Flat out one of the most jaw-droppingly amazing movies ever made.

Rating: 10/10 (24 April 2005)

Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman There are some movies that when you watch them you can't help but feel you've done more than watch a movie. Sometimes it feels like you've been part of something bigger, like you witnessed a masterpiece. The Shawshank Redemption is like watching poetry. It is one of the most tragic, heartfelt, and deeply satisfying stories to have ever been put onto the big screen. There really is a reason that this movie is number two on the internet movie database's top movies of all time.
The premise of the movie is fairly simple. Andy Dufraine (Robbins) is wrongfully accused with the murder of his wife and her lover, and he is sentenced to two life sentences to be served back to back at Shawshank prison. The plot is simple, and yet at the same time deeply complex. This movie is a celebration of the human spirit, a celebration of hope and of freedom.
Life is difficult for Andy right from the beginning of his life sentence. It takes him at least a month before he goes and talks to anyone. The first person he does talk to is Red (Freeman), a man in the prison who is able to get things. Need to get a pack of cigarettes, a toothbrush, maybe some playing cards, then Red is your man on the inside. Andy asks Red to pick up a rock hammer so that he can carve stones.
This movie is anything but a fairy tale. It depicts prison life as being cruel, unfair, bitter, and downright horrible. Decent people die, people get gang raped, the guards beat the ever-loving daylights out of anyone who steps out of line. Shawshank prison is one hard place to serve your time.
After being in prison for a couple years, Andy gets transferred from laundry duty to library, mainly so the warden can send his men over to get financial advice from Andy. Andy starts doing income tax for the guards and the warden, setting up trust funds, and various other financial services, and after a few years, he becomes the man who launders the warden's dirty money. Sure, he got transferred to the library, but the only difference is he's washing money and not sheets and clothes.
Andy takes up all sorts of projects while he's in Shawshank. He makes chess pieces for a chess board, he makes it his personal task to obtain funds for and build a new prison library. He helps several of the inmates get their high school equivalence. He does whatever he can to pass the time and keep himself a little bit sane.
I'd hate to spoil the ending for anybody who hasn't seen this movie, so I will be very vague. All I will say is that it is one of the most satisfying and beautiful endings to any movie or story that has ever been captured. This movie is a masterpiece, and you would do yourself a favour to make sure you watch it. And if you've already seen it, watch it again, and introduce somebody else to the world of Shawshank prison.
Bottom Line: 4 out of 4 (own this movie)