A modern masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2006)

Andy (superb Tim Robbins) is condemned to stay all his life in prison due to two murders he has not done. There, he will meet Red (Morgan Freeman, impressive, these is one of the best relation love/friendship of all the movies I've ever seen). Red understand perfectly Andy and guides him at the first moments, as we see Andy from Red's eyes, his loyalty and admiration. We understand all these only by his looks and his moves, in one of the best parts of Freeman. Robbins play the part of a distant character, brave, righteous, intelligent, but as everyone, weak, frightened. It's like an angel in the depht of hell. The hardness of the prison and the corruption of the prison system is perfectly told to us by Darabont perfectly. Its realism is sometimes disgusting and the hardest scenes touches you at the depht of your heart. The film has a very high dramatic part, but in any moment becomes too sweety. Its wonderful dialogues, its magnificent study of characters and their psychologies, the charisma of Robbin's character, well absolutely everything helps that this film becomes part of the selected group of every time masterpieces. There are two scenes that I've loved a lot. The one where, Andy is able to listen, relaxed to a Mozart's Opera in the director prison's office (although being in prison, at that moment, Andy is free). And the other where, one of the prisoners, being very old and having spend almost all his life in prison, commits suicide as he cannot get used to a life in freedom. However, despite all the hardness and the few holes to hope that there's in the movie, at the end there's always a little ray of light. The Shawshank Redemption is that, a chant for life, for our dreams... a masterpiece.