Movie Review: The Shawshank Redemption

By Nick Fletcher

Director

Frank Darabont

Actors

Tim Robbins (Andy Dufresne), Morgan Freeman (Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding), Bob Gunton (Warden Norton), William Sadler (Heywood), Clancy Brown (Captain Hadley), Gil Bellows (Tommy).

Famous Quote

Andy Dufresne: “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies”.

Review

The following review is the fifth and final installment of an ongoing series in which I have reviewed the top five movies of all time, according to https://www.imdb.com.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) is an American Drama film based upon the 1982 Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film was a box office disappointment earning only $16 million during its theatrical run. The film would go onto to be nominated for seven Academy Awards.

Going into watching this film my expectations were through the roof, based upon all of the online rankings, and the verbal testimony from friends and family, The Shawshank Redemption was the greatest film ever made. All I can say is that…. It lived up to the hype.

First of all, unlike with some of the other films that I have reviewed, I thought that the plot alone was quite intriguing. With some of the other four films that I have reviewed this year, I didn’t think that the plot was what made the movies great, they were more reliant on acting and dialogue. While The Shawshank Redemption has incredible acting and dialogue as well, I also think that the fact that it is based off of a Stephen King story makes the plot super intriguing as well.

Now for that acting I was talking about. Tim Robbins (Andy Dufresne) and Morgan Freeman (Red) were incredible in the film. The chemistry that the two displayed on the screen was second to none. Over the course of the film, as the two characters become closer and closer as friends, the two actors were able to make it feel so believable. They were able to make you feel like you were right there with them, in the prison yard, sitting on a bench.

The real question that needs to be asked here is not whether I liked the film or not, I think it’s impossible not to. What really must be asked is whether I think that The Shawshank Redemption is the best of the five films that I’ve reviewed so far, and my answer to that question is yes. This list is the way it is for a reason, and I think they nailed it putting The Shawshank Redemption at number one. So do yourselves a favor and go watch this film.