simple, pure, beautiful cinema in a world of mediocrity

Rating: Null/10 (26 April 2001)

Some of the comments on this forum have described this film in parts as being unrealistic and simplified but to me this film represents a purity and a brilliance in film making that is very uncommon. What were those people at the Oscars thinking when they passed up Morgan Freeman for best actor? He was quite simply superb....his character is so believable, so warm and compassionate, if ever a convicted murderer displayed his traits of reason and forgiveness it'd be a crime to keep him behind the sterile, evil walls of somewhere like Shawshank. Robbins also plays his role in quiet perfection as the thoughtful city banker wrongly imprisoned for murder. I think the man deserves his comparisons with Orson Welles.....what an actor. We see both brutality and humanity in the prison guards and some lighter moments when they all begin to realise they can profit from Dufrane's financial wizardry though of course the forced and immoral contract with Dufrane in enriching the sadistic Capt. Hadley and Warden Norton always lurks in the mind......the potential for violence and betrayal never far from our minds. If US prisons were like this, I feel genuine pity for the inmates, no matter what their crimes.
I thought the imagery and cinematography, as well as the stirring soundtrack to be other remarkable features. From the Maine flag fluttering in the breeze as the camera sweeps over the prison....to the inmates listening to the Marriage of Figaro and finally to Red's walk through those sun drenched fields in search of Andy Dufrane's promise under that great Oak tree. In one word, inspiring.
The ability of this picture to move has been vividly described in many past comments and the script in itself is like some beautiful songbird that flew into Hollywood and brought the the notion of quality to new levels. It's not that it is complicated, it is a simple story but that's where its genius lies I believe, that's why most rank it amongst the greatest movies ever made. Robbins' descriptions of the Pacific beach he one day hopes to be on, his heroic attempts to bring these wretched and brutalised prisoners a taste of freedom and normality actually carries them beyond those ideals and on to a higher plain almost. He gives them (if only for a short time) an inner peace which transports them beyond those prison walls. Though we never forget that the great majority of them are there because they committed violent crime, the irony of it, as Robbins says himself, is that he had to come to prison to become a crook. This seems to be the case when men and women are incarcerated for long periods. Robbins' hope is of course one of the major themes of the film and I found that you can, in a strange way, transport this to your own life, to your current problems and fears and that is the genius of films like this, it liberates the viewer as well, makes you think.