Worth watching, but not extraordinary

Rating: 7/10 (4 July 2006)

Some consider it a masterpiece, some just an example of experienced film-making. I'm sticking with the second opinion. I really do like The Shawshank Redemption, mainly because of its actors, but it remains a movie which pretends to tell a shocking story while using black-and-white schemes, unlikely characters (Andy Dufresne makes some saints look like amateurs) and incomplete character backgrounds. It is utterly unauthentic wherever you bother to question its settings or characters.
A better prison movie should at least give the audience an idea of what rape, the loss of freedom, the loss of contact to your family and friends, bad conditions and dullness can really do to a person.
I like the movie when it manages to show me how Brooks isn't able to adapt the outside world anymore. I find it mediocre when it tries to tell me the story of true friendship, strength and hope itself lying within a prison. I do not like it when it sells me men who manage to get through such hard times without developing any kind of trauma or negative characteristics.