A Psychological Journey Through Green Mile - In Perspective of Surrealism and Magic Realism

Abstract

A movie is a creation of art, meaning, its overall purpose is, like a painting or a song, to arouse an emotional reaction from its audience. Movies helps to the better understanding of ones own life, the lives of those around them and even how our society and culture operate. This study analyses the elements of magical realism and surrealism in the movie The Green Mile directed by Frank Darabont and undertakes a psychoanalytical journey of the characters in the movie. The film is an adaptation of Stephen King's classic novel “The Green Mile”. The plot of the movie is strikingly similar to the real-life story of George Stinney, the youngest person executed in 20th century US. This study hopefully throws light on the evaluative elements and how aesthetically it appeals to the audience. Apart from being a work of horror or fantasy, The Green Mile is a work of realism. The movie encompassed surrealistic elements and Magical Realism, it‟s pretty tough to pull off which is real and which is fantasy. This build-up of Surrealism jerks up as subsisting the inner puff of the movie. The untangling line between Surrealism and Magical Realism dawns on the audience and some scenes muffle them. The magical and surrealistic elements in the movie enables the audience to get a better understanding of the reality in the movie. It reflects human experience by illustrating emotions that might be difficult to convey through other means. The movie also serves as a tool to cultivate the psychiatric traits of the whole bunch of prisoners. Most of the movies do not immediately brings religious themes to the viewer‟s mind. It is difficult to find which part of the Bible played in them. Nevertheless, this study investigates the biblical and philosophical undercurrents soaked in The Green Mile.