Every so often in everyone's life, they walk out of a movie where you don't sit through it and think to yourself how you might have done it all differently had you been the director. I have a couple of movies like that, and "The Shawshank Redemption" is one of them. I still remember clearly walking out of the theater in 1994 and thinking that I've just seen one of the best movies that I'll ever have the pleasure of sitting through. A movie so elegant and emotional that is perfect in its way of storytelling. A movie that is about how hope can never die. The movie earned several Academy Award nominations that were certainly well-deserved, but it left theaters all too quickly. Over the years though, it has gained a strong cult following.
The movie stars Tim Robbins in one of his very best performances as Andrew Dufresne, a quiet man who is convicted of the murder of his wife and is sent to Shawshank prison. It's there he meets "Red", a convict played by Morgan Freeman who gets things from the outside for a price. He first sees Andy as he's lead into the prison and predicts that he won't last long inside the prison walls. Over time though, he's suprised that the young man is able to survive and soon, the two become friends with respect for each other. Andy is not a man who "fights the system". He spends his days in his own quiet world, a courage that the other prisoners don't quite understand at first. Robbins has built this character in a way that we the performance is not showy, but subtle. The result is that we want to know more and when we do begin to understand his ways, that only makes us want him to succeed that much more. I won't go into much more in the way of detail about the movie; if you haven't seen it, I don't want to ruin any of the enjoyment of the movie; if you have, I'm sure you already have your feelings about the movie. This is a movie that's not depressing; it has a lot of life to it and I think that when they look back at the 90's, they will see that this is one of the best pictures that was released during this time.
(this was Michelle's pick)
I watched this movie today. Everything about the movie was good- good acting, good costumes, good plot twist, good in the technical aspects that I only somewhat understand. My favorite aspect of the film was the amazing set; the cinematography made the prison seem like a mythic fortress. The technical aspect that missed for me was makeup, as the story passed a large duration of time but the characters didn't visually age consistently. When Andy finally escapes, and he stands in the rain with his arms raised, he looks 25 more than he looks 50. But, given how well most things were done in this film, I suppose that this was done on purpose, to show that Andy has recaptured his missed youth upon escaping.
ReplyDeleteOn IMDB, this is the #1 movie ever, according to users at least (http://www.imdb.com/chart/top). For me, that is a bit too high. Not that I see a ton of movies, nor am I an expert on film, but what missed for me was a strong emotional connection. Our two protagonists were emotionally strong and resolute, so while I was rooting for the duo, I never worried about them, or fretted over their fate. There was good suspense in a few scenes, like Andy on the edge of the roof discussing the thirty-five thousand dollars, his being raped, or Red waiting for Andy to possibly hang himself. But for me none of these moments felt powerful. The most interesting scene for me was when Heywood discovers that his "horse" died in the infirmary after he had goaded the man into his terrified tears for less than pack of cigarettes.
So all in all, a great movie, but I had trouble connecting with the characters emotionally (maybe that's just me, hopefully other people will reply to my impressions).
It's been a few years since I had the chance to watch the Shawshank Redemption, but since I probably won't have the chance to watch it before August, I'll go off the impressions from the last time I watched it. I'm not sure where exactly to begin (Brett's done an excellent job covering it thus far), but it is definitely one of the best movies I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteOne sequence that I remember as particularly striking is Andy's escape from Shawshank. Throughout the film, he is quiet, reserved, and unassuming; however, in his escape, he reveals a depth of emotion that remained concealed throughout the entire film. The violence on his face is evident as he smashes a whole in the sewer pipe, followed by disgust as he crawls through sewage toward the river, and finally, sheer joy as he reaches the river and obtains his freedom. It's as if he kept all the emotions from his incarceration pent up, and in his escape, they were inadvertently released, freeing him emotionally as well as physically.
A second part of the film that sticks out in my mind is Morgan Freeman's commentary toward the end of the film as he travels to Mexico to meet Andy: "no one sets up road blocks to stop a parole-jumper". That commentary seems to highlight the interesting relationship between the severity of crimes and the public's perception of them. I can't place my finger on exactly why I liked it, but like I said, it stuck in my mind.
Overall, definitely a great film, and definitely worthy of being called a classic.
This is one of my all time favorites for sure. One of the most telling signs for me of a great movie is "rewatchability". Certain movies, truly great movies, I can watch over and over again and catch new subtle nuances every time, or at least be entertained every time. This is certainly a great example of that to me. (An example of the opposite would be like "Dark Knight", still a very good movie, but it is what it is.)
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite things about the movie is more of a theme than any single scene. I love the theme of hope. Andy talks about it after he gets out of the hole for playing music over the PA system. He tells the guys that this is where hope makes the most sense. Then at the end of the movie, where Andy and Red have their last conversation together before Andy escapes, Red tells Andy how dangerous hope is, and for first time viewers, it looks like Red is right, that Andy has finally been broken down. Then he breaks out and in his letter brags to Red that "hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things." This is where I connected with the characters, Brett. It's the story of human struggle and how different people cope with it. There's the Brooks way, the Sistas' way, the Red way, and the Andy way of dealing with struggles. Andy's story is one of hope, and the courage and strength with which he endured his life, I really admired.