The Shawshank Redemption may have performed poorly at the box office when it was originally released in 1994, but today, it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest films of the last 20 years. Its box office performance may be surprising to discover, but its reputation as an absolutely brilliant film shouldn't be. Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbin's performances in Shawshank have been critically acclaimed for their realism, and the film as a whole has been praised for its themes of self-worth when faced with extreme despair. Robbin's character, Andy, who is falsely imprisoned for the murder of his wife forms the backbone of the narrative, but Shawshank isn't a story about trying to escape prison or really even about the reality of prison life. It's about the relationship that Andy forms with Red (Freeman's character), and how the two help each other to survive the oppressive nature of prison and the reality of being kept behind bars for a large portion of the rest of their lives. The friendship is emotionally convincing, and the story of how two very different people help each other to survive their incarceration is a lesson in how to keep hope for the future regardless of the dire situation of the present. Without doubt the greatest adaptation of a Stephen King novel to date.
Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.
