Robbins and Freeman excellent with magnificent supporting cast

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2001)

That such an excellent film could possibly derive from a short story by Rita Hayworth before she was a mean gleam in anyone's eyes, rewritten here for the screen by Stephen King, is in itself a surprise. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman turn in excellent performances, ably helped by a supporting cast of fellow inmates and prison wardens which give the film a wholeness as against a film with two stars and some other actors. I'm not one for physical violence, but in this film the violence is limited and justified by the story line, as this is inevitable in prisons at any moment. But the film is much more  friendship and love, with its humourous moments.
Photographed almost in a 50s style but with an obviously 90s mentality, Roger Deakins not only fills the screen visually but also emotionally, an extraordinary feat indeed. Thomas Newman caught that emotion well and his accompanying music is very correct. Morgan Freeman pleases me more and more each time I see him, though I still feel that it is in `Driving Miss Daisy' where he gives his best performance. He has wisely kept out of Sidney Poitier stereotyping, though it must be said that times have changed and Poitier had to reflect social conditions of his time and thus opened the way for excellent actors like Freeman and Denzel Washington. Frank Darabont has created a wonderful film  but number two best of all time in the IMDb scale? Well, I can give it a high 8 out of ten, about the same as the other Darabont/Stephen King film `The Green Mile', another prison film, hard, harsh. You might like to try Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn in Tim Robbins' film `Dead Man Walking' (also filmed by Roger Deakins) which has a similarly powerful message, but without so much violence.