From Stephen King's most surprising story, comes this near-poetic tale

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 1999)

"The Shawshank Redemption" is nearly poetic, but misses slightly because of its straight-forward telling. That isn't a flaw really. It's just that considering some of the powerful human emotions and grandiose spritual scenes displayed, the film could have been legendary. Still, this film is destined to be a classic and rightfully so. Stephen King hasn't written another story that was better (Title "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" in the book "Diffrent Seasons" which also contains "The Body" which was made into another great movie, "Stand By Me" starring River Phoenix). Tim Robbins and especially Morgan Freeman are outstanding. Drama rarely gets muchs better than this and the solitude of human existence is depressingly displayed here. Wonderful, wonderful!
Oh yeah, Morgan Freeman's explanation for being named "Red" is probably one of the purely humorous things you'll ever hear.