I saw The Shawshank Redemption the other day, recorded from TNT on TiVo. I hadn’t seen it before, but I heard it was good and so I set TiVo to record it (and I’m glad I did).
It was actually excellent, and I was surprised to later learn that it was based on a short story written by Stephen King. Had I known that previously, I might have avoided it altogether since I dislike horror flicks (of course, this was more of a drama in any case).
After watching it, I thought for sure that it must have won some Oscars. So, I loaded IMDB to check on its awards only to find that it didn’t get any Oscars. I was puzzled at first but then realized that 1994 was also the year the Forrest Gump came out, winning Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Writing, Best Film Editing, and Best Visual Effects. Yeah, pretty much everything ;).
You’d think that there might be a lot lost between the original R-rated cut and the version of The Shawsharnk Redemption shown on TNT. But, it wasn’t too bad. Reading over the quotes at IMDB, some words were cropped but only the ones you’d expect. And, I also learned that [spoiler] the scene with the warden’s self-inflicted gunshot [/end spoiler] was heavily cut.
All the same, I really enjoyed the movie. But, I’m not sure I’d buy it on DVD — it’s the type of flick that kept me interested because I didn’t know what was coming next. Of course, now that I've seen it once, I know what happens during every scene.
There is one part that confused me. [spoiler] Why did the warden have Tommy shot? (He’s the Gil Bellows character who revealed that Dufresne’s wife was shot by another man.) [/end spoler]
He was shot because he could get Tim Robbins’ character out of prison (thus costing the warden his tax-evasion/accounting scheme).
I like that movie a lot. Not sure exactly why, but I do.
I like this movie a lot too. Surprisingly, it’s still really good the second or third time.
Also surprisingly, Stephan King’s written some good stuff. The novella “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” is in the book Different Seasons with three other stories, two of which, The Body and the Apt Pupil, have also been turned into movies. (The Body is the basis for Stand by Me.) I’ve read those three stories and the Green Mile and I’ve liked all of them. (I’ve seen all the movies except Apt Pupil and the story was a little on the freaky side so I don’t exactly want to watch it. The Green Mile is very good as well.) I’ll still avoid his horror stories, but some of his non-horror stories are awesome.
1. How have you managed to get this far in life without seeing the Shawshank Redemption? I swear, it’s been on TNT weekly since I was 15.
2. Yeah, as far as S.K. goes, he’s got some really good stuff. I’d agree that his horror isn’t as exciting, but I never really think it’s about that, or at least, I don’t focus on it. The Stand is one of my all-time favorite reads, however much of a guilty pleasure that is. The movie, however, is much less exciting. Of course, I wouldn’t want to be faced with the task of making that book into a movie, so I can’t really talk…
I have to agree….this movie is one of my all time favorites.
I remember the first time I saw that movie with a bunch of friends. After the movie ended a good friend of mine pretended to cry and said “Man I wanna go to prison”….granted he missed the point of the movie by saying that, but it was still funny.
Another great movie in my opinion that you might wanna check out is Immortal Beloved. Not to many people have seen this movie…but I for one thought it was great.
I am so sick of seeing Shawshank Redemption on TNTs schedule! What a cheap, low-rent way to run a TV channel! Get some new movies, Please!