Top 10 Movie
Added 2/6/2010
The Shawshank Redemption was easily one of the Top 10 movies of the 90s. Despite a fairly formulaic plot, based on a Stephen King book, it's still a great movie. People say that voiceovers are one of the ultimate cop-outs in movies. It allows the plot to advance without actual acting. But when Morgan Freeman is narrating, I'd watch a video about making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
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The Shawshank Redemption
Added 2/1/2010
The Shawshank Redemption is a great movie and would recommend it for any mature viewer!
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Shawshank Redemption DVD
Added 1/30/2010
I ordered a Shawshank Redemption DVD after I continued watching the movie every time it came on tv. It's a great movie that shows perseverance of one person who was wrongly convicted of a crime and spent 20 years in jail. It's a good example of what goes around, comes around and that good usually wins out in the end. There is one scene at the beginning I could do without although it's not graphic it is a little disturbing. If you have not seen this movie I highly recommend it.
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This movie-goer was impressed, but not all THAT impressed
Added 1/9/2010
This review is of the single-disc DVD (not Blu-Ray or multi-disc). Just today I watched THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994) for the first time and felt a little let down by it compared to the way I'd thought it would be. The casting, even the side roles, was solid and well-played, the themes of trust, loyalty, brotherhood, betrayal and (as the title says) redemption are universal. I don't even mind the (shall we say) deliberate tempo of the film (142 mins.) at which the plot unfolds because there is an emotional payback in all this -- despite a couple of objections in the followng paragraph.
What hasn't worn so well IMHO are some of the content tics and mannerisms that apparently most big-budget, "prestige" films of the 1990's felt they had to have, like the grandiose musical theme repeated ad infimitum (of course, DR. ZHIVAGO was that way but people actually liked that tune for the most part). I also take mild exception to some of the expensive unnecessaries, for example the 360-degree aerial view of the prison (why?) with the sound of a flag flapping in the wind dubbed in at the exact moment that flag becomes visible. I thought that was striving for a false sense of majesty. American films are beautiful, as many European critics have said, but a high budget does not necessarily generate extra emotional resonance.
I have to wonder what SHAWSHANK would have been like had it been filmed forty years earlier in more of a "film noir" style. It would have been in standard-aspect black and white, most if not all of the roles would have been played by non-"name" stars, and it would have run a good fifty minutes shorter, but that's a mixed blessing. Surely the noir would have cost waaay less money.
That's why I'm giving THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION four stars instead of five. I think most people will enjoy it, but remember to budget the long running time for your home-theater viewing.
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Shawshank Redemption
Added 1/9/2010
Excellent movie. Ordered it just before Christmas and it arrived in plenty of time to wrap and put under the tree for my daughter who has wanted this movie forever! Thanks!
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Top 10 Movie
Added 2/6/2010
The Shawshank Redemption was easily one of the Top 10 movies of the 90s. Despite a fairly formulaic plot, based on a Stephen King book, it's still a great movie. People say that voiceovers are one of the ultimate cop-outs in movies. It allows the plot to advance without actual acting. But when Morgan Freeman is narrating, I'd watch a video about making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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The Shawshank Redemption
Added 2/1/2010
The Shawshank Redemption is a great movie and would recommend it for any mature viewer!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Shawshank Redemption DVD
Added 1/30/2010
I ordered a Shawshank Redemption DVD after I continued watching the movie every time it came on tv. It's a great movie that shows perseverance of one person who was wrongly convicted of a crime and spent 20 years in jail. It's a good example of what goes around, comes around and that good usually wins out in the end. There is one scene at the beginning I could do without although it's not graphic it is a little disturbing. If you have not seen this movie I highly recommend it.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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