Shawshank Redemption (1994)
What can I say about The Shawshank Redemption? I’m sure its all been said before but I’ve never watched the movie before. I definitely understand why it is the #1 movie of all time according to IMDB. The entire cast is fantastic. The dialog feels natural. It is a very curious story (I wish I didn’t know the ending before seeing it, but its 24 years old so I cant complain about spoilers) and the pacing of the movie felt perfect to me. It never makes you wait too long for anything. It is a lovely story of people becoming best friends. For the 2hr20 minute runtime I was hooked the whole way through.
Any movie that starts with bad ass 40’s music gets automatic points in my books. The movie opens with a scene that cuts back and forth between Andy in court being tried for his wife’s murder and Andy loading a gun getting ready to kill her. He pleads not guilty but is convicted anyhow. They give you just enough at this point to let you wonder if he is guilty or not (I have a theory on that that I won’t get into at the moment), I enjoyed being left to wonder.
As always, Morgan Freeman narrates the hell out of this. It had all the prison clichés you would expect but the way they all play out they don’t feel too much like clichés. The hosing and delousing reminded me of Farva from Super Troopers and I was still laughing that the wardens name is Norden. I’m having a bit of trouble finding any moments that really stood out more than anything else in the movie, frankly I’m still a little shocked I enjoyed this movie so much. I liked how Andy got the boys some beer for their job on the roof. I really enjoyed Brooks and his crow Jake, I was very sad when they had to part ways. Once Tommy came along I finally wondered if Andy was actually guilty. Andy helped Tommy get his high school diploma so when the warden questions Tommy he has no reason to lie when he says the story is true (Ill get to my theory in a moment). By the end of the movie I felt bad for Red, Andy had escaped and Red was left alone. As Red was left to seemingly the same fate of Brooks he remembers the last thing Andy said to him “Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’” and he goes to find the obsidian stone under the oak tree, finds Andy and it’s happily ever after. Oh the warden and the guards also get what the have coming to them.
It really was as close to a perfect movie that their could be. It was a movie about the journey that did not disappoint in the end as I feel some movies tend to do. I absolutely loved it…