Melodramatic...Feeling Rehabilitated

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2019)

One of the finest adaptations of Stephen King's novels, par or even beyond 'Stand By Me'. The two and half hours spent for this movie was totally worth it. The movie was a box office bomb, mainly due to other magnificent movies like Tom Hank's 'Forrest Gump' which were out at the same time. But the movie was a great success in home video, breaking records for the most rented video. No wonder it has a magnus IMdB rating of 9.3 and tops the list of 'The most rated IMdB titles'. This is the best work of Frank Darabont and he was successful in adapting the novel well. Even after two decades,this movie is still considered as one of the best movies ever made by senior critics.
The movie takes you to the prison life of Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding(Morgan Freeman) and Andrew Dufrsene(Tim Robbins). Andy is serving a life sentence for a murder charge of his wife which the prosecution says he did after he caught his wife on bed with some golf pro. He befriends Red in the prison and he gains respect of his fellow prison mates and the guards through his unique behavior. The corrupt jail warden Mr. Norton(Bob Gunton) makes use of Andy's financial skills to earn thousands of dollars. Andy decided that he had been there for such a long time and need to get out of there when Norton and Capt. Hadley(Clancy Brown) glooms his last ray of hope of being free from the charges when they murder Tommy(Gil Bellows) who claimed that he know the real one who committed the crime for which Andy was serving his sentence. Not only that he break out of the prison, he also make the warden and captain pay for what they did. Andy also took all the money which was deposited at the bank which belonged to Norton as all the details of the fake account holder were set by him only.
The movie shows the limits of human endurance. The film's firm foundation is its meticulously chiseled screenplay. Thomas Newman's exquisite music scores are deep and takes us to another realm. With work from vast array of talented scene designers, costume designers, composers, cinematographers, and various other Hollywood artists, the cast of The Shawshank Redemption had a strong foundation to work with. You can undoubtedly say you saw some of the most convincing performances you could witness in a film. While both Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman shine as Andy and Red, the supporting artists too were not any behind. Brooks Hatlen played by the veteran James Whitmore is just an example. Each of these actors show a true dedication to their art, and a focused purpose in their motivations.
I have lost count on how many times I saw this movie and I have recommended it to many of my friends. None said they would give a rating below 8. I am a huge fan of Stephen King's adapted works and loved 'Stand By Me', 'Cujo', 'It', etc. But this one is beyond description.