Lived up to the book

Rating: 10/10 (4 February 2014)

When I read the book, actually novella, I had no idea it was being made into a movie. I was delighted that I was actually seeing a film after I had read the book - this never happens.
My first surprise was how they pronounced Andy Dufresne's last name - in the book I did not pronounce it do-Frayne. I also wasn't expecting Red to be a black man but a white Irish guy.
This is a superb film that takes the "prison film" genre on and wins. Tim Robbins is perfectly cast and Morgan Freeman is highly watchable. His voice-over really adds gravitas and a link to the audience wondering how Andy will ever survive the awful existence of prison life.
The prison itself is so imposing and the prisoners, for the most part, scary. Although not too many people were in the cinema when I saw it, I knew it would be a film that people would come to love. A small film from a small novella about big things.
The Brooks storyline was so beautiful and sad, that could have been a movie all by itself.