I know this movie was released ages ago but I recently got a chance to see it. Its one helluva movie. For me a great movie is that you remember a long time after you have seen it. You can feel and sense it. Thats what Shawshank Redemtion (SR) does to you.
Shawshank is the name of prison, one of the most striking feature of the movie is that though its a prison movie there is very little violence, no action, neither is it a fast paced movie but it manages to grip you right till the end.
You cannot get Tim Robbins and Morgon Freeman out of you head. Let me do some comparison of this movie with Sholay, not in terms of story but in other areas of good movie making like Author backed characters with very clearly written roles,
Impressive dialogues, superlative directions, excellent screenplay and some very very consumate performance from the lead actors. Characters: Strongly etched characters. Every single character in the movie is important. Lets take few examples
James Whitmore: Brooke the old librarian of the SR. The scene where he dies is a direction masterpiece. You just see the guy standing on the table, then you hear some scraping noise and dust falling near the shoes.. well I would not like to reveal more. How this scene is related to Morgan in the end of the movie is to be seen to admire the direction. Mind you this is just one of the characters in the movie and he leaves a lasting impression
Tim Robbins (the protagonist of the film): Andy Dufresne is a young and succesful banker who is sentenced to 2 life terms for killing his wife and her lover. Absolutely stunning performance. He has underplayed the role to perfection. I reckon this to be Tim Robbin’s best performance. He was nominated for oscar but did no win it
Morgan Freeman: You see the movie through the eyes of Ellis Boyd ’Red’ Redding (he is the sutradhar) , who is the fixer in SR. He can get you absolutely anything in the jail ofcourse for a price. Another superlative performance. As Red, Morgan has lived the role. After the movie you feel as if Red is the real Morgan Freeman. He has also got some of the meatiest dialogues in the movie. Morgan was nominated and won the oscar for his role in this movie.
Dialogues: There are several of those, I have listed a few below
Andy: I wouldn’t say friends. I’m a convicted murderer who provides sound financial planning - it’s a wonderful pet to have
Yeah. The funny thing is - on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.
Red: Describing Andy’s escape -’Andy Dufresne - who crawled through a river of s*it and came out clean on the other side.’
Telling his inmate about Brooke: ’Man’s been here fifty years. This place is all he knows. In here, he’s an important man, an educated man. A librarian. Out there, he’s nothing but a used-up old con with arthritis in both hands. Couldn’t even get a library card if he applied. You see what I’m saying?’
Screenplay: The trumpcard of the moview, no wonder it got an oscar.
Friendship: Awesome. The gradual development of bonding and friedship is so beutifully handled in the movie through some excellent dialogues between Tim and Morgan and monologues by Morgan
Theme of the Movie: HOPE. The Paradox in the movie is that Andy believes in hope while Red is absolutely terrified of hope.
My rating for the movie - V.V.Good. This is a must watch