In everybody's's list of great movies for a good reason

Rating: 9/10 (11 November 2011)

Two thousand four hundred and five IMDb users have bothered to write a review of this movie. I read all of them and did not find a bad one. Of course I didn't! I had not seen the movie and that is true. Every single one of my friends and acquaintances has, and not surprisingly, recommended it with the highest of praise. The fact that I had not did put into question my claim to be a movie lover. Now that I have, I admit it serves me right to have been questioned so.
It is a damn good movie for all the reasons everyone wrote in their reviews and why critics also raved about it. I have no excuse for not watching it before other than my prejudice toward any movie having to do with jails, the prison life etc..
Halfway into the movie, I was not convinced my prejudice about movies dealing in any way with prison would change, but the acting was good enough to keep me going. I was very happy with the direction this movie took, especially with the ending. Not since "The Birdman from Alcatraz" and Escape from Alcatraz have I enjoyed a movie that has prison as the setting; I don't expect it will soon either since my phobia with that is not going away soon. Finally, having seen Shawshank, I can now have an intelligent conversation about movies with friends and acquaintances without risking admonition for my failing to see the movie. Anybody that hasn't seen it yet and claims some knowledge of movies deserves, as I did, to be castigated. I've made my peace with the matter and I'm moving on.