A deeper look into the story's characters and events in The Green Mile reveal that it is actually laden with religious symbolism, most of them related to the life of Jesus Christ: bit.ly/2kejaGx
That's a very interesting view. Never thought of it that way. I think that would explain the tear down Percy's face before shooting Bill. To do one good act before he ended his career which he certainly knew was over at that point.
@@brandoncooper7432 2 tears in fact. One from each eye (his left eye first then his right) presumably for each girl. Though did he do a 'good deed' or was he possessed by evil and therefore did a bad deed?
@@brandoncooper7432 .. Excellent point.. but they didn't show that Percy was aware of it. I assumed he was disoriented from the disease. He was so angry and afraid of Bill,that he reached a breaking point.
Percy sheds a Single Tear, immediately empties his gun into Wild Bill, and goes catatonic. He is a petty, cruel, cowardly man who considers himself a badass. When he is shown true evil, he can't handle it. He automatically follows a visceral instinct to punish Bill, then his brain checks out
Percy is no saint neither. If you remember the cruel and evil death he happily put that inmate on the chair through. I can't remember the man's name though.
I was just thinking that, that and the slight wheeze. I don’t know if that’s from wild bill, or from Percy but it’s the smallest sounds your subconscious picks up on that makes you uncomfortable
@Steinhawk ok stop bringing about his marriage please? This movie is from 1999. Meaning he acted in this movie WAY BACK before he even met courtney. U should understand that he married in 2011. Before 2011,he REALLY WAS a brilliant actor. Its a shame he decided to marry her. If he didnt, he would hv still be acting by now
Doug Hutchison, also played Gus Morgan in the movie, The Salton Sea. He later committed theatrical suicide when he married a 16 year old girl at the age of 51.
The fumbling with the holster sound that builds to what inevitably happens is one of my favorite moments in this movie. It's a brief moment of suspense with just a sound and a blank expression. Excellent filmmaking.
John showed Paul a glimpse of what Bill did to those girls and Paul was shocked. I think John showed Percy every single thing Bill did to those girls, and the result was this. After killing Bill, all those images of those girls being abused to death left Percy's brain but those images left his brain in the shadows of insanity... forever.
Kevin Dunn yup I agree. Kind of the death of 2 most hated characters. Percy didn’t die per say but his life was over and left speechless and non responsive in a crazy house.
I know that he was a awful person and the world was better off without him, and yet I can't help but cheer for Percy in this scene. He stared at the face of true evil and his first instinct was to shoot it down.
I noticed this detail: Wild Bill is confirmed to have killed at least 6 people (the two girls, three others at an armed robbery with one of the being a pregnant woman, adding another number to the list). And Percy shot him 6 times
TurtleBurger he was and he paid for it plus Percy had no right ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT to do that the judge said he Was supposed to die a certain way not be slowly cooked by some spoiled Psycho pos
Yes........ Although I cant help but imagine "what if" if wild bill had made it all the way to the chair if he had come clean about him being responsible for having raped and murdered the two little girls. Keeping in mind it would have been after they would have executed John if they hadn't discovered the whole truth. Id hate to imagine the kind of psycological "DESTRUCTION" that would inflict on the family espicially after having witnessed the execution of john whom they felt so certain was the guilty one and on top of that wild bill having worked for and been trusted by the father/family and having eaten dinner at their table sitting right next to their daughters. I wouldnt be suprised if it would have driven them suicide while they post pone will bills execution while they investigate and confirm his coming out with it and maybe mock John maybe say something N🤬s gotta be good for something. Him getting pinned for what bill did to those children. That would definetly be some dark sick evil vile stuff
@@por22ito not to mention, John got the man who was going to die for his crimes if this is not a symbolism that John is this movie of Jesus Christ I don’t know what is
Percy knew what Wild Bill did to the kids after this encounter with John. Though Percy was evil himself, Wild Bill was even more evil. Even someone like Percy would hate someone who abused and killed two children. Though he was clearly under the influence of whatever means that exited him after the shooting. Notice also that Percy ended up in the same mental hospital looking out of the window with the same stupor that Wild Bill appeared to be in (though he was faking it) before Wild Bill was brought in. Though Percy wasn't faking. So in the death of Wild Bill, Percy essentially "took his place" and became him in the mental hospital as a punishment. Also, it has been a long time ago since I've seen this movie and just happened upon this clip...but wasn't Percy also supposed to be transferred to that mental hospital to watch the patients? He would have been just as bad to them there, so it's a payback for that, too.
finding out that the tall guy he always tormented was indeed innocent and having to watch someone die a painfully and horrible death that he alone caused to happen all came back at once , maybe he knew at this point that he isn't a good guy but still tried to live in his world ... until his eyes got opened forcefully . Seeing who was behind the act and maybe a bit of forgiveness might have been the reason
I think the disease John gave him made him react almost instantly towards fear. When he came across Wild Bill, a criminal who he feared a lot, he cried because of how scared he was of him right before shooting him.
I probably would have cried too. I actually used to wonder if maybe William Wharton had a hard life growing up and wasn't given the help he needed and therefore went mad, but then I've read that in the book it is said that he just doesn't care, so he might have been this way all his life. He's one of those characters that makes me wanna get a deeper look into them. Percy on the other hand is what I call Draco Malfoy's American relative.
He didn’t ask John about Percy because he knew what Percy did to deserve the punishment he gave him, he just didn’t understand what Wild Bill deserved to get the punishment John gave him.
Cause Paul had to suffer through working alongside Percy whereas he wouldve just saw Bill as a childish annoying inmate, but then he saw how evil he truly was
Even in real life Michael Clarke Duncan was one of the kindest and gentlest of souls an exemplar of decency and integrity, and a brilliant actor, lost far, far too young. Michael's Oscar win in The Green Mile for Best Actor in a Supporting Role was deservedly won. I miss seeing Michael's acting and wonder about all the achievements he had yet to achieve, of which I'm certain there would have been untold. Rest easy virtuoso...
This is one film where literally every actor was perfect for their respective roles. No one else could have played these characters better. Truly one of the all time great movies
@@malachiphilpot7381 If he can't get a boner Then what did Wild Bill mean when he said (Your Noodle Ain't Limp At All Lover Boy)??!! The moment he released him
@@mohammadeyad458 Because earlier in the movie he calls Percy a limp noodle. He also says it as a general insult but it was meant as a call-back. He called him a limp noodle but now he is implying that his noodle ain't limp, presumably because he is gay for ole wild Bill. It's a double insult...
Sam Rockwell, as Wild Bill, has been an AMAZING actor in all he does! He can play ANY part! Loved him in so many things! Loved him in A Midsummers Night’s Dream & others! Such totally different characters!
When I first saw this film I thought the in real life good looking Sam was miscast...until his first appearance. He MADE Bill repulsive. Great acting from him.
Coffey didn't take revenge, all he did was show Percy what true evil really is. Percy failed to fathom it, grasp it, control it. Percy killed Bill, Coffrey only showed him how- and why.
He took six rounds in the belly. He didn't get it easy and I doubt they were going to dry sponge the sack of dirt but I thought the same thing when I saw this. His days were numbered.
Because John knew bill was trying to get the insanity card and be spared so he used Percy to carry out his death sentence and Percy took bills place in fate bill was suspposed to spend the rest his life in an asylum and Percy could get away with what he did John seeing this when bill grabbed him he knew putting the brain disease into Percy would change that Percy would go to the asylum in bills place and bill would die on death row as he deserved
Something I noticed when I first saw this scene was how he shed 2 tears before he killed bill which shows the sadness he felt over having to kill bill and the damnnation he knew would come with it or it was for the 2 girls that bill killed at the beginning of the movie
I've always thought John showed Percy what Wild Bill did and he likely felt their pain as Paul did only he became so overwhelmed by it he killed Wild Bill before losing his mind
@@bernardsoul5186 he was passing the brain tumor (or the symptoms of it) on to Percy. Some brain tumors affect impulse control so knowing what Bill did and being uninhibited is probably why he started spraying with seemingly no hesitation.
The bugs are the physical manifestation of the sins cofee collected over time. Percy saw some incredibly fucked up imagery flash before his eyes in slowed dowm time I'm sure. He's crying because of what Cofee showed him of Bill doing to those 2 girls. Also after the bugd(sins) leave, he basically becomes an empty shell of a person because of everything he's now seen. He thought HE was in control and could play God on inmates and co workers, until Cofee gave him the brain tumor and visions and basically nonverbally said "take a seat, young Skywalker."
When I saw that Percy fired five bullets , it was for each victim that had fallen prey to Wild Bill( the first two for the Detterick twins and the next three for the pregnant woman and the two innocent bystanders whom he killed in a holdup).
John does not want to live anymore bill did not get a fast death he still alive while suffering from the bullets and if john was shot then one of the guards will feel guilty
on the other hand,John get a death he knew is coming and at the time it did he was prepared for it,while wild bill got killed,just like that,no warning,just getting bullets into his system,havent saw it coming.
John Coffey was psychologically tortured by all of mans inhumanity and cruelty to one another and didn't want to have to live knowing that cruelty and violence by the wicked upon the innocent would never end.
At 0:49, even after all this time of being against Percy for his wrongdoings, you can tell that Paul actually cares about Percy and his safety, because after the misconduct that he faced from Wild Bill, Paul probably thought Percy was traumatized. In a sense that Percy has a shocked and dazed look in his eyes, you can actually assume very obviously that Percy really was traumatized, because this was the second time that he was inappropriately abused, and it was much worse. There's also a question to why the guards eventually let John Coffey use his magic against Percy, because they must have thought John Coffey was healing Percy, but he didn't. The guards probably didn't want Percy to be gone, they just wanted him to leave the penitentiary, and he did.
That actually was a happy accident, according to an article I read. They gave the actor the squeakiest shoes by accident but the director liked it and thought it went well with how annoying his character is.
After he empties the gun, we can hear the extra clicks of the gun action going off. He may have used all the bullets in the cylinder, but he would have spent more rounds if he had them. In that moment, terms like "overkill" or "extreme prejudice" don't exist in Percy's broken mind; and no amount of bullets will destroy the visions he was forced to see.
I used to think this death was too good for Wild Bill, I honestly wished he and Del could've switched death scenes. But after listening to some other analysis, I now realize this is fitting because Bill would've wanted a spectacular painful death in front of an audience that would be talked about for ages, instead he just gets pathetically shot by a random guard like so many other inmates. Like the general in Pan's Labyrinth, they won't even know his name.
Not to mention, in real life, getting shot in the stomach is a pretty horrible way to go. More than likely Bill's kidneys, stomach, and intestines burst and it looks like maybe a round or two hit his spine. He'd go into shock, and basically be paralyzed and bleeding out while his stomach acid cooks his remaining organs. Not exactly a spectacular finish to be remembered by, more of a sobering and awful way to die. Perfect for Wild Bill.
Actor Doug Hutchison played Percy Wetmore. Some wonder if Wetmore was supposed to be seen as a forgiven sinner by becoming John´s sword of retribution.
I bow to Sam Rockwell (Wild Bill) and Doug Hutchison (Percy) for this phenomenal acting. Lost myself completely in this scene and forgot I'm watching a movie
I think what John did was essentially erase Percy and leave him a blank slate, his existence purely to be John's instrument of justice. When this was accomplished, his purpose was over.
Doug Hutchison played his role so well that he had to hire personal body guards after the movie came out because of death threats he was receiving. That’s beats winning Academy Award any time of day
I believe that since John sucked most of the bad out of Percy, there was nothing left inside him, in terms of his personality, which explains his inability to act like a normal human in these scenes. Whatever left that was good in Percy, convinced his lifeless and exempt mind to kill bill due to what he did to the girls.
What bothers me is Paul should of shared his vision from John with other guards, convinced them to testify: That Wild Bill confessed what he did to the girls to the girls, to the guards on separate times and Percy shot as result. There John would be free.
This scene always baffled me, after Percy fired 6 shots, which is what the revolver holds, even clicking the cylinder to empty shells twice....you hear the other guard say, "Get the gun, get the gun." Which is what Dean does, even opening the cylinder and ejecting empty casings....that never made sense to me....the gun is empty at that point and no longer a threat....just saying.
