Totally transcends its "prison drama" subgenre--one of the best films ever!

Rating: 10/10 (17 March 2003)

**POSSIBLE SPOILERS (nothing too specific)**
Watching The Shawshank Redemption is a downright religious experience; it is truly a film to treasure, and one that nobody who sees it will ever forget. Director Frank Darabont's translation of a Stephen King novella to the screen is not a great film because of the story itself-the plot is actually quite simple and could be carried out in under an hour with relative ease-but because of the way the story unfolds. Shawshank is a lengthy film (clocking in around 150 minutes), but it doesn't feel so long because the leading actors are spot-on perfect, the pace is beautifully metered, and the emotions (which are never the least bit contrived) build to one of the tensest climaxes in American cinema.
The story is told not from the perspective of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), banker imprisoned for a double-homicide he didn't commit, and the main character in this epic tale, but from the perspective of Red (Morgan Freeman), `the only guilty man in Shawshank Prison.' Red has been in Shawshank for twenty years; he's a well-liked inmate among his peers because he's the guy that can obtain some of the luxuries of the outside world. If you want a box of cigars or a poster of your favorite pin-up girl, Red's your man. Often, throughout the course of the film, we wonder why Andy isn't telling the story-after all, he's the character we sympathize with most. In the end, we know why, and we're glad Red told the story, since the film ends up being more about him than Andy. Andy, instead, is just the vehicle for Red's realization that hope and perseverance can free the human mind.
While Red is the resourceful handyman, Andy is the smartest man in Shawshank. He hatches a plan to get the other inmates to accept him by having the guards provide them with alcohol, he comes to be the tax preparer for all the guards in Shawshank as well as several neighboring prisons, he revamps the prison library, and even becomes the personal accountant to the warden, a cold man who, we learn, is just as criminal as any inmate. Yet all the while, we don't realize just how smart Andy Dufresne is. We believe he'll get his revenge on the legal system that landed him in jail, but this movie isn't about vengeance. It's about making the most of a bad situation, and about the lengths a person will go to free himself-physically and spiritually.
The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1994 and lost all of them, mostly to Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction (both solid films in their own right). In any other year it may have won all seven. Freeman definitely deserved every possible accolade for his performance, while Darabont's direction and Roger Deakins' stark cinematography bring great effect to the story. The Shawshank Redemption is one of the most successful films ever on video, and rightfully so. It's one of the best films ever.