Brilliance to the apex

Rating: 10/10 (31 July 2002)

The Shawshank Redemption, I first viewed this film when i was maybe 8 or 9 and i didn't really understand then. When i saw it later in life my appreciation for the film grew and constantly does every time i view it. It is the first large film from Frank Darabont and he directs with such feeling it doesn't strike as a beginning for his career but, more as it was done by a professional at the art of film making.
The Shawshank Redemption is a story of courage, friendship and confinement in the setting of a large prison in New England, Shawshank. Andy Dufresne is a gifted banker who is convicted of murdering his wife because she was cheating on him with a golfer. He is sentenced to two life sentences to be served at the Shawshank Prison. Andy arrives, and is judged by his suit as a rich man who will crack on the first night, Andy does the contrary. He ends up showing his strength in silence, he doesn't make attempts to make friends until one day when he needs an item. Ellis Redding, he's the man in this particular prison who knows how to get things and does so for people willing to pay the extra 10% on the item. Andy introduces himself in the yard and asks for an item 'Red' isn't anxious to get it for him at first, but gives in at the end.
I wont reveal any more of the film for the reason that, you have to experience it yourself. All that i can convey across this review is be prepared to be affected in ways you never imagined. I would go as far to praise it as one of the most powerfully affecting stories ever conveyed through film. Don't presuppose anything just because it was overlooked at the Academy Awards, Superb acting, directing, cinematography and story telling will magnetize you.
9/10 "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies"