Rita Hayworth & the Shawshank Redemption

Rating: 10/10 (5 August 2010)

I never saw this film on the silver screen. I didn't want to see it on video either.
The video store owner implored me to watch it and I remember my emphatic reply. "I'm not watching a 3 hour film about a prison con doing tax returns for the guards". Fortunately for me, this video store owner was a mightily persistent sort and I begrudgingly walked home not knowing that I had just rented the greatest film ever made.
This film received no hype nor the mega-bucks publicity given to a lot of movie trash out there. Because they didn't need to - all they needed to do was to let people watch it because word of mouth is the best marketing ticket in town. And so it proved.
The movie is long and relies on a storyline which has been covered many times. Wrongful conviction, brutality in jail, justice in the end. But it is the way in which the story is told and acted out that defines it, quite rightly, as IMDb's top ranked film.
I don't care for Stephen King as an author but his vivid imagination coupled with his skill at telling a story (a short story in this case) is top drawer. We have a man (Dufresne) who after being convicted wrongfully for murder, uses his accounting skills in jail solely to survive. Red (Freeman), the man who can "get things" befriends him. The story then slowly unravels with shocking scenes of brutality intertwined with flickers of how the human spirit can overcome the most hazardous odds. The Warden, Samuel Norton, is magnificent as a man whose corruption has spiralled out of control and will do almost anything to retain the status quo. Clancy Brown as the brutal guard completes the double act.
The story twists and turns leaving the audience not quite knowing whether we are in for a harrowing or euphoric ending. And when the ending comes on that Mexican Beach you can almost hear the triumphant cheers ringing around the cinema halls.
This is film making at its very best and it is highly unlikely that Robbins and Freeman will ever better it. Its one of those few occasions where 10 stars is not nearly high enough.
So if you have been living under a rock or are as sceptical as I was in the early 90's, then it's time for me to adopt my friendly video store owners guise and say "Watch this - its the best film ever made".