Current IMDB score: 9.3
Director: Frank Darabont
Main Actors you care about: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman
Why I liked it: Why does everyone like this movie? Is it really the best movie ever rated? Is it overrated? I kind of think not. It's one of the few movies I'm at least ok watching at any time. There some movies you have to be in the mood for but this I don't think is one. It's just good and not in a mood way. I think that's what makes it rated so highly. Other movies that require a mood to be in because the genre is only when you feel happy, sad, nostalgic, Christmasy, comedy time, scary time, etc. It's just an amazing drama that you could watch in near any mood because it's so appealing to the mind. It has a loner main character who isn't really a loner which I feel a lot of people are like that or think they are like that.
I think this movie is about how life is better when you have hope. Most of the movie aligns with that except kind of the kid who wants to get his high school diploma. I guess as with Brooks who killed himself he didn't fully have hope in his test taking skills? Just like Brooks he didn't have hope? I guess the old guy didn't have as much hope as Freeman did about life outside of prison even though Freeman seems to be the advocate of not having hope. So I don't know about the consistency of the theme of hope but never the less it's the main theme.
Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins do amazingly. Everyone does really well really. That probably adds to the success. This movie also seals Freeman's success as a narrator. There no part where I think "oh this is a movie" instead of oh this is a documentary about Andy Dufresne.
Another thing that shows up in universally well-liked movies is the position the movie places you. Being in prison is something foreign yet everyone can put themsleves in the position of a prisoner and think through what they would do in the that position. Titanic does the same thing. The movie asks you to be in the place of one of the actors and what would you do in that position. This type of feeling you can get from that is universal in my opinion and what makes movies like Shawshank and Titanic universally appealing.
Thing(s) I would change: Escape from prison was awesome. I love that stuff for some reason. What I don't get is I feel like it would taken a lot longer than it took him to dig that far. As well as he would have broken that stone sharpener a few times I feel like digging that much. He also would have been way more tired than the movie made him out to be if he spent most nights digging. It's a movie though I don't think it's a big deal that these were overlooked. Some of them are nit picky as well.
Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
"Get busy livin or get busy dyin'" I don't know if this movie coined the phrase but definitely not the idea. It much like "Carpe Diem" but has more impact I feel like. This quote can apply to many different parts of your life than just your overall direction.
"I've been known to locate certain things from time to time" I think that makes people smile in a sly way but not too sly way. It's a Goldie-locks amount of sly. I think it makes them smile in a good way which leads to this movie success. That's the type of smile you should get from this movie and should really be what all good movies try to achieve.
"Andy Dufresne - who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side." Same kind of smile.
"Sometimes it makes me sad, though... Andy being gone. I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. But still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend." Different kind of smile but on the same general idea.
"I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free."
"Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane."
"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." I don't know who is more right but I like to think Andy was when it comes to hope. I understand Red's point and it's a cynical point. It's better though to still have hope and be hopeful all those years and not get something good near the end of life than be miserable throughout life and then get nothing at the end of life. Right? It's nice to realize that but that doesn't effect whether you or I really have hope in anything though.
Warden Samuel Norton: [as he hands Andy's bible back to him] "Salvation lies within." These lines are so good. These type of lines are in other movies but then don't have ALL the other things this movie has going for it. It takes a whole lot to make a whole movie good.
Similar Movies/TV Shows: Last Castle, The Counte of Monte Cristo, Prison Break season 1 but that's not that great of a show.
"Side" note: This movie makes me want to spend time in jail despite a lot of the negative things it points out about jail.
