Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman have real chemistry. Frank Darabont delivers solid direction.

Rating: 10/10 (28 February 2005)

Frank Darabont's beautiful adaptation of Stephen King's RITA HAYWORTH AND SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION is an experience to remember for life. Tim Robbins is Andy Dufresne and is sent to prison in New England for murdering his wife and her lover. Morgan Freeman is Red, the man in prison who can get things for you. Together, they forge a lasting friendship as Andy's hope helps penetrate the thick walls in Shawshank prison, in more ways than one.
Andy's first few years at Shawshank are filled with beatings and molestation's by a group of cretins called the "Sisters." The leader is a man named Bogs who gives slime balls a good name. Sometimes Andy fights them off but as Red points out, "Prison is no fairy tale world." Red arranges for his friends and Andy to tar the roof of the plate factory giving them all a nice rest from the prison walls. Red is definitely a man with connections. Clancy Brown is the picture of cruelty as the head of the guards named Byron Hadley. Andy overhears Hadley complaining about how the government is gonna take a nice chunk from his brother's inheritance. Andy informs Hadley how he could keep most of his brother's inheritance by allowing a tax free gift to his wife. Hadley nearly throws him off the roof but manages to hear him out. Andy sets up the papers for him in exchange for getting Red and his friends three beers a piece. To everyone's surprise Hadley agrees. This wins Andy a lot of friends especially when one offers him a beer and he tells him he's quit drinking.
The warden gets wind of Andy's accounting skills and realizes he can use him to do his taxes. Andy gets a vicious beating from Bogs and the "Sisters" but this time Hadley beats Bogs to a pulp, crippling him and having him drinking through a straw for the rest of his life. Bogs is transferred out and the "Sisters" never touch Andy again.
When Andy returns he finds the poster of Rita Hayworth he asked Red for. It comes with a note that says "Free of Charge." Red and his friends are happy Andy is back and well. The Warden, played chillingly by Bob Gunton as greed personified, transfers Andy into the library and out of the laundry where Andy worked and endured beatings the first couple of years.
Andy soon becomes an assistant to Brooks, an old prisoner nicely played by James Whitmore. Brooks cares for a bird named Jake and is well liked by Red and his friends. Later, Brooks is released and finds he's institutionalized and can't make it in the real world. Sadly, he kills himself and this worries Red more than anyone because he's constantly rejected by the Parole Board and fears being institutionalized.
Andy sends out many letters requiring more funding for the library, with the permission of the warden, and gets it converted into a beautiful place in memory of Brooks. There, Andy helps many prisoners get their Higschool education's.
Andy helps one man in particular out, a young thief named Tommy, that Red and his friends like as well. Later, Red and Andy find out that man spent time in prison with the real man who killed Andy's wife and her lover. Andy tells the warden and the warden has Hadley shoot Tommy to death.
Andy is now trapped helping the corrupt Warden with all his dirty money. He confides in Red and tells him he wants to spend the rest of his life on an island in the pacific. Red tells him not to think like that but Andy gives Red instructions to find something of his when he gets out. Red promises too but is worried about Andy. Andy says his choice is ,"Get busy living or get busy dying." The rest you can find out for yourself in this thought provoking and perfectly acted film. This is not just some prison movie but a movie about the harsh realities of confinement, the choices we make in our life, and of having hope despite the worst circumstances.
Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins have never been better as well as the supporting cast. William Sadler does a nice job as Heywood, the Hank Williams loving friend who thinks a book in the library is called THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISCO.
Frank Darabont directs this film so well you truly hate for it to end. Roger Deakins Cinematography is epic and inspiring and Thomas Newman's score finds just the right mood. This film is one of those you turn on in the middle of and just watch to the end, an incredibly deep and moving experience.