"The Powder Mile"

[Bryan James]

Just wondering if anyone has noticed the striking similarities that overlap the 1995 movie "Powder" and King's "The Green Mile."

"Powder" just started recycling on one of Showtime's lesser cable TV iterations, and I hadn't seen it since it was released for rent on VHS...but I saw it recently (and again in a few minutes) and thought KAPOW!

VERY similar themes, and even scenes.

I'd be interested in the relevant timelines.

[Moderator]

Have never seen that one myself and don't know if Steve has either to know whether it was an influence. The first chapter of The Green Mile was published in March, 1996 but in the Foreword which Steve wrote in October of 1995, he mentions having had the idea for the book at least twenty or thirty years earlier and had tried it a number of times but never completed it. It still wasn't completed before he finished the publication of the sixth part.

[GNTLGNT]

No, I'm still stuck on the similarities between the Geico gecko and my 8th grade science teacher....:eek2:

[Bryan James]

I wasn't insinuating anything. I just thought some of the deeper similarities were interesting. Maybe "Green Mile" fans might enjoy the other flick.

That's all.

[Moderator]

I thought I was answering your comment about being interested in the relevant timelines.

[Bryan James]

I thought I was answering your comment about being interested in the relevant timelines.

Yar, you did.

I was just offering up a PSA about a good movie to which King fans might relate and enjoy. My 66 year old Mother watched the whole thing, enjoyed it, and kept saying afterwards "that was very strange but interesting." This is the woman that I can't get to read "Tuesdays With Morrie."

The movie "Powder" apparently tanked in the box office/Hollywood, as the writer~director guy was a convicted pedophile--and since Disney released it, there was a bit of controversy...

[~Ally~]

Been a long time since I've watched "Powder" but I plan to watch it again so I can compare the two. Then if there IS something to be insinuated I may just come back and do so. After all, anyone can claim to have had an "idea" twenty years before they put something into production. Maybe King did see it and was subliminally influenced. Or maybe there really are no fully original stories left to write. Either way, I didn't take your query as an insult to King, merely inquisitive since you have found similarities in BOTH movies/stories. Nothing wrong with that.

Speaking of similar themes has anybody else noticed "UTD" is kinda like "The Simpsons Movie"?? :devil: :tongue:

[JohnDalglish]

Hi,

And Dark Tower bears some similarities to Homer's Odyssey
(as does ALL Western literature IMO).

Long days and pleasant nights

[kingricefan]

No, I'm still stuck on the similarities between the Geico gecko and my 8th grade science teacher....:eek2:
:rofl::rofl:

[PatInTheHat]

Yeah okay, loose, but I can see some definite parallels, especially the pain of being "special" & different, and the ubiquitous antagonism that always comes with the fear people have of such a person...Frankenstein's monster would have certainly understood:oops:...gee whiz, I mean personally, I think he just needed a good pal:love:.

I'm not sure, but I think it may have actually been the actor, playing the part of Powder, that had some kind of pedophilia charge hanging over him.

[~Ally~]

I'm not sure, but I think it may have actually been the actor, playing the part of Powder, that had some kind of pedophilia charge hanging over him.

No, I checked it out and it was the writer/director, Victor Salva.
The boycott of the movie was staged by his 20 year old victim, whom Salva had a video of himself performing oral sex with when the boy was 12.

[kingricefan]

Yeah okay, loose, but I can see some definite parallels, especially the pain of being "special" & different, and the ubiquitous antagonism that always comes with the fear people have of such a person...Frankenstein's monster would have certainly understood:oops:...gee whiz, I mean personally, I think he just needed a good pal:love:.

I'm not sure, but I think it may have actually been the actor, playing the part of Powder, that had some kind of pedophilia charge hanging over him.

No, it was the director of the film and after the charges came out there were a few scenes cut (the shower scene with all of those naked young men) from the movie that were considered too erotic for the public to handle. And yet we all got to see Sharon Stone and all of her blond glory on the big screen!! Go figure............

[JohnDalglish]

And yet we all got to see Sharon Stone and all of her blond glory on the big screen!! Go figure............

Hi,

Ah, but did we though?

Have you ever freeze-framed THAT scene?

Ooops, what a giveaway LOL

Long days and pleasant nights

[kingricefan]

Hi,

Ah, but did we though?

Have you ever freeze-framed THAT scene?

Ooops, what a giveaway LOL

Long days and pleasant nights

Sorry, John, I'm a gay male with no desire to go there.................:biggrin2:

[Bryan James]

I'm a straight male, but that scene wasn't my fondest childhood memory.

I thought "Call of Cthulhu."

I lost my love for Sharon Stone in that awesome "Magnum P.I." episode where she portraid her twin sister. That was a long time ago.

[~Ally~]

"Basic Instinct" is a good movie--the second is awful--but no, I have not freeze framed "that" shot!
So JD, please tell, DID she reveal all?
Is she even a natural blond??

[JohnDalglish]

"Basic Instinct" is a good movie--the second is awful--but no, I have not freeze framed "that" shot!
So JD, please tell, DID she reveal all?
Is she even a natural blond??

Hi,

Well! Ally!

What makes you think I have? LOL

Long days and pleasant nights

[DwayneHoover]

You have to throw in Duddits from dream Catcher. Powder is a little Dudditzy.

[~Ally~]

Well! Ally!

What makes you think I have? LOL

Hmm, no comment.

[petalpea]

I can see a loose resemblance between them.....weird guy with extraordinary gifts being alienated. Not any more than that though.

[Srbo]

"Basic Instinct" is a good movie--the second is awful--but no, I have not freeze framed "that" shot!
So JD, please tell, DID she reveal all?
Is she even a natural blond??

You did not ask me, but the answers are yes and yes.

[MadamMack]

I can see a loose resemblance between them.....weird guy with extraordinary gifts being alienated. Not any more than that though.

Ditto.

[JayzinSmith]

Speaking of similar themes has anybody else noticed "UTD" is kinda like "The Simpsons Movie"?? :devil: :tongue:

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/8364/burnsdome.jpg

[DwayneHoover]

No, it was the director of the film and after the charges came out there were a few scenes cut (the shower scene with all of those naked young men) from the movie that were considered too erotic for the public to handle. And yet we all got to see Sharon Stone and all of her blond glory on the big screen!! Go figure............

This director also made the movie "Killer Clowns from Outer Space." There is a very creepy scene, knowing what I know about the director, with little kids in their underwear for like, twenty minutes. That director bring the Sexy Back!

[GNTLGNT]

You did not ask me, but the answers are yes and yes.

...though a close encounter with some Miss Clairol would've been in order...

[~Ally~]

...though a close encounter with some Miss Clairol would've been in order...

Urrggghhhh. :barf:

That's just too much info man, get a grip!

[GNTLGNT]

Urrggghhhh. :barf:

That's just too much info man, get a grip!

....deleted, and then I....deleted...it was raw...deleted, deleted-OK?:laugh:

[Srbo]

...though a close encounter with some Miss Clairol would've been in order...

Had to Google that one, didn`t know what it is.
Yeah, don`t know, not in that scene though...:D

[fushingfeef]

I avoided "Powder" because of the bad reviews at the time of its release, but now I'm curious and will have to rent it.

[kingricefan]

I avoided "Powder" because of the bad reviews at the time of its release, but now I'm curious and will have to rent it.

It's actually not a bad movie.

[aquamac]

Sorry to bump this thread, but was searching online for this, as I knew someone else out there would've noticed these 'similarities', I watched Powder when i was living in the states and thought it was an amazing and very moving film, many years later watched the Green Mile and was also very moved, but it felt kind of familiar, but I recently watched Powder again and pow i was like this is the green mile, the similarities are not trivial in the slightest.

TGM leans so heavily on powder, heavy enough for there to be a very win able court case, strange guy, outcast with special powers who is so good almost a deity, misunderstood and too good for this world, ends up killing himself as he cant take it anymore? The whole plot is the same, theyre both even based in the deep south, and some of the scenes are almost an exact copy of Powder, where Powder makes the deputy feel the death of the deer, makes him experience it by grabbing him, and he changes overnight versus John Coffey grabbing Tom Hanks, and where Powder takes the sheriffs dying wife and lets them communicate through him and feel her and cure her - ahem this is the crux of the whole film, isnt it?

Ok swap a Sheriff for a Prison Guard and throw in a mouse and you got Green Mile, or better still take 'to kill a mockingbird' and powder, jam them together and you get the green mile, dont get me wrong i love the green mile but to say there are 'some similarities' is laughable, TGM owes A LOT to powder - i'm not trolling but its a fact, watch them back to back

I am shocked this one hasnt come out to get SK, or maybe it did a long time ago...

All the best great site btw...

[Moderator]

I think if there had been a winnable case, he would have heard about it but there has not because with many, many stories there will be similarities but there has to be more than just a similarity to make it plagiarism.

[fushingfeef]

There are coincidental similarities, but the real question you have to ask is, why would one of the greatest storytellers of our time even need to copy anyone else, let alone a so-so movie from the 90's? Great writers like SK have no shortage of good ideas.

Also, whether or not believe in a collective unconscious you're going to find these cases of synchronicity occurring everywhere. Similar cultural inputs lead to similar outputs.

[aquamac]

There are coincidental similarities, but the real question you have to ask is, why would one of the greatest storytellers of our time even need to copy anyone else, let alone a so-so movie from the 90's? Great writers like SK have no shortage of good ideas.

Also, whether or not believe in a collective unconscious you're going to find these cases of synchronicity occurring everywhere. Similar cultural inputs lead to similar outputs.

'coincidental similarities' - interesting, i wonder if i coincidentally wrote a multi million pound book and film writes with very similar detail to green mile whether SK would see it as coincidental similarities lol, i doubt it very much, i mean i havent even touched on the detail but the main character is a simple creature almost child like with depth and purity in a place of prejudice and trying to help... cmon, its the same and you know it!

let alone a so-so movie from the 90's - if you call powder a so so movie then you only denegrate TGM also, powder in its day was and is very powerful, just because a few critics werent turned on by it at the time, does not take this away, in fact powder is a more refined story with way more subtlety and not so much cliched drama injected into it, but the stories are essentially the same, and some of the scenes in fact identical, in fact powder has some better lines also - where sheriff Barnum says to his deputy "I never thought we'd find a man too white for you there, Harley"

anyways i dont know what exactly is meant by "collective unconscious", but... once (when i was in a band) the bass player started jamming on a riff, i said i am really liking that, and started injecting some bits into it, the guitarist joining in as did the drummer, we got into the groove and it was good and it started to develop, and i could see we were all feeling it, we tampered with it for 10 mins or so and it shaped into something pretty good, then i suddenly realised, we have written the song 'tequila' at which point when it got to the break i shouted tequila! at which point we all fell about laughing, but we didnt keep working it and call it pink gin and release it as a single, although i hear it happens a lot lol

i am not saying SK did it deliberately, all i am saying is cmon, this is soooooo close its kinda uncomfortable, whether its a court case, well.. who cares, but its way too similar to be called 'coincidental'... thats all, admit it, and for god sake dont call powder a 'so so movie', because that sounds like you have never watched it at all, which would be a great shame, its a beautiful film about prejudice of a white man, and perhaps other films lean on this film too a little, such as phenomenon.

it is very close... admit it.. go on... its good for your soul... or at the very least watch it...

all the best
mac
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