The Shawshank Redemption

Without going into too much detail, The Shawshank Redemption follows the time of banker Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) and his time serving his two life sentences for apparently murdering his wife and her lover. During Andy’s time in Shawshank State Penitentiary he befriends contraband smuggler Ellis “Red” Redding (played by Morgan Freeman) and this friendship develops throughout the film.  This film was met with only moderate success upon release and only barely broke even at the box office. Although after positive reviews from critics and multiple award nominations it has seen remarkable success after theaters.

Generally I am not one to watch movies more than once, and even if I do it is even rarer for that movie to have the same effect on me, however with The Shawshank Redemption it was the complete opposite. I was completely gripped by this film and found myself immersed within the story while feeling the overwhelming sense of emotions associated with this film. From the fear to the happiness The Shawshank Redemption takes a hold of you and brings you on a journey, it is story telling at its finest. While watching this movie I never found myself checking the time, or checking my phone, or even worrying about much of anything other then what was going on in the film and with its characters.

Of course The Shawshank Redemption touches on a side of the world I have no experience with, and even further a time period I have no experience with, so this makes it extremely hard to speak about the legitimacy of the film. The Shawshank Redemption is based off of Stephen Kings book "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" and is obviously made to create a compelling film; however the culture of the prison is something that the film trusts you to believe to make the story work. As someone watching the film you must accept that this a different time period than now and was much easier for things to go unnoticed then. 

"Hey, this movie is pretty good"

Basically if you have not watched this movie yet, do so! Don’t try to look up anything about it, or any in depth reviews, just sit down without any real knowledge of the film and allow yourself to become immersed in the story. If you have already seen it, or you come back to this after watching it let us know what you think of the movie and what you do or don’t like about it. I know I did not go into much detail on the movie but that is only because if you have seen it it is something that we can start a discussion about, and if you have not seen it then it is something I wanted you to be able to enjoy fully.

Chris 10/10 – because really what is a perfect movie? Obviously nothing is ever perfect, however when I sit down to watch this film I find myself completely invested in the movie and find myself fully immersed in the film, isn’t that what makes a good movie? Let us know what you think of  The Shawshank Redemption, and what you think qualifies as the perfect movie.