simply, the best

Rating: 9/10 (8 September 2001)

Spoiler Alert A few films can presume of the importance that a film like The Shawshank Redemption does. Shawshank Redemption is considered by some critics as one of the best movies in the story of American film (listed as #2 by the Internet Movie Data Base,http://www.imdb.com). For many other people the film is considered as one of those films which theme is universal and that transcends throughout the ages and decades. And this is because topics like freedom, justice and injustice, greed and honesty, and perseverance are mixed in a manner that specifies what the human condition is and will be.
The performances given by Tim Robbins and the always acclaimed Morgan Freeman give the film the emotional touch that is easy to get as a viewer. The story is centered in a person called Andy Dufrense who was convicted for the murder of his wife, him, being a young and intelligent banker was one of the most promising persons in his category, but all his potential was brought down with his conviction, undoubtely unfair since it is obvious a person like Dufrense wouldn´t be capable of such a thing like murdering the person he loved with all his heart. Also the story of the "institutionalized" Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding played wonderfully by Morgan Freeman, a man who lost all hope of ever going out even if he had already payed more than he had ever expected for his crime, until he met Dufrense, who as anyone could see teaches Red the meaning of what to have a dream is, even if it takes you 20 years to accomplish it.
Greed comes in form of Captain Byron Hadley played by lancy Brown, an unscrupulous man, who ironicly although he directed the place were the "bad" element of society is reformed he was no better than the ones he subdued. Hadley since he first met Dufrense sought in him his golden egg gouse and used him to fulfill a fraud becoming Dufrense now into a real criminal, which he wasn´t until he got to jail. When the opportunity to prove Dufrense´s innocence comes, Hadley makes everything as possible to avoid that even though the assesination of a young person was in the middle. At the end, Dufrense escapes from jail through a hole he had dug for 20 years covering the evidence with several posters from the hollywood divas from those times from Rita Hayworth to Jane Fonda.
But, let´s talk about Andy Dufresne for a while, let´s take the scene at the roof of the building in which Andy gets beers for his coworkers in exchange for work. At the end of the scene we can see the smile of Andy, a happy man, who was happy with small little accomplishments. Andy was someone who was talented and yet, all he wanted was a yat in Puerto Vallarta near by the beach and that would be the heaven for him. In a world full of intelligent people who use their talents to get to the top, andy was one who needed little to be happy.
Of course the success of this film is based on what most of the famous films do, an utopic idea of society or how the human being should have been. Andy is the prototype of how all of us should be, never loose the sense of hope, always fight for what you want, greed and money is not good, and of course, being like this you will always succeed. After all, a movie that should be seen by everyone.