Shawshank Redemption, The [Movie-Only Edition]

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See if this doesn't sound familiar: You heard about "The Shawshank Redemption" when it first came out, but you didn't think it would be something you'd want to see. Then you heard how good it was from friends. And neighbors. And relatives. And people you met standing in line at the supermarket. When you finally did see it, you loved it.

"Shawshank" is long and occasionally drags, but it grows on you. I, too, had to be persuaded to give it a chance. Since then, I've loved it each of the times I've watched it, especially this last viewing on DVD. I warmly recommend it.

The movie is about two men serving time at Maine's Shawshank State Prison--Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, and Ellis "Red" Redding, played by Morgan Freeman. Since Freeman narrates in a voice-over, it's already a hands-down winner. Andy is a new inmate beginning a life sentence in 1947, having been unjustly convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover. Red is a longtime lifer who eventually takes the younger man under his wing. The movie covers nineteen years of their lives in prison, the slow, unvarying passage of time marked mainly by the changes in poster girls on Andy's wall, from Rita Hayworth to Marilyn Monroe to Raquel Welch.

Andy was a bank president on the outside, and he puts his financial skills to good use in the prison, particularly in doing some fancy, illegal book work for the corrupt warden. Red, on the other hand, is a guy who simply gets things for people; you name it, and he'll get it. Year after year, the parole board rejects Red's release, and year after year Red becomes more resigned to it.

Based on a short novel by Stephen King, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," the movie is as much a fantasy as any of King's horror stories, yet thanks to screenwriter and director Frank Darabont, there isn't a moment we don't want to believe in. Darabont uniquely blends humor and violence, sweetness and brutality, in what may be the best "feel-good" movie of the last twenty years.

Ultimately, it is a story of hope and triumph, a tribute to Man's ability to overcome all odds. Andy never fails to astound us with his courage and cunning. He manages to ingratiate himself with the guards when he begins doing their tax returns and with the inmates when he helps build the finest prison library in Maine. (And managing to get them a cold beer on a hot day doesn't hurt, either.) Andy's final surprise, though, is his best, and it is enough to encourage even old Red to face the real world.

In a way, "The Shawshank Redemption" is itself a testament to overcoming odds. It is sentimental and stereotyped, yet we are able not only to suspend our disbelief but to root for it all the way.

Yes, there is the usual sadistic guard like Captain Hadley (Clancy Brown), who delights in beating prisoners to death; the compliant fellow guards who go along with the inhumanity; the hypocritical head honcho, Warden Norton (Bob Gunton), who preaches from the Bible while arranging murders in his own penitentiary; and the customary assortment of colorful characters like Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore in a standout performance), who is so institutionalized he cannot cope with the outside world when he's finally released after a lifetime inside. But we expect these people. It wouldn't be an old-time, inspirational-type yarn without them.

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