Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #3 The Shawshank Redemption
Box Office: $28.8 Million Dollars
Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Morgan Freeman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Original Score
Oscar Wins: None
MovieRankings.Net: 97/100
Available To Stream: Pluto TV, Amazon Prime ($4)
The Shawshank Redemption is very similar to It's A Wonderful Life. Both movies were Academy Award nominated for Best Picture but had no real chance and didn't end up even winning a single Oscar. They also both reached a level of film immortality that very few movies can equal. Both deal with evergreen topics of redemption, friendship, and feeling trapped. Much like the Jimmy Stewart classic, I think Shawshank will be watched for generations.
The Shawshank Redemption originally appeared as a novella written by Stephen King that also included The Body (which later became Stand By Me) in the larger novel Different Seasons. It was called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. I love the story and read it a couple times before I saw the movie. Even knowing the ending before I saw the movie, I still loved it. I'm clearly not alone. It's one of the most rewatchable movies ever.
So, why is a movie that almost solely takes place in a miserable prison with no love interest remain so interesting? There's an element of just enjoying hanging out with these guys. Morgan Freeman is never better than he is as Red. Freeman has to do so much of the emotional heavy lifting which allows Tim Robbins' Andy Dufrense to be this aloof yet brilliant Christ-like figure.
No one is better as adapting Stephen King than director Frank Darabont. This is clearly his greatest movie but (#53) The Green Mile and The Mist are both very good. Sadly, Darabont stopped making movies. In fact, he's directing an episode of Stranger Things coming out this year that will be the first thing he's worked on in over a decade. He hasn't directed a movie since The Mist in 2007. He was unable to get financing for a movie about the Civil War and that process left him disillusioned with Hollywood. It's really too bad. He captures King like no other.
I don't know of many other works of art that do a better job showing not just losing your freedom, but your soul as well. Of course, you see Andy struggle but it's the story of Brooks that is the most heartbreaking. He literally can't exist in a life with freedom because he's been locked up for so long. The movie does a good job not asking us to feel badly for Brooks because he did commit crimes, but instead to try to understand how hard it could be for a man who had served his time to adjust to the real world.
Maybe if The Shawshank Redemption came out in a different year, it would have gotten more attention? 1994 was a difficult year for a movie to make an award splash going up against Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump. But I'm not sure that anything would have changed even if it had been released at a different time. There's are levels of familiarity and comfortability that come with Shawshank that make it more effective when you are watching at home. This is also true about the aforementioned It's A Wonderful Life. These are movies that deal with prison and suicide. These should not be movies that warm your soul.
But these classics also embrace the human condition. They do it with no irony and with open hearts. These are sincere movies and that's what they last. We are certainly more cynical than we were in 1946 when It's A Wonderful Life came out. We're also angrier than we were when Shawshank was released in 1994. But maybe what we are searching for are movies like The Shawshank Redemption that remind us what humanity should be.
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Good Will Hunting
5. Casino
6. Groundhog Day
7. The Silence Of The Lambs
8. Office Space
9. The Sixth Sense
10. Boogie Nights
11. Jurassic Park
12. Jackie Brown
13. A Few Good Men
14. The Fugitive
15. The Truman Show
16. Fargo
17. Swingers
18. Reservoir Dogs
19. There's Something About Mary
20. Sleepers
21. Schindler's List
22. Rushmore
23. Fight Club
24. Saving Private Ryan
25. True Romance
26. Dumb & Dumber
27. Kingpin
28. Donnie Brasco
29. Heat
30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
31. Rounders
32. Unforgiven
33. Trainspotting
34. The Game
35. Out Of Sight
36. Carlito's Way
37. Seven
38. L.A. Confidential
39. Speed
40. Gattaca
41. Misery
42. Tombstone
43. Ransom
44. Wayne's World
45. The Insider
46. Back To The Future Part III
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerks