History YMMV / TheGreenMile

** Creator/{{Graham Greene|Actor}} has only one major scene lasting slightly over a minute, but he gives a wrenching monologue that's one of the most moving things in an already very sad movie.

* JerksAreWorseThanVillains: Percy, a mere Jerkass and bully whose worst crime is sabotaging the execution of a prisoner who was going to die anyways, is far more despised by the fans than Wild Bill, who's a [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain racist]] SerialKiller and a [[spoiler:SerialRapist, entirely of children]].

*** The script itself seems to suggest the latter and that Percy had no idea Del's execution would go that badly - Percy intended Del to experience some more pain than with a normal execution, but he didn't intend to slowly burn him to death.

* HoYay:
** Wharton [[spoiler:doesn't like just little girls... he also likes annoying {{jerkass}}es like Percy Wetmore.]]
** Although it is ambiguous whether Wharton enjoys a real screw, or just a MindScrew: his goal was not to have sex, but to watch Percy panic, and he's successful - Percy [[BringMyBrownPants pisses himself in fear]], much to Delacroix's amusement. Given one of the many [[http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/12/messages/610.html nicknames]] for sadistic prison guards, one could say that Wharton enjoyed screwing with the screws.

*** The script itself seems to suggest the latter and that Percy had no idea Del's execution would go that badly - he intended Del to experience more pain than with a normal execution, but he didn't intend to slowly burn him to death.

*** The script itself seems to suggest the latter and that Percy had no idea Del's execution would go that badly.

* HilariousInHindsight: Doug Hutchinson's Percy Wetmore is last seen [[spoiler:being transferred to the mental institution he wanted to work in, whilst catatonic]]. Much later on, another one of Doug's roles, [[Film/PunisherWarZone Loony Bin Jim]], is introduced very similarly, though in that case he was [[spoiler:housed in a BedlamHouse]].

** Creator/GarySinise is only in one scene, but the [[Film/ForrestGump obvious]] [[Film/Apollo13 connections]] with Tom Hanks put him in the trailer. His cameo was also in reference to being in ''Series/TheStand'', another Creator/StephenKing adaptation.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Both Delacroix and Percy are often treated this way with mutual exclusivity in comments either overlooking the very legitimate reasons the former was sentenced to death to begin with, or using said reasons to excuse the latter's blatant cruelty, respectively. To be fair to the former, Delacroix does show genuine remorse for his actions.

* AwardSnub: It was nominated for Best Picture, but Frank Darabont wasn't up for Best Director at the UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s.

** Michael Clarke Duncan was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and two {=SAG=} awards for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John Coffey. He didn't win any of them.

* CompleteMonster: In the film adaptation, [[PsychopathicManchild William "Wild Bill" Wharton]] is awaiting execution at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary for murdering three people in an armed robbery, one of whom was a pregnant woman. When he first appears in the prison he manages to convince the guards he's in a drugged stupor, only to attempt to strangle Dean Stanton to death when his guard is down. Failing in that, Wild Bill contents himself with causing as much mischief as he can before his eventual execution. Eventually it comes to light that Wild Bill's worst known crime was the [[WouldHurtAChild rape and murder of the two little girls]] who John Coffey was accused of killing. In order to stop the girls from calling for help, he told them that if one of them screams, [[IWillPunishYourFriendForYourFailure it's her sister that he'd kill]].

* JerkassWoobie: Subverted with Delacroix, as, after all, there was a reason he was sentenced to the chair. But no doubt he regretted what he did, and how he died was, to say the least, excessive. [[spoiler:Even if it qualified as LaserGuidedKarma; he was an arsonist and rapist-murderer, and ''burned to death'' in the chair. In the novel, one of the guards even comments that when other townspeople hear of the botched execution, instead of being horrified they'll all wish they'd been there to see it.]]
** Del is slightly more Woobie-ish in the book. As well as the main event, King also describes the minutes before Del's execution. [[spoiler:He hugs Brother Schuster, the priest, who agreed to pray with him in Cajun French. While Del cries throughout the prayer, he's also visibly comforted and by the end, feels that he's right with God. Despite the horrific crime he committed, Del is still one of the more likable characters.]]

** [[MemeticMolester Wharton]] [[spoiler:doesn't like just little girls... he also likes annoying {{jerkass}}es like Percy Wetmore.]]

* LoveToHate: Wild Bill is a [[CompleteMonster shit]]-[[PsychopathicManchild tier]] [[DepravedBisexual human]] [[PoliticallyIncorrectVillain being]], but his [[Creator/SamRockwell actor]] is just such a [[LaughablyEvil riot]] ([[spoiler:at least before TheReveal]]) that you can't help but enjoy whenever he's on-screen. Fans easily consider him more entertaining than [[DirtyCoward Percy]].