Innocence can indeed survive in hell

Rating: 10/10 (18 January 2008)

Along with The Green Mile, another excellent Frank Darabont adaptation of a Stephen King story, Shawshank is a masterful and thought provoking film.
Everyone in Shawshank is innocent you see - except Red (Morgan Freeman). The casting for this film, like Green Mile, is nigh on perfect and helps to create a fully believable tale about one man's fight to prove his innocence against a system that doesn't even care.
Morgan Freeman is masterful in his role as Red, one of his best ever, and despite originally intended to be an Irishman (you would expect Caucasian) is brilliant. See Driving Miss Daisy to re-affirm his acting skills.
Tim Robbins, as Andy Dufresne, is excellently cast in the role of an innocent man, a successful banker, jailed for two life terms (in 1948) for the murder of his wife and her lover. Being innocent doesn't count and Andy is locked up in the hell-hole Shawshank prison. But his innocence is a driving force. Like a bird - Andy wants to be free.
To say the sets are impressive is a major understatement. While the exterior shots are of a renovated Gothic prison, the interiors are nearly entirely built on a sound-stage. The production design is top-notch. You never want to go to a prison like Shawshank.
The Warden (Bob Gunton) is a real peace of work - a corrupt official hiding behind The Bible. Clancy Brown (Captain Hadley) is a nice bloke in real life - you would not think it for he is very sinister in this role.
Veteran actor James Whitmore as Brooks Hatlen delivers one of his finest performance in his long career - "institunalised" after spending most of his life behind bars - 50 at Shawshank. The world all these years later is a shock to Brooks that has sad, no tragic, consequences.
Overall this rather long film reeks of quality. Great cast, story, acting, production design, direction.
Highly recommended - must see really - and one of my favourite "serious" films of all time. After I finish this I will put The Green Mile on to make the evening perfect.
Rating: 10/10