"The Powder Mile"

[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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