A litmus test for liberals?

Rating: 1/10 (10 June 2010)

'The Shawshank Redeption' is hands-down the most overrated film of the last thirty years. I saw it theatrically when it was first released, and caught snatches of it on TV over the years since. I used to think that it was just another so-so prison film until the AFI bumped "The Third Man" out of their top 100 films to make room for this mediocrity. Needless to say, I was shocked (also by the percentage of "best film ever" reviews on IMDb and elsewhere). A friend presented a theory that 'The Shawshank Redemption' is the cinematic equivalent of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show'...a portal through which guilt-ridden white liberals can feel "hope" and (decidedly un-Christian) "spirituality" while imagining what it would be like to have a real African-American as a best friend. In that way, it's something of a litmus test for liberals. Personally, I don't know any leftist who doesn't love it, or any conservative (or even libertarian) who thinks very much of the film. It would be interesting to do a survey of voters in the last Presidential election and their top ten favorite films. I'm guessing that this one would have universal appeal to those who were mesmerized by empty promises of "Hope" and "Change".