Beautiful and captivating

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2002)

Few movies can grab the soul like this one. For me, every time I watch The Shawshank Redemption, I remember the music. I remember the framing, how each scene is perfectly constructed and put together, displaying the lives of the criminals. Every oily moment with the warden, every frightening vision with the `Sisters,' and of course, every point of pontification by the venerable Andy Dufresne. While I do not consider this the greatest movie ever, it is awfully close o the top.
The performances by the likes of Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Clancy Brown (who was doing Dr. Pepper commercials at the time) and Bob Gunton as Warden Norton were all exceptional. One thing that always keeps me coming back is the score by Thomas Newman. While he has based his entire style off this memorable score (listen to The Road to Perdition and Shawshank back to back, and you'll see), the subtle movements and piano keys turn this into one of the best films of all time.