I’m not going to make a grand statement about how The Shawshank Redemption is a film that regularly comes up in conversation and is often referenced in pop culture, but there is something about this elusive film that kept it in the back of my mind up until I made this list. Probably because it ranks as THE #1 on the IMDb Top 250, so that must make a big deal, right? Also I realized that out of the 15 films on my list, 3 of them were from 1994 (Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption). Coincidence?
Number 1. The highest rated film of all time (according to IMDb users, who obviously have their own biases). Some bromance between Morgan Freeman and some random guy who I guess never acted again? Tim Robbins? Oh wait… turns out he has an Oscar from Mystic River (2003)… sorry Tim. Anyway, I underestimated The Shawshank Redemption, and thank goodness, because it made the film all the more amazing.
The Shawshank Redemption is the story of Andy Dufresne, who is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. He claims to be innocent. There he meets a man known as Red (Morgan Freeman), whose talent is smuggling contraband into the prison. Their first encounter is when Andy asks Red to smuggle in a rock hammer, since he has an interest in geology. What follows are decades of friendship and bonding that allows Andy to remain hopeful despite his depressing situation.
Red is the narrator, and he believes in giving up all sense of hope in order to survive the crushing atmosphere of prison life. The order, the monotony, those things are ingrained in Red. He worries about Andy’s inability to give up on having a life outside of the prison.
But during their years in the Shawshank State Penitentiary, Andy becomes valuable to the warden and the guards because of his successful banking skills. He soon becomes entrapped in the warden’s plans to launder money by having the prisoners do manual labor jobs in the town. While working for the warden at first has its perks, it quickly turns into a lose-lose situation for Andy.
Most critics consider the film’s greatest asset to be the accuracy with which it depicts prison life. It’s the 90s version of Orange Is The New Black I guess? And Andy does resemble Piper a little bit, with his educated background and his propensity for standing out in the prison world. Not to mention his dreams of getting out, while most of the others seem to have accepted their fates.
The Shawshank Redemption didn’t actually do that well when it was released in 1994, but after being nominated for 7 Oscars, word of mouth helped it become one of the top rented VCRs of 1995.
I’ve seen A LOT of classic films in the past two weeks, but I think The Shawshank Redemption might actually be my favorite of this entire endeavor. The ending is truly unforgettable, and the way it makes you appreciate something as basic as freedom is very powerful. But the film goes even deeper and proves that a man in prison can be as free as a man in the real world, and the same goes with the feeling of being trapped.
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