A Humble Review of the Awesome Film: A Shawshank Redemption

Rating: 10/10 (17 September 2012)

Suphie W. 9/13/2012
The Shawshank Redemption Movie Review Though I haven't seen this film since the year of 2004, (it came out in 1994), I seriously remember being moved by it. I remember, quite vividly and with a pleasant vibe, how moved my friend and I genuinely felt when we first watched it together. These were in the days when Blockbuster was still around and when it was more monetarily feasible as well as logical to go out to your local movie store and rent a movie to watch with your friend; this was, with all due respect, before the current and giant economic melt-down that we are all experiencing. So, to set the scene and mood of the period in which we watched this film for the first time, the candles were lit, and my friend and I were seated eating gummy bears, and we stayed up and watched that sucker into the wee hours of the morning, cat-sitting. The economy was better, then, for sure, we all know, but, we were having a hell of a time (now my friend is away, teaching English abroad, in Korea, soon to retire there, though; she's had enough of it, as the lifestyle and the culture were just generally getting on her nerves, and she felt she had achieved what she wanted). Well, basically, the Shawshank Redemption is all about solitary confinement in a small, insulated, but high-security prison in middle-to-Southern Ohio, set in the '50s. Morgan Freeman and his white counterpart in the film (race was a factor back then), partner up to give each other moral support and courage during a very tough time for them both. The part that struck me most about this film, though, was that Tim Robbins, or, the character played by Tim Robbins, was put into solitary confinement, where food was shoved in his little cell in an unsanitary manner, and he was treated, as the proverb or saying goes, like a dog; and where he couldn't see nor hear from anyone for a long, long time; it was verifiable torture. In addition, Morgan Freeman, who plays someone who is, like Tim Robbins, on the death row, plays your average cool-cat gentleman who was convicted for the murdering of his wife or something, but who claims he didn't do it. There are many cafeteria scenes where the two bond joyously over their own jokes and jiving, and where they eventually become better friends. Basically, the two bond over their common suffering, and help each other through their sorrow. Indeed, Bob Gunton also plays in the film, a man who plays the jail-owner, or something. He appears, in real life, to be much older than either Robbins or Freeman, born in October of 1959, and 1937, respectively. Robbins notably graduated with honors from the drama program of UCLA in 1981, then went on to do other great things, such as forming the Actor's Gang Theatre Group, which expressed radical political views as seen through a European lens. In addition, Robbins has received many dramatic awards, and continues to do sporadic work in film. Freeman, of course, is the mighty train who continues to do well in whatever he does, and is well-liked by all, really. Bob Gunton has a tendency for playing strict, militaristic, authoritarian roles when it comes to his film-work, and he plays the role in the notable movie of The Shawshank Redemption. There are several intense scenes in the movie, The Shawshank Redemption, and many of them include the showing of the intense pain of both Freeman and Robbins, as they elude their grief. Robbins, in particular can't take the pain of being "locked-up" so to speak and often shouts, screams intensely out of frustration with having no one to talk to, and out of mental and emotional pain. Morgan Freeman notably cries, which is all the more pitiful as one sees his weary countenance.