The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Basic plot: A man is sentenced to life in prison for allegedly murdering his wife and her lover.
Yes, I know I’m 15 years behind on this. Lauren decided to be super-awesome with this week’s (? – we seem to be doing them almost weekly at this point, at least) movie trade-off. I decided to be equally awesome and make her watch Once.
To put it as simply as possible, this is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen in my life. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but I also know its not that uncommon of a viewpoint. Every single facet of the movie works perfectly – the writing, the acting, the cinematography, the score. It’s all spot on.
Before seeing it, I was always under the impression the entire movie was all about Tim Robbins’ character, but upon watching it I was happy to realize that’s not really the case. Sure his story may be the glue that connects the movie from beginning to end, but altogether, there are at least four complete stories within this two hours twenty minutes run time.
This movie makes prison seem scary as hell, particularly considering 90% of the movies I can name with prison scenes are comedies, but it’s the kind of gritty realism that’s necessary to make the story work. You would think it might be hard to make a viewer sympathetic to murderers and rapists (see Alien 3 for an unequivocal failure at this premise), but Shawshank does it. Granted, you’re never told what most of the people did or at the very least none of them seem like serial killer-type murderers so much as people that might’ve gone a little too out of control at a very inopportune time.
Plus, the actors totally sell their characters. Morgan Freeman is so cool it’s hard to care even if his character had murdered his own daughter, and James Whitmore is fantastic as Brooks the crazy book-keeper. Tim Robbins isn’t necessarily super likeable, but his character’s plots and schemes make him a good hero to root for. Though the Elvis-looking guy isn’t on screen that much, he makes just as good use of his time as the other minor characters that lurking around the whole movie. The warden and the guards are startlingly efficient villains.
After only one viewing, I’m not sure exactly how high I’d rank this among my favorites, but I’m very tempted to say I’d have a hard time putting it any lower than Top 50.
Frank Darabont is officially my new director to play catch-up on.
April 27th, 2009 at 10:29 am
No disagreement from me. You already know Shawshank is my favorite movie of all time. As far as I’m concerned Shawshank’s final 40 minutes are the most moving and riveting moments from any movie.
Morgan Freeman losing best actor to Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) has always angered me. Mainly because Freeman has the better performance but also because Tom Hanks had just won the year before. I also think Tim Robbins deserved a nod.
It shouldn’t be too hard to catch up on Darabont’s films. He only has like 5 movies, 4 of which are Stephen King adaptations. I bet you’ve already seen Green Mile and The Mist. That just leaves The Majestic (A slightly above average romantic-drama with a decent performance from Jim Carrey) and then there’s the cult classic Blob movie that he wrote which I haven’t seen.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
The Green Mile edges this one out for me. It’s one of my favorite dramas.
April 27th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Glad you liked it!!
While The Green Mile is an exceptional movie, it is far too sad for me to watch again. I like this one infinitely better and watch it all the time.
April 27th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
I actually haven’t seen The Green Mile, but luckily it’s on Netflix Instant Queue. I’ll probably watch that tomorrow night.
Tonight, I need to wrap up my Wes Anderson catch-up with Darjeeling Limited.
Also, Doug, fun fact: Darabont also wrote Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Which is awesome. I did enjoy The Mist, and if I can’t find anything good on sale Wednesday, I may end up finally buying the two-disc special edition.