Reader Recommendations: The Shawshank Redemption

My best friend and sister were in utter shock when I told them I haven’t seen “The Shawshank Redemption”. So they strapped me down on a chair and forced me to see this, figuratively. I’ve heard from everyone that this is a must see movie and I should probably knock this off my list. But this leads for me to have an expectation that this movie is going to be phenomenal and anything less will be a disappointing. After the jump I tell you what I thought about it.

I assume most of our readers have seen this movie so I won’t dive greatly into the details of this movie. But the story consists of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) being convicted to double life sentences for killing his wife and his wife’s lover. As he adjusts his life to jail, it seems he is different from most other convicts. Andy makes friends with Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman), and their friendship gets them both into trouble and gets them a few moments of freedom (limited as it is).

The two best of friends

Off the bat, one the greatest moments of this movie is that it is narrated by Morgan Freeman. I personally find this voice to be amazing, and he could narrate the wedding of the Royal Family, and I would still be hanging on his every word. This might have been the reason why I never found a ‘low’ in this movie. Whenever there was an interlude, Red would bridge the two scenes with a small story and this would keep my attention span stuck on to this movie.

This leads me to the actual development of the story. It was amazing; I was so immersed in the world of Andy, Red and the other prisoners. I found myself, even after the movie, talking and showing off mannerisms as they were in the 40’s. And when I start to do that, I know this movie has really caught my attentions. Another great thing about the story is that I never knew what was happening next. This was no conventional movie, the story would twist and turn, and with that came a refreshing blast of “What is going to happen next”. For example, when Andy wants the rock hammer, my mind jump to the idea that he wanted to break out, but as the movie progresses, he just uses it for his rock collection. You know, until the end when, well I won’t ruin the ending for few folks who haven’t seen it.

The jail buds enjoy some freedom

The acting and characters were amazing; I just found the chemistry between all the jail mates amazing. Even the smallest and unimportant characters played greatly in the story of Andy. Again, even though this movie is centralized around Andy, I felt the full story behind all the other jail mates. Who they all were, why they were in (because the “lawyer fucked me”) and a bit of a selected few after story was shared. All these were just amazing to hear, and I loved watching it all.

I could go on and on about this movie, there wasn’t anything I really didn’t like in the movie. I mean it was great; it had everything from a great story to a compelling cast. Drama’s usually make me sleepy and bored, but I was awake and alert for this whole movie hanging on every single word that exited Red’s mouth.