Why do I want to write the 234th comment on The Shawshank Redemption? I
am not sure - almost everything that could be possibly said about it
has been said. But like so many other people who wrote comments, I was
and am profoundly moved by this simple and eloquent depiction of hope
and friendship and redemption.
The only other movie I have ever seen that effects me as strongly is To
Kill a Mockingbird. Both movies leave me feeling cleaner for having
watched them.
I didn't intend to see this movie at all: I do not like prison movies
and I don't normally watch them. I work at a branch library and one day
as I was checking The Shawshank Redemption out to one of our older
patrons, she said to me, "Whenever I feel down or depressed, I check
out this movie and watch it and it always makes me feel better." At the
time, I thought that was very strange. One day there was nothing on TV
except things I absolutely would not watch under any circumstance or
things that I had seen too many times already. I remembered what she
said, so I watched it. I have watched it many many times since then and
it gets better with every showing.
No action, no special effects - just men in prison uniforms talking to
each other.
The Shawshank Redemption and To Kill a Mockingbird are the best movies
I have ever seen. I do not judge it by it's technical merits - I don't
really care about that. I have read that Citizen Kane or The Godfather
or this or that movie is the best movie ever made. They may have the
best technique or be the most influential motion pictures ever made,
but not the best. The best movies are ones that touch the soul. It
takes a movie like The Shawshank Redemption to touch the soul.
