1994 137 mins

dir. Frank Darabont

stars - Tim Robbins - Andy Dufrane
Morgan Freeman - Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding / Narrator
Bob Gunton - Warden Samuel Norton
William Sadler - Heywood

I watched this film years ago and it is one of the very few films that after watching it I thought, "that was an absolutely smart film." And so when Mr Kevin was purchasing his five videos for £20 at Our Price I enthusiastically encouraged him to make it one of his five. Despite this though I couldn't remember why I though it was so good and what actually so happened in it so I looked forward to refreshing my memory.

The Shawshank Redemption is based on a short novel by Stephen King and tells the story of Andy Dufrane (Robbins) who is wrongly imprisoned for killing his wife and her new lover who he has just realised is having an affair behind his back. The evidence against him is so stong that he is sentenced to two life sentences to be served at Shawshank Maximum Security Prison in New England.

Whilst in Shawshank he forms a friendship with the prison "fixer" Red (Freeman) and the story follows their friendship and the relationship between Dufrane and his fellow inmates and with the Warden (Norton) and the prison guards. During the years that he is imprisoned Dufrane gradually gains the favour of the Warden and Captain by using his background as a Banker to help them with their tax returns and balance the books and he uses is new position to better the inmates life in the prison and to give them hope that a life sentence doesn't necessarilly mean that you have to spend your time waiting to die. I won't finnish describing the story all the way through because it will spoil a brilliant film.

Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman give arguably the best performances of their careers and Bob Gunton and Clancy Brown as the Warden and Head Guard Captain Byron Hadley make you despise them. There is also the point to make about the novel that the film is based on. "Rita Heyworth and the Shawshank Redemption," shows that Stephen King is not only a brilliant horror writter but can also turn his hand to writting a truly brilliant story like this, and in my opinion the reason this is such a good film is that it is a brilliant story brilliantly told and definitely one of my favourites.

BBM

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