A sociopath prison warden, sadistic guard as well as cuddly and misunderstood inmates.

Rating: 1/10 (1 September 2003)

Shawshank Redemption is overrated. It's a decent, above average film, but by no means a great film.
The inmates are pretty much likeable, while the warden and his pet guard are monsters. Also as Freeman's character says: "You know that everybody in here's innocent?" As the story develops you feel like he is right, the only criminals are the ones guarding the prisoners.
This is a sentimental piece made to stir the emotions, but not to stir them too much. Just enough to make the viewer feel there is injustice in the world but that in the end everything ends well and justice surely comes to he who waits 20 years or so for it.
The Shawshank Redemption is, as I said, a decent film, possibly among the top five films of 1994. IMO the best films of 1994 are Pulp Fiction and Léon.