I Never Cried Happy Tears After Watching Movies, Until I Saw The Shawshank Redemption

Rating: 10/10 (19 July 2005)

For quite some time, I've been hearing how good The Shawshank Redemption is. But Unfortunately, I never got the chance to see it. After seeing it last week, I can safely say that the movie lives to the hype, it even exceeds it.
The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Andy Dufresne ( Tim Robbins ), a hotshot banker who's convicted of murdering his wife and his lover, and who's sent to jail. In the prison, Andy meets Red ( Morgan Freeman ), a " man who knows how to get things ". And a friendship begins between them.
There are many great aspects about the movie. I'll begin with the most obvious one, the uplifting tone. When The Shawshank Redemption ended, I was so happy I cried happy tears, I was never happier after watching a movie.
The story of the movie is so simple, yet it's very touching and effective. We spend almost half the movie watching 2 men ( Andy & Red ), talking and walking in the prison yard. Slowly we get to know them better, and in the meantime absolutely fall in love with them. I think friendship was never portrayed better in movies.
One of the best things about the movie is the acting. Morgan Freeman was never better in my opinion, Tim Robbins gave a very good performance, but I think he was better in The Player, and the supporting cast ( Bob Gunton, William Sadler, and Gil Bellows ) was pretty good too.
Frank Darabont's directing is flawless. He was able to make us believe we're watching a real prison, helped in that by the great cinematography. He excelled in creating the right mood for both the uplifting scenes ( the opera scene, the library scenes ) and the depressing scenes ( the scenes with Brooks, and the rape scene ). It seems Darabont is at his best when he's making movies set in prisons, as evidenced by The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. When he tried to change that in The Majestic, the results were so-so.
So, I definitely recommend watching The Shawshank Redemption, if you haven't watched it already. This is truly one of the best movies ever made.