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The Shawshank Redemption....

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SeanC

Member
I know it's nitpicking, but that moment felt weird and out of place to me.
It's not about the music itself, it's about the hope of something beautiful existing beyond the stone walls of Shawshank - that Andy found something that wasn't meant to be found in such a place.
Obviously played up for melodrama, but it's totally in line with the film's theme.

A great movie across the board, from its script to its characters and certainly the look and feel of bleakness it gives us inside a prison. Arguably the greatest prison movie ever, though I personally like Grand Illusion and Lumet's underrated The Hill slightly more. Doesn't matter, they're all great.

Oh and Escape Plan obv. You have Ahnold AND Sly? What could go wrong?
 
I think it's the best Stephen King movie. I know there's The Green Mile and Shining but Shawshank Redemption is just something else.

Oh and btw. Darabont shouldn't have made "The Mist". The ending was great but the movie itself was awful.

It's a shame that King-movies are often directed by awful directors (not Darabont or Kubrick of course). There's so much potential...
 
The reason it's on tv all the time is that the studio or something that owns it forgot to charge royalties or something and tv stations around the world can play it bascially for free.
 

Staccat0

Fail out bailed
Its because its universally praised that some hate it for being 'overated' (its number one on IMDB, so people think its going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread)

Love this movie, such a mix of emotions with a genuine happy ending
I think it looks like a TV Movie but I'm not gonna fight anyone about it.
 

mclem

Member
Every time we have one of these threads a bunch of people learn it's an adaptation of a novella by
Stephen King
. Yes that one.

Having read it... I think this is a rare case of the film being better than the source material.
 
My favorite movie of all time.

Which is funny because I refused to watch it for forever because it looked boring. It was only because I had literally nothing else to do and wasn't tired enough to nap that I was like "fuck it," and watched the copy my girlfriend at the time had been badgering me to watch.
 
The thing about this movie is that it's a prime example of telling over showing. The narration is completely superfluous and feels like it spells out stuff that can easily be inferred from the great performances, for the sake of appealing to the lowest common denominator. Like the writers were afraid people wouldn't like it if they didn't make it super obvious what everything meant.

But at the same time, the narration is written so fucking well. I guess I can forgive it!
 
I think it's the best Stephen King movie. I know there's The Green Mile and Shining but Shawshank Redemption is just something else.

Oh and btw. Darabont shouldn't have made "The Mist". The ending was great but the movie itself was awful.

It's a shame that King-movies are often directed by awful directors (not Darabont or Kubrick of course). There's so much potential...

Have you seen Stand by Me? Another great movie based on a King story.
 
Whenever I see this I always think about how much Andy had riding on being able to break through that pipe. What if he couldn't? All those years and all that planning down to that.
 
Whenever I see this I always think about how much Andy had riding on being able to break through that pipe. What if he couldn't? All those years and all that planning down to that.

Then that rope he got from Red would've served a much darker purpose.

1288536.gif
 

oo7

Member
My top movie of all time. Have the poster in my office at work.

The scene with Brooks, the words, the music, man. So good. The ultimate movie in my opinion. I'm the same way that if i'm flipping through the channels I get sucked right in.
 

Link

The Autumn Wind
One of my all-time favorites.

Every time we have one of these threads a bunch of people learn it's an adaptation of a novella by
Stephen King
. Yes that one.
Honestly, I actually prefer his non-horror works. Hearts in Atlantis is one of my favorite books. It's a shame what they did to the movie.

Having read it... I think this is a rare case of the film being better than the source material.
That's a big benefit of being based off of a novella. You don't have to sacrifice scenes to fit into a reasonable runtime. In fact, you can even expand on some to give them more depth.
 
One of my favorite movies. The only part I really don't like is how quick the Tommy character comes and goes. I don't know how it could have been done better, but he seems to just come and go so quick, like we just need to rush to set up the ending as quickly as possible.
 
the bit at the end when they meet on the beach is the only part of this movie I don't like. It feels so tacked on like someone dumbass in a test screening needed that closure.

It would've been great if Red shows up as Andy is wrapping up his latest murder. Red looks at him all shocked, suddenly realizing that Andy was guilty of the crimes for which he went to Shawshank, and he's actually quite insane.

Andy starts laughing uncontrollably as Red breaks down crying.

Smash cut to black.

Title card: The End?
 
If it's on and I'm in, I'm watching it.

It's just one of those films that no matter how many times you have seen it, you will happily watch it again... and again... and again
 

AlteredBeast

Fork 'em, Sparky!
It deserves all the praise it gets. I have seen it between 70 and 80 times, I figure and it absolutely never, ever gets old. My wife refuses to watch it with me anymore because I can't help but emote along with the rhythm of the movie, which evolves (or devolves, depending on whose point of view you want to take!) into me reciting the lines along with the characters.
 
Definitely second favorite movie on my list.

Seeing it as a teen, I thought for sure it would be boring, could not stop watching it.

Need to watch again someday.
 

NewGame

Banned
I've had some interesting discussions about this movie, particularly with people who don't like it.

"Criminals are in jail because they deserve it, this movie is manipulative"

"Being in a jail isn't anything like this"

"Finding a rock under a tree is so unrealistic"

"Where did Andy get that boat? Plot holes!"

Pearls, pearls thrown before them.
 

rec0ded1

Member
In this day and age, I wouldn't be surprised to have someone post about how escaping was breaking the law and Andy should've done the right thing and turned himself in.
 
The reason it's on tv all the time is that the studio or something that owns it forgot to charge royalties or something and tv stations around the world can play it bascially for free.

That's just silly. The reason it's on TV all the time is because it's used as a sweetener along with other licensing deals ("If you license these movies, we'll throw in Shawshank Redemption"). They didn't forget to charge royalties. It just doesn't work that way.
 

nan0

Member
Funny, whenever the movie was mentioned I thought "This sounds awesome, you gotta watch it someday". Turns out I watched it already multiple times, the German title is totally different ("Die Verurteilten" - "The Convicts") and I never made the connection until I looked it up on Wikipedia some day.
 

meronpan

Neo Member
Really a GOAT candidate. I am generally a sucker for prison dramas, are there other titles that can be recommended?
 
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