Worth its number one rating

Rating: 10/10 (10 August 1999)

"The Shawshank Redemption" deserves the title of the Most Moving Movie of All Time.
Picking a list of "The Best Movies Ever" is always a ridiculous and futile practice. A look at IMDBs top 10 shows several entirely different movies, from "Star Wars" to "Schindler's List" and "The Godfather." The only characteristic shared by all 10 is that they are "worth watching." So, since Shawshank held the #1 slot for many months, it received plenty of ranting, illogical, completely undue criticism:
* That its characters were static - Simply not true. They do become moral icons by the end of the movie, but they evolve into their parts.
* That there is too much preaching/narration/"babying" - There is nothing out of place in this movie. Red doesn't labor his narration because he's pedantic, he does it because he's straightforward - this isn't a college professor speaking - and absolutely, astoundingly beautiful. Yes, there is the panoramic shot of the azure pacific at the end - but it dovetails neatly with the story - "Something that big would scare me." (Not verbatim).
* That there are perhaps 15 minutes at the end of the movie in which the fate of the characters is clear and 5 after questions have been resolved - This is absolutely necessary. "The Shawshank Redemption" attempts to leave the viewer thinking about ideas, not plot twists. Though this is only ever argued on scholastic (rather than aesthetic) grounds, even Star Wars' ending would have seemed abrupt without a brief, ceremonial resolution.
* That its foreshadowing or narration cuts drama - missing the point. I shutter to think of this film if told entirely from the present - it would loose its beauty. There's deliberately a lot of "time passing" sequences. The real reason this movie has its high ranking is that it grapples with "hope" - and hope, like all abstract notions, becomes concrete with introspection, and introspection takes time. This is not a "prison escape" movie.
See this movie. Think about this movie. Talk about this movie. The Shawshank Redemption thinks and feels more than other works of popular cinema, and demands that viewers do the same. I almost envy anyone who hasn't seen it yet; the first viewing is absolutely magical.