The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
The only time you’ll want to go to prison.
Presentation:
Frank Darabont takes one of Stephen King’s stories and creates a great film with the help of Roger Deakin’s cinematography. The lighting is on point and you can see his signature beautiful style in the indoor scenes despite being shot on older formats. The film is periodically narrated by Morgan Freeman, which is a treat in and of itself. Tim Robbin’s character is likable, but I have to say is overshadowed by Morgan Freeman’s charisma. Prison almost looks fun and you’d want to serve some time if you also had such a group of friends. It’s wonderfully presented and entertaining start to finish.
Conclusion:
This is a critically acclaimed film with universally positive reviews but I don’t consider it a masterpiece. It’s undoubtedly great, but not epically incredible. It’s a bit too neat of a story and you can unfortunately feel how perfectly crafted the script is, as is often the case with completely fleshed out novels. The some of the villains are a bit cartoonish and there’s not really a particularly powerful reward as a result. It just has a bit of artificialness and lack of depth, partly due to the overshadowing of the main protagonist feeling more like Morgan Freeman’s story than Tim Robbin’s. But prison life feels real and the brotherhood has so much camaraderie you’ll enjoy every minute of their life sentences. Whether the film will deeply move you is something I doubt for a film with such reputation and pedigree.
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Recommendations
Hollywood film noir doesn’t seem that high up anymore.