The Greatest Film to Never Win an Oscar

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2007)

Far and away, "The Shawshank Redemption" deserved, with every fiber of its being, to win the Best Picture Oscar for 1994. Morgan Freeman, who, until "Million Dollar Baby," had been robbed of an Oscar for films such as "Driving Miss Daisy," had his pinnacle performance for "TSR." Beautifully crafted, totally captivating, and flowing effortlessly with Freeman's narration, "TSR," for all its gray colors, paints an exuberant portrait of life behind bars--the wrongly convicted Andy Dufrane (Tim Robbins) adapts to prison life, all the while calculating an escape that spans three decades. Keeping his friends close, and enemies closer, Dufrane takes a seemingly innocent hobby and turns it into a redemption that takes him to Mexico, with Red (Freeman) serving his time and following suit.
If there is a film that speaks more to the believer in all of us, I haven't encountered it yet. It doesn't matter what hour of the evening, or what mood I'm in, if "TSR" is playing...I'm watching, and loving it just as much as the first time around.
It's been fourteen years...if you haven't seen it, ask yourself, "What the hell's wrong with me?"