The Shawshank Redemption

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Screenshot from The Shawshank Redemption

Ten years ago I reviewed a Tim Robbins movie for London's Time Out magazine. It was written and directed by a man I'd never heard of (Frank Darabont was his name) and it was based on a novella by Stephen King I'd never read.

I liked the movie well enough. It struck me as intelligent, engrossing and beautifully acted, and I said so. But I balked at the big spiritual wallop of the climax, and I was sceptical that the friendship between an African-American prisoner and a white man would have proved unproblematic (to the guards or the other prisoners) in the 1940s and 50s. When I drew up my top ten list of the year, The Shawshank Redemption wasn't on it.

Picture of Andy and Red from The Shawshank Redemption

I had no idea at the time how audiences would embrace this film. Slow and patient, it ran against the slash-and-burn aesthetic of blockbusters then and now. Neither Robbins nor Morgan Freeman were superstar actors. And heck, it was a prison movie: hadn't we all seen enough of that particular genre?

Evidently I was mistaken. A hit on the big screen, it became a phenomenon on video. On the internet movie database, it is ranked the second greatest film ever made (LOVEFiLM members currently rate it sixth).

And ten years later, here it is again, rereleased in an anniversary edition with enough extra features to keep a lifer happy.

As a tribute to Shawshank, we've prepared a little quiz on the subject of prison movies... films set in or around the pen, the slammer, stir, porridge, the big house, the farm... well, you get the general idea. It's just for fun, but be warned, it does carry the risk of brain torture, hard labour, and humiliation...

Tom Charity
tom.charity@lovefilm.com

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Critics' Reviews

Radio Times

Re-released on its tenth anniversary, this deeply moving version of Stephen King's story Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption from first-time director Frank Darabont is one of the best adaptations of the novelist's work. Tim Robbins plays Andy Dufresne, a Maine banker sent to Shawshank State Prison for murdering his wife and her lover. Regularly brutalised by the inmates and the penal system in general, his existence improves when he befriends fellow lifer and prison fixer Red, played by Morgan Freeman. Under Darabont's inspired direction, Robbins and Freeman both rise to the challenge of portraying world-weary dignity against the odds, while the severity of the prison system is underlined in the poignant performance of James Whitmore as a veteran convict trying to make it on parole, but ill-equipped to do so.

Rating of 1
stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

A melodrama of wasted lives and male bonding with a twist ending, more enjoyable for the performances than the narrative, which veers unpredictably between toughness and sentimentality.

New York Times

"...A slow, gentle story of camaraderie....THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION has its own brand of iconoclasm..."

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Members' Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Is this the greatest movie ever made?

A customer from Poole , 20/09/2003

An all time classic. If you haven?t seen this movie yet, ensure that it is top of your list. It tells the story of wrongly accused murderer, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), and his story of survival inside a maximum security prison, aided by his friendship with 'the only guilty man inside Shawshank', Ellis 'Red' Reddings (Morgan Freeman). Along the way it branches into at least six different side stories that, halfway through the movie, while still entertained, one wonders what they have to do with the plot. The answer is everything, as becomes apparent by the end.

I won't bore you with details of the individual craftsmanship that went into this movie, but I will advise anyone who has not seen it to see it, and as soon as possible. Keep watching until the end, and there is no possible way you can be disappointed. It is absolutely masterly directed by Frank Darabont, and while I thought that his other Stephen King-based film, The Green Mile, was fairly slow and self-indulgent, this isn't. It is drawn out and long, but absolutely impeccable and amazingly inspirational. It delivers the message that even in the face of abject adversity, hope will always prevail. This message was recently hammed up quite terribly in 'The Two Towers', but in The Shawshank Redemption, just one very simple quote sums it up: 'Hope is a good thing. Possibly the best thing. And no good thing ever dies'

This is one for the ages. I cannot imagine that the uplifting effect of this movie will ever die. There is no possible way it could be better. The only possible reason I can think of for not liking or being inspired by this movie is that you just don't want to. There are no two ways about it. Even after nine years, this holds strong as an absolute masterpiece of film-making, and a staggering achievement.

192 out of 201 people found this review helpful

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The Gaping Vent of a Sewer.

A customer from Clunton, Shropshire. , 29/05/2007

Artificially sentimental, naive and dispiritingly predictable, The Shawshank Redemption is a fatuous Hollywood fairy tale, about as realistic about prison life as Pretty Woman was to prostitution. The story of Tim Robbins vacant saint is varnished over by Morgan Freeman's banal, cliche ridded voiceover and it's a film that refuses to make you think but indulges our basic notions of revenge and justice. It's TV-movie morality, Porridge is a more realistic portrayal of life behind bars and the interaction between inmates. I would plead to those who love this ridiculously implausible film to educate themselves about cinema. Starting with Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped might be a good idea.

100 out of 134 people found this review helpful

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Too good to miss

dramakings from berks , 03/11/2004

If you haven't seen Shawshank Redemption yet, then lucky you, for I would love to sit down again and watch this movie for the first time. Unfortunately, I've seen it too many times to count. My advice to you is to sit down either on your own or next to someone who isn't going to talk/ask questions/moan or fall asleep and wake up and say it was rubbish.

Freeman and Robbins are a joy to watch, backed up with comendable performances from lesser known actors. Beautifully written and directed. Anyone who says this film isn't very good is either lying or just trying to be different! This is a prison movie that is so much more than the usual, violence, swearing and escape.

39 out of 43 people found this review helpful

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Simply Stunning!

Rob & Fiona Stanley from Hull, England , 27/02/2004

First and foremost, please do your best to disregard our friend Austin's comments in the reviews for this title.

Obviously, this chap can't have understood the film very well, or has little notion of what true friendship in the face of adversity is really all about.

We've seen this film countless times (though never on DVD), and have never tired of it's inspirational and uplifting message of hope.

If this is the first time you've seen this title, we can practically guarantee that you'll want to buy a copy of your very own after you've returned it!

The Shawshank Redemption

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