If other people would rave about it less, I'd rave about it more

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2000)

The redeeming feature of this film is that it was made in innocence. Darabont had no idea he was making anything profound. And he wasn't. This is a film about a prisoner who ... well, I can't give away the plot, for it's much better to come to the screen in ignorance; but anyone who thinks that this is a story about how Andy `finds out the truth about himself', or is in any way `redeemed', is grasping at straws. These elements play so little role in the overall structure that we might as well ignore them.
I have a theory: so many people have told Darabont that `The Shawshank Redemption' was a profound life-changing experience that he believed them, and then SET OUT to make another `profound, life changing experience' with `The Green Mile', with predictably ghastly results. I haven't seen `The Green Mile' yet, so I can't be sure.
Don't get me wrong. A great movie needn't be profound, and the film which I think is the best ever made isn't profound, either - it contains no comment at all on the Nature of Human Existence or anything of that kind. Still, `The Shawshank Redemption' isn't even great. It's a very good story very well told. Lucky we get such nice photography, rather than having to put up with Stephen King's prose every step of the way ... Also, Tim Robbins has the lead role. (Lucky, again, that it wasn't Tom Hanks - now THERE'S a frightening thought.) Nobody can do the bewildered but intelligent innocent so well as he can. Fans make such extravagant claims about this movie, but I don't think it makes such extravagant claims about itself, which is why it works so well.