An achievement in film making and life overall.

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2009)

A lesson of life. An extraordinary piece of film making that could relate to life itself.
This is along with "The Godfather" the most influential movie of all time because it gives Hollywood a good name. I mean, it displays the best of it through memorable acting, marvelous direction, extraordinary art direction and cinematography, and best of all; it achieves to deliver a message that may sound a cliché but ends up being a vital part of life, you know it deals with "Hope". Sure, this is the anti thesis of "The Godfather" in terms of the good characters always "win", or the positive message, but that's another story.
The pace of the movie is perfect because it gives it's time to explain the events at it's full expression and through little details we fully get into the world of Shawshank and we get to know perfectly the principal inmates of it. Andy Dufrense is played brilliantly by Tim Robbins who deserved an Oscar nod for his display of intelligence, desperation, cold blood when needed and best of all, hope. But Morgan Freeman steals the show as a character came from Heaven. He truly inspires all the possible feelings to the audience. One of the all time best performances. Clancy Brown also delivers s fantastic performance as the creepy and cold blooded guardian. He's the man! The events of the movie will get the best of you if you give them the chance. You will feel happiness, hope, anger, sadness, and even you will have the time to reflex for some specific moments.
Death is seen as a new way of watching things here. Through Brooks demise we learn that he was institutional, I mean, his life was prison.
But as it's a big budget film, it has to deal with the obligatory Hollywood situations such as the tender Jake sub-plot, the necessary violent sequences, and the message it gives to the audience.
I don't like poems that much but this movie is the closest thing to film poetry. When art mixes correctly with talent and big resources such as money, great things can happen and this beautiful movie is the prime example.
Friendship is displayed as one of the most important things in the world. But you will find more values such as redemption, justice, tenderness, and being grateful. The ending always makes me wanna cry, but I play the strong guy ;)
Please watch this movie in order to witness one of the best movies of all time, if not one of the top 3.