Rusalka's fourteenth film review: A new kind of "Morality Play"

Rating: Null/10 (21 April 2003)

If anything, The Shawshank Redemption is just a great film, you cannot even begin to disagree with that. It is well written and very believable. This is one of the few films in the history of American Cinema that needs to be as long as it has to be in order to tell the whole story to its audience. As we watch this film, it is almost as if we are watching a great artist create a new canvas giving it color, texture and varying hues. By the time we are through with the film, we can be assured that we have just sat through what is almost nearly an epic, in size, depth and length.
Morgan Freeman, the film's narrator, plays the role of Red with an almost patent sincerity that is hard to pull off most of the time. Tim Robbins' Andy Dusfrene is the film's "pretty boy", always looking on the bright side of anything, which when you are in a place that is as bleak as a prison can be quite tough. The two pull off a symbiotic relationship that far transcends the boundaries of the film itself. This is a "buddy film" but quite a different kind. Red and Andy play off each other well enough, and it is worth it just to watch the film for that reason alone.
The Shawshank Redemption was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Morgan Freeman was nominated as Best Actor, losing to Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump. It lost Best Adapted Screenplay to Forrest Gump. It lost Best Cinematography to Legends of the Fall. It lost Best Film Editing to Forrest Gump, lost Best Sound to Speed and lost Best Original Score to Disney's The Lion King. Of course, The Shawshank Redemption lost the Academy Award for Best Picture of 1994 to Paramount's juggernaut mega-hit Forrest Gump.
My rating: 3 and a half stars