EXCELLENT. Shawshank Redemption is a phenomenal film about the human condition and a man's battle to not lose his humanity.

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 1999)

For the longest time, since first seeing this movie in 1994, I never could place my finger on WHY it has remained one of my all-time favorites. At first, and most obvious, was that it was a Stephen King screenplay, as I love how Mr. King writes, not from the horror aspect but from the suspense aspect. This is a jail movie, and I have never really liked jail movies, they just never interested me. However, this film was much more than a jail movie. My growing interests in the visual and written arts, and continuing study thereof has made me consciously aware of WHY this is one of my all-time favorites.
The Shawshank Redemption, you can even speculate from its title,"Redemption", that there is a struggle with humanity going on here. This film is largely based on the human condition, and the struggle for this man, Andy, to not lose his humanity in his incarceration.
Through a series of events, too much to elaborate on in this 1000 word limit by IMDB, Andy overcomes the emotional and physical barriers of his imprisonment to find his peace by means of a daring and well calculated in years of preparation, plan which puts the warden and certain guards in the hands of real justice finally. All these characters in this film, are so deep, that each one really deserves his own critical analysis. This is a must see movie, and not one you can watch once. You have to watch it several times to grasp what the writers have put forth. It is truly one of those films that comes along out of nowhere, and has a great impact but is not recognized for what it really is. As is all great art at the time, that illustrates the struggle of humanity and the human condition. Kudos to Stephen King for this gift.