I finished watching the 1994 classic, The Shawshank Redemption the other day. (Please don't judge me for never seeing this film before but I guess I just never got around to it.)
Although most of you have probably seen it, the film was set in 1947, and starred Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, as two murderers in a Maine prison. The movie was directed by Frank Darabont, and the cinematographer was Roger Deakins, the man who films all of the Coen Brothers movies, for those of you who love the Coen Brothers. (Sorry Benny.)
The film was very beautifully done, and the story was quite an emotional journey that showed the passage of time quite interestingly. The acting was terrific, as would be expected from these stars, and the hardness of prison life was very well portrayed throughout the film, whether it was the corruption, the illegal manuevers, or the violence, the movie seemed to portray prison life very true to life.
The movie, based off a Stephen King short story was an incredible film for the large part in the way that it was able to effectively tell the story of a lifetime, so succinctly and effectively. It is difficult for me to comment too much on the film because I felt wrapped up in the story and can never exactly comment on specific ideas but rather thought that the movie on a whole was exceptional and crafted in such a way that you felt completely engrossed in the characters and in their stories the entire time.
However, and I know that this movie is heralded by all but I personally found some problems with the resolution and last 40 minutes of the film, whereas I felt that for the large part, the first 2 hours or so were nearly flawless. I will not give away any details of the end of the film but I just had a couple of problems with the end, although I did like the ending of the film as a whole, I was not completely contented with all of the pieces of the ending. (Feel free to disagree with me heartily and I will explain myself, but I just was not fully happy with how the movie ended, but that is only a personal opinion.)
The Shawshank Redemption is a terrific film and I know that I am probably among the last people in the class to see the movie but if you haven't, I completely suggest that you do see the movie, because it is terrific and you can feel free to ignore my discontent towards the movie because I did think that it was great, just not perfect like some people may think. I do believe that everyone should see the Shawshank Redemption because of its terrific adapted story, great acting, and "beautiful" (beautiful in its ugliness) portrayal of prison life.
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I'm sorry you didn't tell us what you did not like about the film. I didn't like the fact that it had no nuance, no ambiguity, no grey area, if you will. The warden was the personification of evil, and Tim Robbins was a pure and innocent victim. I thought the film would have been better if he had been guilty of killing his wife. Students tell me that this is ridiculous and could not have worked. It's been 20 years since I saw the film so perhaps they're right.
ReplyDeleteWell, since you ask, I will tell you that the thing that I did not like about the film was the happiness and ease of the ending. I don't know if it could have been better if it was guilty but I thought the ending was unrealistic and fantastic, in other words, it was too much of a happy ending for me. All of the characters seem to end up perfectly happy, except Tommy, but everyone else's problems seemed to be solved too easily and happily instead of having some sort of loss, but instead everyone got exactly as they deserved. Just my opinion, maybe I'm a bit too cynical.
ReplyDeleteI still have not seen Shawshank Redemption yet so you are not the last. However, I will try to rectify this over the vacation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the ending Jimmy, and I thought you wrote a great review. It's a little bit too perfect, but at least they end up getting what was due to them.
ReplyDeleteI would have to disagree with you all about the ending. Andy is the innocent man who is falsely sent to jail who uses his personality and intelligence to break the system. He starts out as the completely innocent character, but as the movie progresses, he discovers the meaning of the quote, "We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails." Through his opportunism, he works to complete both short-term and long-term goals. I believe that the ending illustrates the power of opportunism: one must remember that he was forced to flee his country of birth and all but one person he ever knew. However, the ending conveys a great sense of victory and happiness almost like Andy and Red find heaven. Although both of them have spend the majority of their lives in prison, they have indeed led fulfilling lives. The suicide of Brooks Hatlin serves as juxtaposition to show that they could have just dwelled in sorrow about their situation, but they ultimately find meaning in a chaotic world where men that are guility and men that are innocent are housed together controlled by men who deserve to be behind bars themselves.
ReplyDeleteI think I liked the ease of the ending because everything else Andy had to go through was rather difficult. Sent to jail for a crime he didn't commit, raped and beaten, had his chance of emancipation taken away by Tommy's death, etc. The fact that he had to crawl through human waste for a few football field lengths didn't make things any easier I'd say. But that is just Andy's story. I can agree with the fact that it seemed to much for Red to also have that happy ending.
ReplyDeleteI guess I don't so much mean that it was too happy, but rather just too convenient. The fact that Red, who I am glad got out because he deserved to and I loved his monologue at the final parole hearing, but I just felt that Red was too easily able to get to Buxton, and then from there he seemed able to find everything very easily and be reunited with Andy at the end. I don't want to give away everything for those who haven't seen it but the journey just seemed too simple and convenient after they had lived such difficult lives to get to that point they never had a hardship again.
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