Sin and Redemption in the Movies

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses that while both films "The Green Mile" (1999) and "The Shawshank Redemption" (1994) have prison settings and the same director, these two film's overarching ideological agendas stand in striking contrast. The writer points out that "The Green Mile" uses the Christ myth of a singular, suffering (black) savior that can redeem white society. It also shows how "The Shawshank Redemption" presents a morally ambiguous notion of salvation, that all individuals must strive for on their own, even as they work together to form a more viable prison community. The two themes are examined and compared.

From the Paper:

"The comfort that "The Green Mile" creates in the hearts of its viewers is partly due to its setting of time and place. By setting the film in the deep, rural, old 'Jim Crow' era South, in 1935, the film creates a sense of historical impetus and the sense America has changed a great deal. Merely by not being such vociferous participants in racism, as the most racist captor of the drama, the viewer has 'come a long way,' and simply by not being bad as the villainous actors of the drama they are not complicit in the 'old' system that convicts John Coffey merely because he is place. The movie is told in a series of flashbacks as the memories of Paul Edgecomb, who is now living an old man, in a retirement home, increasing the sense of distance between the ideological past and present for the viewer."

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