Don't be fooled by the box office success

Rating: 9/10 (16 January 2017)

I wanted to rate this a 10 but seriously I rated Good-fellas a 9. So I am not even sure why people rated this so high. I mean 9 is about right but at 9.3 that would mean a bunch of people gave it a 10. Seriously we are talking about the godfather and plenty of other great movies. Gladiator and so on. And its a 5 star movies (as I would like to say basing it off the hotel rankings). but 10, OK.
Normally I click the spoiler alert on her just because right over it says black list and frankly when I hear the phrase "blacklisted" i think of Al Capone, so no thanks on that part.
Which leads us right into the character Andy. He was accused of killing his wife and her lover. Plus the scene was set in the late 40's. Perfect time to set a script. I love the classic cars. You don't get people saying "that would never happen" most people weren't even alive then. Along as they aren't talking on their cell phone in the movie, then most of the time people just watch. Andy gets falsely accused mostly to his cold demeanor in the court room. Its 2017 and I watch Snapped, forensic files and I was a avid court TV watcher before they changed, and if you go to court in the fashion he did with a judge deciding your fate (i didn't see the jury read the verdict on that one maybe i missed that part) you are definitely not going to get any sympathy from the court. Which in his case and now you need all the sympathy you can get. He does all the taxes and even money laundering for the warden when he eventually plots and escapes prison only to get that money out of an account and then go on to live life on a beach. Why let another person steal your credit for hard work when you can get credit for your own work. I wouldn't suggest breaking out of prison to do it (that would be a felony) but high stakes high rewards, right?
Also with Andy's character. He made you feel different and you wanted to watch him. He was not predictable. When turned up that music in the wardens office I was like "wow that took some guts to do." And also about the guys who kept torturing him and raping him, that made you feel different about things. This was a person who was struggling. And you wanted to see how it ended.
What makes this film great is its dark and it brings you into the movie. Books have a lot more time and lot of ways to get you into the book with words than movies can do with video. Words lead to imagination and simply can give you a very vivid image. Video is what you see and what you get. Hard to duplicate a book so the best you can do is be dark about about describe people the best you can do in a 2 hour time block. Sounds easy but its not. When you watch this movie you feel like you are in prison. They don't waste time talking about the food in prison. We got it, I am sure the food isn't exactly like a restaurant in the Hampton. They spent most of their time explaining Andy.
This is another story about a person who didn't fit in with what society has labeled him and he told people the truth and they didn't believe him. So he figured another way to bring the people who held him captive while fixing his own life. It didn't happen over night. He didn't just take what life gave him, he took what life gave him and used it against them and kept a memory of it and wrote everything down. My favorite part is when Tim ribbons is talking to Morgan freeman saying " i had to come prison to learn to be a criminal.". I got chills from hearing that. Cause that is the truth. A smart banker mixed with criminals is very dangerous. They know all the laws, the loop holes and they have the patience and confidence to do it.
I wouldn't rank this movie higher than the godfather like a lot of people have it on here. But its ranked as a 5 star movie to movie. Which puts it in the category of the godfather, casino, Good-fellas, Brave-heart, and the Gladiator. Then again this film is unique, the prison guards beat the lights out of people after the light are out.