Without a doubt, one of the greatest ever

Rating: 10/10 (24 June 2006)

For those of you who rated this movie a 1/10: Shame on You! There is no way, even if you don't personally love the movie, that you can deny it's one of the best movies ever made. Just like there are some people who may not have personally loved the Godfather, Citizen Kane, Shindler's List, etc. and, therefore, gave those movies a 1/10. That's a bunch of crap. I personally didn't love the Godfather, but thats because it's not exactly my type of movie. That doesn't mean I bashed it and gave it a 1/10. I could see right away all the great qualities the movie had. So for those of you who voted 1/10 for shaw-shank, ask yourselves if it was really that bad, or was it just that you personally didn't enjoy it as much as everybody else...My guess is you would respond truthfully to the latter, so at least give it a 7, 8, or 9, not a 1. Thats all I have to say about that.
Now about the movie...The writing, the acting, the the music, the theme, etc. It's all as close to perfect as you will find in a movie. I don't want to write any spoilers, so let me just say that each and every scene of this movie is well crafted. It's the type of movie that keeps you on your toes from beginning to end. This is one of the only movies that I can remember that was so good, I forgot I was watching a movie. You can connect with the characters on such a personal level. Everything they do feels real. Nothing is under or overblown. TIm Robbins was the perfect cast for Andy Dufrane. Robbins' melodramatic personality lends itself perfectly to his character (Andy). As a viewer, you can never really tell what Andy is doing or thinking. Unlike most heroes, Andy doesn't make his objective clear to the audience. Morgan Freeman is the perfect actor for the character Red. Listening to him narrate the story is a real treat. I don't want to say anymore for those of you who haven't watched the movie yet. If you are one of those people, I wouldn't skip out on this movie. You will be doing yourself a disservice by missing this film. One of the best.