One of the greatest films ever made!!!

Rating: Null/10 (16 November 2004)

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
In 1947,banking boss Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover and given two life sentences in the notorious Shawshank State Prison.Keeping himself to himself and giving off a slightly aloof vibe,Andy finds it hard to settle in at first,but then he develops a friendship with prison fixer Red (Morgan Freeman) which comes to stand the test of time between life within the confines of Shawshank...and even outside it.
Stephen King adaptations are things that generally seem to have trouble even becoming watchable things on the big screen,let alone spell-bindingly brilliant pieces of work.So,it is credit to director Frank Darabont,who would later go on to helm another SK adaptation,the only slightly inferior Green Mile,that he has managed to do just that.
Of all the Stephen King books and short stories that I've read,I've never actually come across Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,yet I was still able to appreciate this films on all the levels it deserves to be appreciated on.
Everything just comes together and works like magic.On the performances front,as the narrator and co-star,Freeman adds solid,engaging and memorable support,but it has to be said he's been in better roles and,for all he's worth,he's outshone in the leading role by Robbins,who rightfully earned the Oscar nomination,and was only cheated in not getting it.He delivers a powerful,intensely focused portrayal of a man who appears in complete acceptance of all the events that have transpired around him and is fighting his own personal demons to adapt to the changes that are happening all around him.I don't think I can remember him delivering a more entertaining performance in any other film I've seen him in.Other great support comes from Bob Gunton as the bible-preaching yet corrupt warden and Clancy Brown as his sadistic right hand man/guard,but,in fairness to them all,they all take a back seat to Robbins.
Despite it's grim themes,the film somehow also manages to be a beautiful one of hope."Get busy living...or get busy dying" says Andy,high-lighting how from the direst of situations,what one makes of it can ultimately deaden despair and bring...well,hope.The topic of how incarceration can bring about institutionalization is also brought up,and how,for those serving life sentences,the ultimate punishment,having spent most of their life in jail,is to be freed at all,to a world that will have passed them by and an age they will struggle to come to terms with."When they send you to Shawshank State Prison,that's exactly what they take...your life",another line from the film that captures perfectly what it's trying to say.
Some would appear detracted that the film has a presentation that is more fitting to a TV movie than a major Hollywood production.But considering it could be put in the same league as all the effects-reliant blockbusters,the further the film could do to distance itself from those kinds of film,in my opinion,the better.
In it's tenth anniversary year,this is a film that everyone who would like to call themselves a film connoisseur owes it to themselves to see.Considering all the rubbish that gets released nowadays,it's good and refreshing to know that as comparatively recently as ten years ago,it was still possible to see quality stuff like this emerge out the woodwork every so often.I consider it to be one of the greatest films ever made (thoroughly deserving of it's position at No.3 on the IMDb Top 100 list!) and easily on a par only with Stand By Me as the greatest King novel to make it to the big screen.It truly is a film of majestic quality and brilliance.*****