MovieChat Forums > The Green Mile (1999) Discussion > John Coffee would not have been Del's fr...

John Coffee would not have been Del's friend if he touched his hand and saw what he did

posted 3 years ago by adamc (148)
8 replies | jump to latest

Del raped a kid and burned her body while she was still alive, so John Coffee wouldn't have had a nice dream about Del and Mr Jingles if he saw that.

[–] PaladinNJ (21766) 2 years ago

Possibly but unlike Wild Bill, Del seems to have come to terms with what he did and accepted responsibility for what he did. He's repented and accepted his fate as just. So maybe John would judge him for the man he has become and not what he was.

[–] BensGirl (590) 2 years ago

That makes a lot of sense.. good explanation xo

[–] strntz (12773) 2 years ago

^that^

John saw what was in their hearts.

In a way Green Mile offers hope of reclamation to those who committed sins. As Bitterbuck wondered, perhaps if a person was *truly* sorry for what they did, they might be forgiven. Del seemed repentant and even said he wished he had met Paul and the others when he was younger - perhaps his life would have gone differently.

[–] Melton (5530) 2 months ago

It’s a good point. The film glosses over Del’s crime in an attempt to make him maximally sympathetic - one of the film’s flaws.

[–] strntz (12773) 2 months ago

Not a flaw though. The film offered true Redemption (unlike Shawshank ironically enough).

Wild Bill was not repentant for what he did and Percy was just mean to his core, but both Del and Bitterbuck were sorry for what they did. That makes them both sympathetic characters, a concept the author wanted to get across.

No one has to agree with that if they don't want to see the redemption, but a lot of people watching the film will.

[–] Melton (5530) 2 months ago

Didn’t work because the film didn’t mention Del’s crime, it just portrayed him as a loveable little puppy-man who befriends a mouse and is inexplicably on Death Row, getting bullied and tortured by the equally one-dimensional Percy.

I like the film but it suffers from overly simplistic characterisations.

[–] strntz (12773) 2 months ago

It's safe to assume that any convict on death row wasn't there for unpaid parking tickets.

It's a peculiar effect of movies to make the person whose story we are privy to almost automatically sympathetic. One of my favorite movies of all time is the western film Unforgiven. Our "hero" in the story has redeemed himself of drinking, whoring, abusing animals, and many murders, several of whom were women and children, through his marriage to a good pious woman.

His previous life of murder and drunkedness are well detailed throughout the film, yet we root for him right to the end.

I assumed watching this film that both Del and Bitterbuck were on death row for murder, but I didn't really care what they did as long as it wasn't child abuse (which for me, no amount of redemption will ever erase).

[–] Melton (5530) 2 months ago

That’s what I mean - in the book we find out Del’s crime - he raped and murdered a minor, then burned her corpse which started a fire, killing several more people.

This is important information which would have added necessary dimensions to his character.