When the main theme of a film is hope I usually expect a gooey mess that just makes me want to heave for the two hours of the film that's touting it. It's the movies that have hope as a main theme, yet don't throw it at you every five minutes that stand out as great films.
The Shawshank Redemption is about a banker (Tim Robbins) who is convicted and is sentenced to two life sentences in Shawshank State Prison. While there he builds a relationship with the other inmates and prison administration through ways that are not necessarily orthodox in prison society.The funny thing about Shawshank is that you go in thinking it's Andy's (Robbins) story. It actually becomes Red's (Morgan Freeman) twenty year slice of life in the prison, though most of that time is directly affected by Andy. At the end of the day Red is afraid to have any hope and that's all Andy has to hand out.
Directed by Frank Darabont from a story by Stephen King (King's allowd one good film a decade) The Shawshank Redemption is a truly great movie that with Pulp Fiction was screwed out of an Oscar in 1994. Yes, I'm bashing Forrest Gump again. You can look to that movie for sappy sentiment. Shawshank is a stronger film that doesn't depend on the novelty of its star mooning Lyndon Johnson to keep the audience entertained.
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