Filmmaking Redemption

Rating: 10/10 (16 November 2018)

It's hard to find a decent picture nowadays. Our screens are polluted by the filthy and unimaginative trash that we in the modern age, and ages of recent late, call remakes, reimaginings, and, if you're referencing the gaming industry, remasters. But here is a film that couldn't in any way be reimagined, remade, or remastered. As well, films based on books, in my opinion, often fail to convey the thoroughness and whole-heartedness of the written word. But here is a film that [I'd say] is the exception.
Here is a film whose actors portray their characters with such imagination of their own that it's hard not to like them and relate to them. You may think that Tim Robbins, wearing that sneaky grin and sometimes straight face throughout the film, is a lifeless individual, but in reality, it's that muck-eatin grin he dons on occassion that let's you know, yeah this guys up to something. I knew it from the moment Andy Dufraine presented a simple exploit to the prison guard, Byron Hadley, allowing him to could keep his money instead of having it taken by the IRS, those bloodsuckers. In the days following, as Andy watched his "co-workers" sip cold beers, he simply sat there, grinning facade, basking in the glory of his deviousness and the formation of what would become his master escape plan.
It's the simple things like that that made this film such a pleasurable viewing experience for me. The minute successes and acts of kindness and the subsequent feeling of pride and accomplishment from the two main characters gave me, in a way, my very own sense of accomplishment.
This is a rare feat. It's difficult to create a film that actually allows the viewer to feel as if they are living the life of the character, in whatever moment of said character's life said film is taking place in. By the end of the movie, I had a renewed feeling. The only other time I can recall having this reaction is when I saw The Silver Linings Playbook (2012), another excellent and good-feeling film in which the main character undergoes a traumatic experience and we see his continued suffering, post incident. I felt as though I was with him through every moment of his struggles.
In conclusion, and this seems to have become the theme of my review, it's thr simplest things that give this film its great vibe, and compells me to continue watching all the way through to that very last scene in which Andy and Red (Morgan Freeman) share a distantly viewed hug alongside the lightly rolling waves of the Pacific. Simple, yet beautiful, and heartwarming.