occasionally quite harsh, with a definite metallic quality.
Pegging distortion is rare, but quite bad when present, as at
12:19 and 37:39, with the latter particularly noticeable. ADR
is integrated smoothly, and inserts are never anything less
than exemplary. Strangely for a film of this age, there was a
noticeable amount of background hiss. This is a good
soundtrack overall, but with a few minor problems. Four stars.
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