The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

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Directed by Frank Darabont.

Starring Clancy Brown, Bill Sadler, Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins, Bob Gunton.

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In 1946, a banker named Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of a double murder, even though he stubbornly proclaims his innocence. He's sentenced to a life term at the Shawshank State Prison in Maine, where another lifer, Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), picks him as the new recruit most likely to crack under the pressure. The ugly realities of prison life are quickly introduced to Andy: a corrupt warden (Bob Gunton), sadistic guards led by Capt. Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), and inmates who are little better than animals, willing to use rape or beatings to insure their dominance. But Andy does not crack: he has the hope of the truly innocent, which (together with his smarts) allow him to prevail behind bars. He uses his banking skills to win favor with the warden and the guards, doing the books for Norton's illegal business schemes and keeping an eye on the investments of most of the prison staff. In exchange, he is able to improve the prison library and bring some dignity and respect back to many of the inmates, including Red. Based on a story by Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption was the directorial debut of screenwriter Frank Darabont. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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Reviews and discussions

Best Pictures Condensed. Clip(s ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"One of the many fads for cinephilic YouTubers, perhaps next in popularity after mashups and sweded remakes, is the condensed movie. Actually, thanks to a recent Empire contest, the art of sweding and the art of fitting features into a 60-second time frame is now also a mashed-up fad (though I guess sweding has always involved shortened versions). But while in this day and age any fanboy can do a shortened remake of his or her favorite movie or an abridged recut that breaks a film down to its bare essentials (i.e. its use of the f-word), condensing a film is not necessarily a low art. Just look at the 76-minute video Academy by R. Luke DuBois, a conceptual artist who works with both audio and visual mediums. A couple of years ago, using a time-lapse process, DuBois crafted this compilation of sped-up versions of Best Picture Oscar winners, which he says “allows us to explore the temporal, formal, and aesthetic progression of the first seventy-five years of the Academy awards by taki ... " [More]

Re:Six Degrees #3
by Smooth_J in Movie Games

loved it.

"This was really just to see if I could do it...I included cameos that aren't mentioned on the Spout cast pages. Marilyn Monroe-James Whitmore in Asphalt Jungle J. Whitmore-Tim Robbins in Shawshank Redemption Tim Robbins-Ben Stiller in Anchorman (both cameos in the fight scene) Ben Stiller-Danny Devito in Duplex (Devito was the director) Danny Devito-Courtney Love in Man on the Moon I feel like using the thread that I did there was probably a quicker way to do it, but it was making my head hurt so I sort of just expanded it to make it easier. " [More]

10 Posthumous Oscar Nominations ...
by SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com

hasn't rated it.

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"Though I first buzzed about an Academy Award nomination for Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight more than a month before his death, I now want to take it all back. I feel all the talk of Ledger’s posthumous Oscar chances will cloud my mind when I finally do see it, and it will probably also cloud the Academy’s judgment, too. Six months from now, when the nominations are announced on January 22 (coincidentally the one-year anniversary of Ledger’s death), if Ledger is not recognized for his role as The Joker, there will surely be an uproar — actually, Hollywood might just up and self-implode. I’m not the only one annoyed by all the Oscar buzz. Terry Gilliam, who directed Ledger in The Brothers Grimm and the upcoming The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, is calling “bullshit” on the whole thing, particularly against Warner Bros., which Gilliam accuses of exploiting Ledger’s death and chance of a posthumous Oscar for publicity purposes. Considering most Oscar campaigns for live actors are r ... " [More]

July 8th - One Million Years, B.C.
by lopezdash in Movie Watchin Wednesday

hasn't rated it.

"Tomorrow we'll be watching One Million Years B.C., directed by Don Chaffey. It was marketed with the tagline "Travel back through time and space to the edge of man's beginnings...discover a savage world whose only law was lust!" The film was the subject of FilmCouch #62, in which Paul and Adam watched both One Million Years B.C. and 10,000 B.C to find out if 990,000 years of evolution make a better movie. Synopsis: One Million Years B.C. (1966) Starring Martine Beswicke, Percy Herbert, Raquel Welch, John Richardson, Robert Brown. This film was advertised with the slogan "See Raquel Welch In Mankind's First Bikini!" While archeologists tell us humans did not live at the same time as dinosaurs, and our prehistoric ancestors probably didn't look much like Ms. Welch and her co-stars, One Million Years B.C. is a good bit more fun than more scientifically accurate portrait of the era might have been. Tumak (John Richardson) of the Rock People is exiled from his tribe after a fight wit ... " [More]

TOP 5 MOVIES TO TEACH AN ALIEN ...
by SkyPilot in Filmgaming

is neutral about it.

"bavmotors1, you are hereby declared humanity's ambassador. Your films are the sole cargo of the unmanned spacecraft Image1, which launches this morning. Your proposal: Documentaries are right out because that makes the list no fun. Outside of that what an alien “is” carries such a broad range of possibilities that would alter what one might put on the list. Would the alien be like Alf or Galactus? Eating cats or eating planets? Ultimately every study of human kind will produce more questions than answers so that is where I came from with my list. After the number one pick the rest are in no particular order. Contact. The alien has searched the “big ass sky” to find tiny Earth. Contact relates what the experience is like for human kind. The search for alien life might be the only similar effort the two species share. The question Elanor Arroway asks at the end is one I think we'd hope to get the answer to. You know... as long as we're talking. Blo ... " [More]

My favourite film of all time.
by ElectroBoy in ElectroBoy Blog

loved it.

Was this review helpful? [Be the first to tell us!]
"The last place one would expect to find hope would be a prison. Likewise, the last movie in which one would expect to find hope is a prison movie. However, in The Shawshank Redemption, hope is exactly what we get. The Shawshank Redemption is the story of Andy Dufrense (Tim Robbins); a man accused of murdering his wife and her lover and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. He is shipped to Shawshank Maximum Security Prison, in Shawshank, Maine, to spend the duration of his life. Over the next years (two hours, movie time), he finds his way to inner peace and holds onto great hope in the midst of the terror of the prison system. The Shawshank Redemption is one of those films that is a true work of both art and magic. It is a work of art in the fact that it can so perfectly paint the picture of a man who will not relinquish the only thing someone cannot directly take away: hope. It is a work of magic in the fact that you are completely enveloped in Shawshank. From the first sh ... " [More]

Re:TOP 5 MOVIES TO TEACH AN ALI ...
by bavmotors1 in Filmgaming

hasn't rated it.

"Documentaries are right out because that makes the list no fun. Outside of that what an alien “is” carries such a broad range of possibilities that would alter what one might put on the list. Would the alien be like Alf or Galactus? Eating cats or eating planets? Ultimately every study of human kind will produce more questions than answers so that is where I came from with my list. After the number one pick the rest are in no particular order. Contact. The alien has searched the “big ass sky” to find tiny Earth. Contact relates what the experience is like for human kind. The search for alien life might be the only similar effort the two species share. The question Elanor Arroway asks at the end is one I think we'd hope to get the answer to. You know... as long as we're talking. Blood Diamond. Of all the geopolitical movies out there an exposition of the ultra poor dying so the ultra rich can have (or even worse lock away in a box) symbolic tri ... " [More]

Re:Mad Lib #2: Flight
by gambrel83 in Movie Games

loved it.

"Hah, very entertaining. Hollywood screenwriters should really take this technique into account when writing comedy films. [quote user="SkyPilot"] Morgan Freeman Narrates from Shawshank Sanitorium... ...sounding more like old Wilbur Cobb from Ren & Stimpy RED: In 1966, Dick Buist escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of lobster wrangler clothes, nail polish, and an old sphygmometer, damn near worn down to the nub. I used to think it would take seven human years to tunnel under the wall with it. Old Dick did it in less than twenty. Oh, Dick loved the rise and fall of late antiquity, I guess it appealed to his meticulous nature . . . The rise and fall of late antiquity is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time. That, and a big god-damned purple people eater. Like I said, in prison a man will do anything to keep his mind occupied. It turns out Dick's favourite hobby was galavantin' his wall through the air l ... " [More]

Re:Mad Lib #2: Flight
by SkyPilot in Movie Games

is neutral about it.

"Morgan Freeman Narrates from Shawshank Sanitorium... ...sounding more like old Wilbur Cobb from Ren & Stimpy RED: In 1966, Dick Buist escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of lobster wrangler clothes, nail polish, and an old sphygmometer, damn near worn down to the nub. I used to think it would take seven human years to tunnel under the wall with it. Old Dick did it in less than twenty. Oh, Dick loved the rise and fall of late antiquity, I guess it appealed to his meticulous nature . . . The rise and fall of late antiquity is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time. That, and a big god-damned purple people eater. Like I said, in prison a man will do anything to keep his mind occupied. It turns out Dick's favourite hobby was galavantin' his wall through the air lock, a handful at a time. I guess after Tommy was killed, he decided he had been here just about long enough. Dick did like he was told, buffed those ... " [More]

'Skull' drudgery
by usesoap in usesoap Blog

liked it.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful. [What do you think?]
"This is not going to be one of those columns that goes into a lengthy diatribe about the influence on Dr. Indiana Jones had on this reviewer’s life as a child. I refuse to prattle on about owning a fedora and a bullwhip used to scare the bejeezus out of the family dog, or the backyard films created as homage to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and the countless scars and bruises that serve as a testament to my inexperience and/or stupidity in attempts to replicate the adventures of the intrepid archeologist. It seems that the prerequisite in reviewing this latest installment in the Indiana Jones canon, “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” has almost every critic launching into some wistful rant on its impact of his/her life. And while I am certainly one to appreciate the personal power of cinematic experiences, I think this self-indulgent therapy session approach is a tad tiresome now. Let’s take “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull&rdqu ... " [More]

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Review by All Movie Guide

All Movie Guide

liked it.

Adapted from a Stephen King novella, The Shawshank Redemption takes a prison drama and twists it into a fascinating existential treatise on how to approach the business of day-to-day life in the face of a desperately Sisyphian reality. As the film's signature line suggests, "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'." Filmed on location in an Ohio prison, the film occasionally lapses into familiar formulas and well-known stereotypes of the prison-drama genre, but overcomes them due in no small part to a pair of transcendent performances by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. Director Frank Darabont and cinematographer Roger Deakins (a Coen brothers collaborator) recreate the drudgery and hopelessness of prison life in both the look and the details of dreary rituals of daily life. Spanning twenty years in the lives of its protagonists, Darabont's screenplay and direction allow us the luxury of getting to know these men -- hardened criminals, with little hope for the future -- through a series of quietly captivating scenes that slowly build atmosphere and tension without sacrificing characterization and thematic integrity. A critical success but a box office failure when it was first released, the film was nominated for seven Oscars, but won nary a one. Only when Shawshank was released on video did it steadily garner full-fledged public reverence. ~ Dan Jardine, All Movie Guide

Tags: prison , redemption , friendship , hope , escape
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