The movie is set in 1935 Lousiana, and all of the executions are through electrocutions. However, executions by that method in that state didn't happen till 1941.
Corrected by Brenda Elzin
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When Paul returns home, his wife asks him what the doctor said. He replies "...gobbledygook mostly." The trouble is, the word "gobbledygook" wasn't coined until 1944. This scene takes place in 1935. See more...
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In the movie John Coffey has sort of a "messiah"-like role. His initials J.C might be a reference to Jesus Christ, as this is very fitting for his role. [This is a not-so-subtle attempt which places Paul Edgecomb in the role of Pontius Pilate] See more...
The Green Mile (1999) - 22 corrections
Directed by Frank Darabont, starring David Morse, James Cromwell, Michael Clarke Duncan, Tom Hanks (add more)
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The movie is set in 1935 Lousiana, and all of the executions are through electrocutions. However, executions by that method in that state didn't happen till 1941.
Corrected by Brenda Elzin
When Percy is released from the straightjacket the cloth that is pulled out of his mouth is smooth and dry, not wet and wrinkled as it should be after an hour or so in his mouth. [Everything that they had to accomplish in that storyline, would have taken far longer than an hour. With a rag stuffed in his mouth for that long, and covered by tape to boot, Percy's mouth would have been bone dry, by the time Boss Edgecomb removed it. The hanky looked like silk, which was common for that era, and silk doesn't wrinkle. You can actually hear in Doug Hutchinson's voice, that the few minutes he actually had the rag in his mouth had already made his mouth dry.]
When the guards are drinking Royal Crown Cola on The Mile they put the bottles on the desk, when Tom Hanks goes to give William "Wild Bill" Wharton a drink, when it cuts back to Brutus, Dean and Harry the bottle labels have moved. None of the guards would have moved the bottles because they were focusing on Wild Bill to make sure he drank his drink. [There's no way to know that the continuity of that scene is disrupted, because the guards could have very easily taken a drink off camera, while still maintaining their focus on Wild Bill.]
When the guards are setting up to sneak John out, they go to the office Percy is in with the intent to lock him up. When Percy realizes what's about to happen to him, he tries to jump the desk to get away. Watch closely when he does. He has a book in his hands just before, and it disappears in the next immediate shot, leaving both hands free so he can jump the desk. It is implied that he threw the book, but you can see the book literally disappear with no time to throw it anywhere. [In the widescreen version you see Percy throw the book off the bottom right of the screen.]
Corrected by Dale Topley
When Coffey takes Edgecomb's hand and makes him see what happened to the two little girls, Edgecomb sees the killer enter the enclosed porch and step over a doll and some blocks just inside the doorway. But earlier in the film, when the girls' father and brother go looking for them, there are no toys at all near the same porch door. (Note: The doll found by the girls' father is not the same one that was on the porch, so it cannot be argued that one of the girls took the doll and later dropped it). [So the killer moved them out of the way when he was taking the girls out...no mistake. He likely had to drag at least one of them along, so that would certainly account for the toys being moved.]
When Paul is talking to his lady friend about he and Mr Jingles being lonely and watching his friends die he forgets to mention, and she doesn't pick up on the fact, that there must be one more friend still alive: Paul's wife Melinda. [Why would she be alive? John did nothing to her. Perhaps the warden's wife is still alive, but she was so near death that her curing may not have had the side effect of increased longevity. Mr. Jingles would be an exception to that as he is so small; a little "cure" goes a long way, so to speak.]
Corrected by Phixius
During the scene of Eduard Delacroix's execution, there is a quartz clock shown. Although invented in the late 1920's, quartz clocks were not on the market until many, many years later. [The prison service, then and now, purchases many, many products which are "not on the market", through Government tendering processes.]
When John Coffey holds Edgecomb's hand to give him a 'view' of the evil of Wild Bill; we are shown a scene of the little girl's father shingling a roof. He is using galvanized roofing nails, something that wasn't yet in use in the nineteen thirties. [Galvanized nails have been in use for centuries. The earliest, crudest nails were made in the Roman Empire, and have been found in ships and excavations dating back to 500 AD. America has had galvanized nail factories since 1819.]
You'd think prison guards on Death Row would have known a little more about safe restraints, the way they bind and gag Percy would eventually kill him. They stuff a handkerchief all the way into his mouth, then tape his mouth closed. The gag reflex is going to suck the handkerchief into his windpipe and suffocate him in about three of four minutes. [Not everyone even has a gag reflex, and it is easy, though not comfortable to push the handkerchief forward into the mouth with the tongue. You can see Percy breathing through his nose, so he's not running out of air. The other guards had no intention of leaving him in the cell for a long time, only long enough to teach him a lesson.]
In the scene where Percy was placed in a straightjacket and locked into solitary confinement, the other guards tape his mouth shut with clear plastic tape. Such tape didn't exist in the 30's. [Scotch tape was invented in 1930 by Richard Drew, an employee of 3M, and transparent cellulose tape invented in 1935.]
When they are drugging Wild Bill, Wild Bill gets up off of his mattress on the floor to go to the bars of his cell. When the drugs kick in, he goes and lays down in his cell on a bed with a mattress on it. [Since he is sitting on the bed with the mattress after drinking the drugged soda, its logical to assume that he moved the mattress back onto the bed.]
Corrected by AdmRose
When Detterick is shouting for his daughters, he calls them Karla and Cora. In the written report that Edgecomb is reading, however, the girls' names are Kathy and Cora. [Detterick's daughters names are Katie and Cora which is what he shouts when he is looking for them.]
Shortly after the execution run by Percy Edgecomb and his wife drink RC Cola and eat fried chicken out of a plastic food container. Containers like these did not exist in the 30's. [The chicken is in a glass baking dish, it is not plastic.]
Edgecomb sees that Del is watching him with the help of a small hand mirror, something death-row prisoners certainly aren't allowed to have because of the danger for themselves or others. [Although probably forbidden, this would be at the discretion of Tom Hanks who figured Del was not a danger to himself or others.]
During the scene when the guards are about to spray Wild Bill with the hose, Bill takes off his belt and wraps it around his hand, ready for a fight. The problem with this is that death row prisoners aren't even allowed to have shoelaces, let alone belts. They could hurt someone else or try to kill themselves with it. [The "no-belt" rule wasn't implemented until 20 years after this movie takes place. Death row inmates in those days did most certainly have belts and shoelaces.]
When they squirt Wild Bill with the hose, he is wearing blue jeans. But in the next shot when they are dragging him out of his cell all wet, he is wearing black and white prison trousers. [He is actually wearing the black and white prison trousers all the way through. I thought he was wearing jeans when I first watched it also.]
It is strange that Edgecomb's team is on duty every time something happens in E block, day or night, as if they worked 24-hour shifts 7 days a week. [The story is told through Tom Hanks' character. he tells of HIS experiances and the strange goings on when HE is working on the E block. he would be working more often as he seemed to be in charge of the block. Anything happening another time we just never see.]
Right before the guards drug Bill with the drink, Bill wakes up with his mattress on the floor and the rest of his bed leaning up against the wall because he trashed his room during Del's execution. After he drinks the drink and passes out, his bed is back together again. [There's plenty of time for them to fix his room up again, it just isn't shown.]
Corrected by Jez
In the scene where the big black man has healed the woman with cancer and she has got up to give him a necklace the woman who is thin has to unclip the necklace from around her neck, but then she just slides it over the big black mans head, which is much bigger than the woman's. [Getting it caught in your hair would really hurt - she's just taking precautions].
Writer/Director Frank Darabont conveniently ignores the fact that Paul Edgecomb could easily have returned to Burt Hammersmith (the prosecuting attorney who got the conviction and death sentence for John Coffey) once he, Edgecomb, learned who the real killer of the Detterick girls was i.e. "Wild Bill" Wharton, and hence saved his life. [If you think about it, in the time period and location the movie was set in, no way could Paul Edgecombe have gone to the prosecuting attorney with the evidence he had and gotten John Coffey a new trial. He was a black man convicted of the brutal rape and murder of two little white girls. In the early to mid 20th century in the south, there was no way that conviction would have been overturned on the evidence that was in Paul Edgecombe's possession.]
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