Prison thriller with violence, hatred, corruption, friendship and joy.

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2013)

"The Shawshank Redemption" is a timeless story of heartbreak, deception and ultimate growth under the most deplorable conditions.
The acting is superior, some of Tim Robbins' and Morgan Freeman's best work as they allow me an intimate look inside the sometimes contradictory nature of a convict's existence, where I am torn emotionally between danger and safety, light and shadow, sanity and sorrow, truth and lies, injustice and justice. In fact, I am lost in all the actors' poignant and memorable portrayals of young thugs, cruel guards, swindlers, thieves, rapists and murders, all standing in their respective spaces quietly listening together to an operatic aria over a loudspeaker on the prison yard.
In this movie, I find almost no one to be all good or all bad. There are exceptions, though. Although there are those in charge of the prison I wish to be caught in a snare of their own making or worse, there are still others behind prison walls that turn out to be heroes I cheer on to win in the end. Like people in real life, most of the characters in "The Shawshank Redemption," both prisoners and guards (those that are not miserably rotten to the bone), represent many shades of gray.
One of the most touching moments in "The Shawshank Redemption" is a scene in which an elderly convict, who has spent the better part of his adult life locked up, is brokenheartedly paroled into a modern world that is as alien to him as his outdated suit and boyhood memories. And his fear of this new and unnatural terrain, crawling with shadier creatures than those he had known behind bars and the exhaust fumes of a thousand horseless carriages rushing past, engulfed him with no hope of ever escaping.
"Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free," from "The Shawshank Redemption."
As bonds form between people of different ethnic groups, economic backgrounds and intellectual levels, I rejoice in their discovery of the human dignity they share. As the story unfolds, my heart hurts so hard, I cry. Then, with tears still in my eyes, I laugh, the same way my family used to laugh together at dinner or a movie when I was a little girl.
Getting older. Times changing. People leaving. Dying.
But at the core of the main character's spirit there shines upon all those who are within its range, including me, a contagious hope eternal. I am still astonished with the euphoria that fills my being each time I view this incredible story about the invincible human spirit.