Analysis of moral and humanitarian values in The Green Mile: Representations of justice and social awareness

Abstract

Film can function not only as entertainment but also as a medium for representing moral values, social injustice, and human experiences. The Green Mile (1999) presents moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, institutional injustice, and humanitarian concerns through its characters, conflicts, and narrative elements. This study aims to analyze the representation of moral and humanitarian values in the film through Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. A qualitative descriptive design was employed using interpretive film analysis. The primary data consisted of relevant dialogues, scenes, character actions, conflicts, narrative events, and visual or symbolic elements selected according to their relevance to the research focus. The data were analyzed thematically and narratively using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as the primary humanistic framework and Bordwell and Thompson’s film theory as a supporting framework for analyzing narrative and cinematic elements. The findings identify four themes: professional duty and human empathy, social justice and racial prejudice, supernatural compassion and human potential, and institutional power. Paul Edgecomb represents the tension between duty and empathy, while John Coffey represents compassion and human potential constrained by imprisonment, prejudice, and injustice. Coffey’s supernatural abilities symbolize compassion and moral potential rather than direct evidence of self-actualization. The findings demonstrate that social and institutional conditions can constrain the fulfillment of human needs and human potential. The study contributes to film and humanistic studies by integrating Maslow’s humanistic perspective with film analysis to explain the relationship between human potential, moral action, and structural injustice.