"Hope is a good thing"

Rating: 10/10 (20 April 2020)

For perhaps twenty years this film has sat at the very top of the IMDb Top 250 films of all time. An extraordinary feat in itself as blockbusters are released year after year and several make a dash up the list. Its dominance here pegs it for many as the greatest adult film of all time. That this particular story holds this distinction is in itself a fascinating mirror for humanity in the early 21st Century. It is very different from the nearest runners up. There are big dramatic superhero films, fantasy quests, psychotic bloodbaths, gangster sagas and mind-bending psychological thrillers and here sits a story that could be a parable; An adult fairytale where a character falls from grace so many times but through integrity, hard work, endurance and on occasion sheer nerve, keeps climbing from the darkest depths. The real story however is the impact that Andy has on the narrator over the course of their twenty year friendship. Andy reaffirms Red's faith in himself and that is what I believe resonates so strongly with so many people. Andy and Red's story comforts viewers that no matter how bleak life may seem, if they dare to hope, things will get better.