The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
*ing Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman
Director : Frank Darabont
“They send you here for life, and that's exactly what they take….. the part that counts, anyway.”
This famous dialogue forms the basis of this prison drama showing the lives of convicts especially two of them Andy(Tim Robbins) and Red(Morgan Freeman).
Andy is a wealthy banker sentenced to the Shawshank jail for life on charges of murdering his wife and her lover. On arrival, he remains quiet and doesn’t interact much with other inmates. But one day while tarring the roof, thorugh a good deed he wins the friendship and respect of fellow prisoners. I won’t give away anything else as you have to see for yourself the different characters and their thoughts, motives and actions.
The movie is set in the 1940s and spans twenty years in the lives of the main characters. Since this movie is more character based, one feels that the story does veer off at certain points in the narrative but that is just part of the appeal. With long panned shots of the prison from top the director creates an atmospheric impact where the tall and massive walls and turrets of the penitentiary play their own part in creating a claustrophobic environment. The background music as with most Hollywood movies is captivating and draws and moves us into the lives of these men. The dialogues are some of the most quotable in Hollywood film history.
Coming to performances, Tim Robbins is excellent as the wrongly victimized banker. I don’t even know the other cast but all from the prison warden to the old “institutionalized” prisoner perform remarkably. And then there is the narrator in all this, Morgan Freeman who is simply mind blowing as Andy’s best friend and the man who is “known to locate a few things from time to time. ”
In 1994 this movie received a lukewarm response and also lost out to Forrest Gump in the Oscar race. However this movie is recommended for every DVD collection. It has become my all time favorite. Watch it because it is a poignant, poetic, aesthetic, and moving portrayal of human emotions like hope, survival and above all redemption. Don’t miss it. I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes.
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies”
“Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
*ing Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman
Director : Frank Darabont
“They send you here for life, and that's exactly what they take….. the part that counts, anyway.”
This famous dialogue forms the basis of this prison drama showing the lives of convicts especially two of them Andy(Tim Robbins) and Red(Morgan Freeman).
Andy is a wealthy banker sentenced to the Shawshank jail for life on charges of murdering his wife and her lover. On arrival, he remains quiet and doesn’t interact much with other inmates. But one day while tarring the roof, thorugh a good deed he wins the friendship and respect of fellow prisoners. I won’t give away anything else as you have to see for yourself the different characters and their thoughts, motives and actions.
The movie is set in the 1940s and spans twenty years in the lives of the main characters. Since this movie is more character based, one feels that the story does veer off at certain points in the narrative but that is just part of the appeal. With long panned shots of the prison from top the director creates an atmospheric impact where the tall and massive walls and turrets of the penitentiary play their own part in creating a claustrophobic environment. The background music as with most Hollywood movies is captivating and draws and moves us into the lives of these men. The dialogues are some of the most quotable in Hollywood film history.
Coming to performances, Tim Robbins is excellent as the wrongly victimized banker. I don’t even know the other cast but all from the prison warden to the old “institutionalized” prisoner perform remarkably. And then there is the narrator in all this, Morgan Freeman who is simply mind blowing as Andy’s best friend and the man who is “known to locate a few things from time to time. ”
In 1994 this movie received a lukewarm response and also lost out to Forrest Gump in the Oscar race. However this movie is recommended for every DVD collection. It has become my all time favorite. Watch it because it is a poignant, poetic, aesthetic, and moving portrayal of human emotions like hope, survival and above all redemption. Don’t miss it. I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes.
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies”
“Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
"Hope is a good thing perhaps the best of all things. And Good things never die".
OR
There are some birds who are not meant to be caged.
OR
Andrew crawled through 600 yards full of shit and came out clean from other side.
The day I saw this movie, since then this movie has become a part of my life.