The Green Mile is considered one of the greatest films of all time. Tom Hanks shines as Paul Edgecombe, while the story of John Coffey is one of the most heart-wrenching tales cinema has ever produced.
Despite being known for his mass of horror novels, this non-horror story started its life in the form of a Stephen King book. It strays from his typical fear-inducing style but keeps the harrowing brutality front and center. The film is a tough watch, but it makes a few changes from the original narrative.
Janet Doesn’t Die In The Film
In a cruel twist of fate that only Stephen King has the guts to include in his work, the ending of Paul’s story sees him recount the death of his wife, Janet. Not from old age, or some sort of illness, but a brutal bus crash. The two are on their way to their daughter’s graduation, and when Janet dies in Paul’s arms, he sees John’s ghost when attempting to save her. This wasn’t included in the film, possibly because we’d already been forced to endure one of the saddest scenes in the history of film and the director didn’t want to double down on depression.
Delacroix’s Death Is Toned Down
When Del is killed in the film version of The Green Mile, it’s certainly twisted and hard to watch moment. The agony and torture of the scene would make any viewer recoil, but the way it is approached in the book is, for some reason, left out. Possibly simply due to its sheer unflinching brutality.
Stephen King describes how Del’s body gave off a strong scent, before shooting out blue flames. His head then literally exploded, with his eyeballs melting and his hair catching fire. It took two minutes of agonizing twisting for his to finally die.
They’re Set In Different Years
In the film, the year the story takes place is 1935. This puts us closer to World War II, but further from World War 1. The book is set three years earlier, in 1932. It’s unclear why this date change was included, but it is likely to be in order to facilitate the use of some sort of technology or reference to some sort of event that hadn’t happened three years earlier when the book was set. Due to this date change, the film ends with Paul aged 108, while in the book, he is a sprightly young 104 when it ends.
And Different Places
On top of this, the book was set in Georgia, and the film, Louisiana. It isn’t really made clear why this change took place, but it is again quite likely to have something to do with the year certain laws maybe have been created in different places.
If the film had stayed in Georgia, the change of year may have led to some sort of continuity error accidentally cropping up.
Brad Dolan Doesn’t Exist In The Film
One of the major characters in the book is Brad Dolan, an orderly at Paul’s care home from where he is telling the story aged 104. Dolan draws a lot of parallels to Percy Wetmore (which Paul points out) and his terrorizing nature shows up in a few chapters. In particular, he stops Paul from visiting Mr. Jingles, but gets his comeuppance later on, when Elaine says her grandson is a speaker at the Georgia House Of Representatives and threatens to take action against him if he doesn’t stop.
The Film ‘Top Hat’ Isn’t Mentioned In The Book
The film Top Hat becomes a vital part of the story of John Coffey in the film. Despite not appearing in the Stephen King original, it plays a major part in the innocent characterization of John Coffey and adds a huge emotional connection to Paul’s response many years later. It makes him cry when someone at the care home puts it on, leading to his reminiscence and his story. It is also revealed that it was the first and last film John Coffey ever watched. Very emotional.
We Don’t Get As Many Backstories In The Film
In the film, we don’t find out the backstory or motivations behind the crimes of Delacroix or Bitterbuck. The film already clocks in at around three hours, so this probably came down to a pacing issue, though it does end up leaving these characters a little underdeveloped.
In the book, we find out that Delacroix is a man of many crimes, including rape, murder and arson. The motivation behind Bitterbuck’s murder was nothing more than an argument over a pair of boots.
Mr. Jingles Dies
Stephen King just can’t stop killing characters, can he? If you thought the film was harsh in its treatment of its characters and relentless in their demise, the book takes it all to a whole new level. Despite living for an incredibly respectable 64 years (for a mouse, this should be completely impossible), Mr. Jingles eventually dies. The ending of the film differs completely, with the fact that Mr. Jingles still hasn’t died acting as the terrifying prospect of potentially eternal life for Paul, who has no idea when he’ll die.
The Detterick Twins Were Naked In The Book
The reason that John Coffey was sentenced to double child murder in The Green Mile is that he was trying to save two innocent girls from death. Obviously, it didn’t really look like that to an outsider, so things didn’t quite go his way. In the film, the girls are both clothed. Dead, but clothed. The book adds an even more sinister layer to their deaths, as they are found naked alongside John, adding something even creepier to his criminal charge. This was probably decided to be a bit much for the film and was cut.
Its Structure
While it isn’t a plot point, the main thing that changes between the film and the book of The Green Mile is the way its story is told. The one similarity is that both films show Paul recounting his life to Elaine. The book, however, sees Paul having written his memoirs for Elaine to then read, with various chapters intercutting scenes that are happening in the nursing home and some of the story not appearing in chronological order. The film simplifies things, cutting to the present day only at the start and end, with Paul telling Elaine everything in chronological order verbally, rather than through his memoirs.
