The best movie, ever!! Two thumbs up + eight fingers 10

Rating: 10/10 (18 October 1999)

I dont really think anyone can put into words the greatness of this movie. This is a movie that truly makes you feel for the characters. No special effects, no action scenes, no big budgets, no dance floor soundtrack. This movie is sheer genius.
So many prison movies have been made before but you never get a hint of a feeling of how is must really feel like to be jailed for life. This movie got me well and truly depressed. I really felt for the characters of Andy and Red. Two decent human beings with a true friendship, stuck in jail watching their lives go by within the inescapable prison walls. The projection of the prison, its guardians and its system was superb. You realise that the prison is a world of its own, and with time, in order to survive you have to learn to accept that world and forget about the outside, or do you? This movie in a way tests you. 'Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things' says Red at the end. But near the end, I found myself losing hope altogether. I felt that this movie would end with Red and possibly Andy dying in prison. I do not get at all emotional when watching a movie, but the closing scene brought tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat, and I still get choked at that scene everytime I watch it. The scene and narration with Brooks in the half-way house is also very powerful.
The discussion between Andy and Red after Andy's time in solitary is spell-binding. Some scenes are shocking. By the way I have probably seen this movie 30-40 or so times and still watch it.
The music (especially when Andy arrives at Shawshank in the prison bus shown in an overhead shot, simply beautiful!!), the story, the direction, the acting, the cinematography, the characterisation. I honestly cannot fault this movie and I think it is simply criminal that this movie did not win any Oscars. I think that by comparison, Forrest Gump was a load of rediculous mindless trash. I just could not understand what the fuss was about with Forrest Gump. But thats another story. Another example of Big Budget nonsense over-shadowing good quality movies. The Shawshank Redemption is in a league of its own and Tim Robbins deserved an Oscar for best actor as did Morgan Freeman for supporting actor in his portrayal of Red.
This movie is also an eye opener for so called 'expert critics'. Just go back and see the initial reviews this movie got when it was first released. I personally never go on what these critics have to say and movies like The Shawshank Redemption remind me why. No wonder they're always giving 'two thumbs up' for every half baked movie that comes along. They're probably all thumbs and no fingers.
The Shawshank Redemption is my all time favourite and I'll give this movie two thumbs + eight fingers = 10 out of 10