The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

With a current IMDb score of 9.3/10, this film has to be in the conversation for the best film of all time.

What makes it so special?

Well, if that was so easy to say, then every movie ever made should be equally as good, right?

I guess we just like the main characters, Andy (Tom Robbins) and Red (Morgan Freeman). We want good things for them, and when they are somehow able to defy all odds and have their happy ending, that feels awesome. The film also does a masterful job of showing that the happy ending was plausible. In both men's cases, they had to survive decades in prison, but as Red puts it, Andy was too pretty a bird to be caged. Red, too. He served 40 years for a horrible crime, but he was no longer the person who committed that crime.

This is one of those movies that I remember pretty much from beginning to end. In a way, I would never need to watch it again, because I know it. But somehow I do return to it every 5 or 10 years, and every time I watch it, I'm left completely satisfied. While it's absolutely cool to see the film for the first time, even when you know what's going to happen, you still enjoy the anticipation of seeing it as everything plays out.

I never think of this movie, exactly, when I think of my all-time Top 10 favorite films, but maybe I should. It's difficult to think how it could be done any better, or how any other film could actually surpass it.

Rating 5/5 stars

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