Review of The Shawshank Redemption (1994) by Matthew H — 03 Mar 2014

I'm not going to go through a whole review, since there are plenty of reviews detailing why this is the greatest movie of all time. I'm just gonna give a quote:

"The Shawshank Redemption is the best movie I have ever seen because of its ability to capture raw emotion.".

I'm also going to elaborate on the three biggest reasons people dislike this movie.

1. It's too slow.

The Shawshank Redemption may be a tad slow, but it is justified. I believe director Frank Darabont wanted to show Andy's time at Shawshank by showing how slow prison time really is. Some movies are just slow; this movie does it for a deeper reason, adding to Shawshank's genius.

2. Andy Dufresne barely shows emotion.

Those people obviously didn't get what kind of character Andy was. Tim Robbins did this on purpose. Andy was quiet, mellow, and was obviously quite shocked and angry he was going to prison for a crime he didn't do. Did you really expect the man to jump up and start singing "Kumbaya"? No! So I don't get what the problem is. The fact that he acted like this just added to the realistic atmosphere of the movie.

3. This is not realistic.

Oh yes your right, since these men in prison smoked, cursed, drank, and kept their eyes peeled in the shower room for potential rapists. That is not realistic at all. (sarcastic) Overall, I think some of the hate on Shawshank is solely because it is the highest rated movie on IMDb, for a fact. (User rating is 9.3 to this date). I think some people hate this movie because everyone else loves it, and that is a bad way to think about anything, not just movies.

I would rate it higher if I could.