Harsh on Percy? - The Green Mile (1999) Discussion

[–] mdnightwnd 11 years ago

Percy had no semblance of sympathy or empathy. He didn't feel sorry for anything he did. Del was far from innocent, but he actually felt remorse.

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[–] k_tito_trinidad 11 years ago

He was portrayed as sick dude, guy gt his kicks from watching the prisoners suffer but I ask is that so bad that he was punished the way he was? I mean deep down he was really a coward ( the scene where wild bill attacks the 2 guards) Percy just freezes up and watches because he's terrified and Evan the sabotage execution he looks horrified realising what he's done

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[–] eddiewinehosen 11 years ago

Well JC feels things about people and as he said "I punished the bad men" indicating that Percy even though he hadn't committed a crime was through and through evil just as Wild Bill.
Yes Percy was a coward deep down but that's what many bullies are and he was a true bully doing things out of spite and enjoying it.

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[–] MonoEnojado 10 years ago

Percy wanted to make Del pay for laughing at him when he pissed his pants. Percy was a really bad dude. I mean, he certainlt didn't expect to create such a mess by not putting the sponge on Del's head, but he knew he would suffer more if he didn't. Also, remember he stepped on Mr Jingles and he broke Del's fingers at the beginning of the film. Also, on the book he's even more despicable.

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[–] Szabu 11 years ago

I kind of have the same problem with the movie, especially with how out of character it feels for J.C. to do something like that.

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[–] andlovesaidnohim 11 years ago

I think Percy knew something would happen to Del to make him suffer more but he was essentially a coward and the reality of it actually happening in front of him was too much to bear.

He was a nasty person who was simply sadistic and felt no remorse for his actions. Del did and John said "you can't hide what's in your heart" and a very clear view of Percy's character came when he begged the other guards not to put him in a cell with Bill (who implied he wanted to rape him) as punishment and the other guards quickly realized he only said that because that it what he would have to them had the shoe been on the other foot.

I also don't know whether John planned for Percy to become a vegetable or whether insanity was a side-effect of whatever John did which I would guess was to show exactly what Bill did from the perspective of the Detterick girls.

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[–] BrianZKing-1 11 years ago

Del was far worse than Percy. Del raped and murdered a six year old girl, and set her building on fire to cover it up, killing half a dozen other people.

Help For Cancer: http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/TheGreatestCharityCauseofOurTi me

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[–] andlovesaidnohim 11 years ago

He murdered an adult woman not a six year old girl. I'm not saying that is "better" at all but she wasn't a six year old girl.

It was also stated that he was truly remorseful for his actions.

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[–] BrianZKing-1 11 years ago

Ah, here we are:

He had raped a young girl and killed her, and had then dropped her body behind the apartment house where she lived, doused it with coal-oil, and then set it on fire, hoping in some muddled way to dispose of the evidence of his crime. The fire had spread to the building itself, had engulfed it, and six more people had died, two of them children.

(pg. 16)

I was wrong about her being six, it doesn't say exactly how old she was, but it does say young girl, not adult woman.

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[–] WendingWanderer 10 years ago

In the book, John is almost like an idiot-savant.

From Wiki: The most dramatic examples of savant syndrome occur in individuals who score very low on IQ tests, while demonstrating exceptional skills or brilliance in specific areas, such as rapid calculation, art, memory, or musical ability.

In the book, John couldn't read, couldn't tie his own shoe, and seemed to have very little intelligence. He didn't remember what had happened with the little girls until he touched Wild Bill and "read" it from him.

There seems to be a force that flows through him, letting him "hear" what's going on inside the people around him (without really understanding it), know who is hurting, how to help.

John seems to be almost pure empathy, with very little intellect.

I highly doubt he had the intelligence to plan to take the illness from the woman, hold it inside himself (at considerable pain to himself), and give it to Percy. It's more like he was led to do it by the force that flowed through him and used him.

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[–] yusef-ghanima 11 years ago

yes i can say he's a lot like you, i was disappointed too but because he wasn't sentenced to death, i'm a little bit like you from the other side.

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[–] bradleyluke79 11 years ago

I understand where you're coming from. Percy is violent and sadistic towards prisoners who have done despicable things so maybe they deserve it. And they do. But this wasn't Percy's way of punishing them for what they'd done. Percy just wanted to make them suffer. He showed no remorse, no empathy, no sympathy and was just a terrible person. Whereas with Delacroix for example, he committed a horrible crime, but while on the mile he showed a sensitive kind to him, this was something Percy lacked, Percy was just and all round terrible person. The fact that Delacroix had slight happiness annoyed him, so he crushed Delacroix's only friend and last piece of happiness before he killed Delacroix in the most inhumane way possible.

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[–] bradleyluke79 11 years ago

I understand where you're coming from. Percy is violent and sadistic towards prisoners who have done despicable things so maybe they deserve it. And they do. But this wasn't Percy's way of punishing them for what they'd done. Percy just wanted to make them suffer. He showed no remorse, no empathy, no sympathy and was just a terrible person. Whereas with Delacroix for example, he committed a horrible crime, but while on the mile he showed a sensitive kind to him, this was something Percy lacked, Percy was just and all round terrible person. The fact that Delacroix had slight happiness annoyed him, so he crushed Delacroix's only friend and last piece of happiness before he killed Delacroix in the most inhumane way possible.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] rachel-wyyung-1 11 years ago

Personally I think education makes a difference also. Del killed so if course he was bad, but after all people like him obviously shows they had no education no good upbringing. Thus some of them made poor choices in life. However, Percy had connections and he certainly didn't look like he was from poor family background, he was educated and yet he still developed such ruthless and sick personalities made him a real scumbag.

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[–] strntz 11 years ago

Personally I think education makes a difference also. Del killed so if course he was bad, but after all people like him obviously shows they had no education no good upbringing.

Good point. Some people are born rotten (Percy), and others have never been shown love or taught right from wrong.

One thing that Del said that was very telling was when, right before his execution, he told Paul, Brutal, Dean, and Harry that they good men, and he wished he had known them earlier in his life. Had he grown up around better types of men, his life may have taken a whole different course. I didn't read the book, but Del on film was clearly remorseful of what he had done.

It is bad to drink Jobu's rum. Very bad.

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[–] CartmanRocks 11 years ago

The prisoners were rapists and murderers, but the sweet little mouse was not. Anyone who steps on a poor little mouse on purpose doesn't deserve to live, in my opinion.

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http://apetit.myminicity.com/tra

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