getting a life "do over"

Rating: 10/10 (3 February 2008)

Kids who play unorganized games of baseball, basketball, or football will often make use of a "do over". The "do over" happens when the kids can't agree on exactly how legal a play was, whether there was a penalty, or what exactly happened. That particular play is forgotten and the game proceeds. This film is about a life "do over".
By all measures Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) was successful: he was a banker, married to a beautiful wife, and living in a pleasant home. When his wife is murdered, he is convicted and sent to prison. While not guilty of murder, he convicts himself for neglecting his wife and - it is hinted - his privileged life. Prison forms the environment for even harsher penalties for this crime. Ironically in his endurance Andy finds a deeper appreciation for simpler things: friendship, opera arias, and a cold beer after hard work on a hot day.
Red (Morgan Freeman) is also serving a life sentence for murder. He slowly becomes Andy's best friend. Red is the prison's unofficial retailer and a peerless guide for Andy in survival. It is through Red that Andy gathers a close ring of friends.
Andy's hope is born from the prison warden's avarice and hypocrisy. Using his banking skills Andy is able to reward the warden's greed and his friends. Andy organizes a prison library where Red and his circle work.
Andy realizes he must act after the Warden reveals the full extent of his insatiably evil appetite by murdering the only person who could prove his innocence.
This is a long movie but like all great movies that isn't noticed. While it is guilty of being in the common genre of prison movies and having the sort of clichéd ending for which Hollywood is canonized, lionized, cursed and scandalized, the true measure of this movie is that it still delivers a potent story. This is hope for the hopeless.
Zihuatanejo!