The movie contains several messages:
1). Like Shawshank Redemption, the movie has a pro-inmate message, particularly in the favorable representation of Dell, Coffey, and the earlier prisoner who gets the chair. The movie praises Hanks' gentle approach to supervising the inmates against Percy's hard-line approach.
2). The movie has a message about the legal / criminal justice system. Coffey, after all, is clearly innocent; yet a jury convicted him during trial. The movie suggests that his public defender, Gary Sinice, didn't offer an earnest defense, comparing Coffey ("the Negro") to a dog.
3). There is a small message about racism. Coffey's arrest occurs in a rural territory, filled with racism (e.g. - the use of the word "boy" by the girls' father; the racist public defender).
4). Related to #2 ^, the movie explores the use of the death penalty. The movie acknowledges that some people are so bad that they deserve to die; see the way the audience isn't concerned when Billy and Percy die. But at the same time, the audience doesn't feel glad when Dell, Coffey, and the other inmate die at the chair. So the movie asks us if the death penalty is correct. As Dell shows, some inmates may repent; and as Coffey shows, some inmates might be innocent, in an imperfect judicial system.
5). The movie, particularly at the end, examines the purpose of death in this transient, flawed, immoral world.
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