A good, but not great, film

Rating: 8/10 (16 November 2006)

This is not the best film of all time, and not even Tim Robbins's best performance of all time. That would go to "Arington Road." Tim's third best performance of all time? Anything else, as these are his only two good film.
Morgan Freeman (ex-Easy Reader, The Electric Company) has turned in countless performances better than this one (Glory is an obvious one), and the rest of the cast of 'Shawshank' doesn't even stand out. I didn't even know Bill Sadler (who is in a lot of films) was in this film and couldn't even find the character he played.
Let's get the plot out of the way: Andy Dufresne (Robbins) is imprisoned for a murder he says he didn't commit. Redding (Freeman) is the wise old lifer who mentors and befriends Andy. The warden, for whom Andy works, is corrupt. The action results from this circumstance, but the focus is on the human and social dynamics of prison. The supporting cast was far too stereotypical, and the plot twists all very predictable. Nevertheless, the film was well-acted, well-shot, and fun to watch. It did not, however, move the earth.
To rank this film above From Here To Eternity, put it on a par with Casablanca and Gone With The Wind, and to have it leaving other classics like Ben Hur, On The Waterfront, and even Rocky in the dust is a bit much.
Shawshank's other main flaw is that it is a bit too political in its portrayal of corrupt conservatives in power.