I can certainly see why this is number 1.

Rating: 10/10 (9 July 2014)

This movie is a masterpiece. You may have seen some good movies but few can compare to this one. This is the plot. In 1947 a wrongly accused banker named Andy Dufrense (Tim Robbins) is sent to Shawshank Prison for murdering his wife. He meets the corrupt Warden, Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) and the brutal corrections officer, Captain Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown). He also meets the prison fixer Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman) who was also incarcerated for murder. Andy and Red soon become good friends. Then one day while tarring the license plate factory roof, Andy helps Captain Hadley organize his money in a way that the government will be unable to take any taxes. Hadley tells the other officers about it, including Warden Norton and Andy is soon doing tax returns for all the guards in Shawshank. Life is becoming better for Andy and his fellow inmates, when he pushes for more books for the prison library. Meanwhile the old prison librarian Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore) is paroled from Shawshank. But Brooks can not adapt to life on the outside and hangs himself. Then things get worse when Norton tries to get more money from illegal activities using Andy. In 1963 a new prisoner named Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) arrives at Shawshank and reveals that he knows the man that killed Andy's wife. Andy tries to bring this up to Norton, but Norton puts Andy in solitary and has Hadley kill Tommy to keep him quiet. Now Andy has just about had enough. In 1947 Red got Andy a rock hammer, which he used to dig a tunnel under his Rita Hayworth poster. When he was released from solitary years later he uses it and escapes Shawshank. He turns Norton and Hadley to the police, who arrest Hadley. Norton on the other hand kills himself. In 1967 Red is paroled. He fears he will end up like Brooks but he made a promise to Andy to help him set up a hotel in Mexico so Red travels there where the two friends are united. This film is great for a number of reasons. The friendship aspect between Andy and Red which grows over a long period of time. It also addresses the issue of rehabilitation and if prisoners who have been in there a large portion of their lives can ever be rehabilitated or if they just become adapted to prison life so much that they falter if sent to the outside world. Overall it's just a great movie so I hugely recommend it.