- Director: Frank Darabont
- Based on the story by Stephen King
- Cast: Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, James Whitmore
- Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
- Morgan Freeman – Lucy, Transcendence, Oblivion, The Dark Knight Rises, The Magic of Belle Isle, Invictus, The Dark Knight, Wanted, Gone Baby Gone, Batman Begins, Million Dollar Baby, Bruce the Almighty, Levity, Nurse Betty, Amistad, Kissed the Girls, Moll Flanders, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Driving Miss Daisy, Eyewitness,
- Tim Robbins – War of the Worlds, Mystic River, Human Nature, High Fidelity, Jungle Fever, Bull Durham
- Bob Gunton – The Lincoln Lawyer, The Perfect Storm, Thousand Acres, Dolores Claiborne, Roswell, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Matewan
- William Sadler – Fringe, Roswell, The Green Mile, The Mist
- Clancy Brown – Hail Caesar!, Dead Man Walking, Bad
Boys
- Gil Bellows – The Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire,
The Namesake
- James Whitmore – Bonanza, Planet of the Apes, The Wild Wild West, Run for Your Life and many other 60’s series
- Why? Good film
- Seen: Once or twice before. Now 6 October 2019
Andy Dufresne (Robbins), a young bank
president, is sentenced to life for the murder of his wife and her lover. He is
innocent.
Red (Freeman) has served twenty years of
a life sentence and is once again denied parole. Red is a fixer, smuggles in
cigarettes, booze, anything.
The prison warden (Gunton) is a sadistic
Bible booster.
After two years of being brutalised by
the guards and other prisoners Andy starts making a life for himself. He and
Red become friends. Andy gives the staff financial advice in exchange for
improvements for the prisoners.
Years go by.
Praise for this film knows no bounds. It
deserves the praise. It’s not the best film ever made, nor even the second best
as is claimed on the DVD box, but it is good. Freeman and Robbins are terrific.
4 ½ * of 5
The DVD box is dated. It obviously relies on the IMDb Top 250. Right now "Shawshank" is No. 1 there with an average rating 9,2, followed by "The Godfather" with 9,1. This list is, of course, nonsense. There is no such as the greatest movie ever made, or the second greatest, or 101st greatest. Movies are great, mediocre and awful, but the distinction is thoroughly personal. It is absurd to claim universal significance for it. Personally, I have found the IMDb Top 250 a most unreliable indicator for movie greatness. Top 10 alone contains four movies of whose mediocrity I have no doubt. On the other hand, the whole Top 250 doesn't contain some of the most perfect and powerful movies I've ever seen. Titles carefully omitted in the last two sentences.
ReplyDeleteYou're right of course, but what did you think of 'Tha Shawshank Redemption'?
DeleteWhat I think doesn't really matter, but for what it's worth I think it's one of the very few perfect movies.
DeleteIt matters to me! And while I don't think it's quite perfect, you and I seem to be on the same side this time.
Delete