One of the Best If You Get It

Rating: 9/10 (31 July 2003)

People look for all sorts of things in movies, and you can see it in the occasional negative review that pops up for this movie. Some viewers are looking for gritty realism in everything on the screen. Others are action junkies. Still others perhaps take film too seriously and reduce moviemaking to nothing more than a game of who can come up with the edgiest shot, or the niftiest angle. For all of these, there is the very real chance that they simply will not "get" this film, and that's too bad -- they are missing out on a classic.
At its best, film can transcend merely being a series of pictures, no matter how pretty, and can reach down and touch people. That is where Shawshank succeeds so brilliantly. It is not the fastest moving movie, not the edgiest, not the grittiest, it is filmed in shades of gray. But this movie absolutely sings with human spirit, and captures an universal human theme as well as any movie has ever done. And THAT is filmmaking at its finest. Not a game, not eye candy -- this movie stays with you long after the credits have rolled.