An Outstanding Movie That Will Be Around A Long Time

Rating: 9/10 (3 August 2008)

With the many other entries already here, I won't bore the reader with another synopsis. But hopefully, I will provide the details of one scene that sticks out so greatly in my memory because of the unbelievable (and fantastic) attention to detail that is not only here but is gloriously throughout this whole movie.
Towards the end, Red (Morgan Freeman) is searching for something that Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) left for him. Red has been paroled but the possibility still exists that he will either kill himself like Brooks or commit a crime just to get back into the safety of prison. His day job (bag boy at a local grocery store) is going nowhere.
Months (possibly years) before, Andy gave Red directions on finding something very important if Red ever got out of prison. Red finally with nothing else left to do, follows up on that request. He travels a fairly long way (for him), across some difficult terrain and comes upon the scene described. Yet, it still requires searching and faith to uncover what Andy has left him.
Finally, he finds it, and opens the contents, and his life is changed forever.
What is so important is the minute detail of this scene  the location is not next to some superhighway but far off the most unbeaten path one could imagine. The object is not carelessly left under one rock, but under a number. Many people would have assumed they were in the wrong place after a few minutes of not finding the object and moved on.
Finally, when Red does find it, he looks very furtively around him sure that someone must be watching him. He sits down, now practically hidden from any possible passers-by, and opens the object, and what he finds inside leads him to even more frightenedly glance around, sure now that there must be others watching, he must be found out, HE MUST STILL BE IN PRISON.
This whole scene could have been done it about two minutes, a couple of quick cuts, him opening the box and discovering the contents and then a cut to the next scene. But, it isn't that at all, it is one of the most intricate scenes I have ever witnessed for what is a small advancement of the plot. But that's the catch. This is so important to the plot, that the scene had to be given this kind of detail, so that the viewer would completely understand what Andy was talking about and what Red had to discover. Red for all practical purposes was still in prison  and he wasn't living yet, he was still getting busy dying.
At this moment in the movie, Red (and you the viewer) still doesn't know if Andy made it on the outside. He escaped, but where to? Yes there was that (more or less) cryptic postcard, but especially how did whatever Andy left for Red figure into the story? When would Andy have buried it? How did he know what to put inside it? Considering the search underway for Andy on the day following his escape, if I were Andy, as soon as I recovered the money from the banks, I would have been long gone, far, far out of the state of Maine. I certainly wouldn't want the warden walking into any of the banks and finding me there, and it would have taken several days for the newspaper to decide to publish the article and especially for the State Corrections officials to come down on the warden even with all the incriminating evidence. Andy needed to be gone for several months until all the hoopla had died down before he could return to actually bury the object. So, the intricacy of this scene now becomes clear as it really has to match the intricacy of Andy's planning for every detail This whole sequence is so important to the story, because it's now time for Red to decide if he should get busy dying or get busy living, because he now finally has the choice. Maybe this movie is more about Red's growth then about Andy's resilience. Andy always had his drive, Red needed to learn it. Andy gave him the courage to finally face his own demons and overcome them. Red now has his chance at redemption. Remember, Andy didn't commit any crimes, Red did. Andy really didn't need to be redeemed - Red needed it badly, The performances by Tim Robbins, especially when he tells Red of his request and Red imagines the worst, and of Morgan Freeman in this little scene are spectacular. I cannot possibly imagine any other actors pulling this off.