Posted on 09/12/2009 9:47:56 PM PDT by Saije
Frank Darabont, the director of The Shawshank Redemption, has words for the millions of people who believe his 1994 prison drama is the greatest film of all time. “I think that’s a little crackers, to be honest, especially when you think of the other films on the list.” He means films such as The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Lolita, Vertigo and foreign-language contenders like Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, Luis Buñuel’s Belle de jour or Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.
But, hey, pointy-headed film critics can have their highfalutin’ crushes. There’s no getting round the fact that The Shawshank Redemption, which stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, is consistently being voted the best film ever in all sorts of readers’ polls. It currently sits atop the 250 best movies of all time on the world’s most popular cinema website, imdb.com, as it has done for most of the past decade...Empire’s readers have also voted Shawshank their favourite film of all time.
What gives? How has a film set mainly in a bleak prison, in which women are barely glimpsed, by an unknown first-time director, adapted from a little-known Stephen King novella, become such an enduring crowd-pleaser? Shawshank tells the story of the friendship of two prison inmates, Andy, played by Robbins, and Red, played by Freeman. It’s a film that can make strong men — including the rugby star Jonny Wilkinson, who loves it — blub like babies and insist that they will change their lives pronto. Devotees quote its life-affirming mantras: “You can get busy living or get busy dying”; “Fear can keep you a prisoner. Hope can set you free”.
(Excerpt) Read more at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk ...
He did “Awakenings” right after “GoodFellas”, and I thought DeNiro was magnificent in that (even Robin Williams was, too, in an extremely restrained performance). “This Boy’s Life” was good, too. “The Fan”, which I only saw for the first time this year was awful. I liked “Jackie Brown”, but his performance was too erratic in it, he shifted from quiet/low key to just unhinged psychotic without it seeming to fit (but that was Pam Grier’s showcase anyhow, and the criminally underused Robert Forster was excellent, and a lot better than DeNiro).
I hated “Analyze This” and “Analyze That” almost as much as you hate Will Smith movies... almost. The Fockers franchise has already worn thin for me (and they have a new one next year, oy). Time to move on.
That quote shows someone who knows he’s not judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his characters, pun (sorta) intended.
Certainly the best of the last decade.
The Fog, Logans run and the Milagro Beanfield War
Citizen Kane? Citizen Kane? Puhleeeeeeeease!
Animal House.
I got to see The Fog recently on DVD. A timeless classic. I think I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen with Adrienne Barbeau. She was haliarious in Creepshow. A wife from hell,lol.
WARLOCK with Julian Sands
Is that Campbell Brown?
One of the best!
Funny thing is: I’ve worked in Prison Ministry. I found Shawshank to actually subversively promote evil (the “good” guy was ultimately corrupted, then providentially rewarded), to be wildly unrealistically, and essentially incorrect about its assertions as to human nature. And boring. I give it two stars at best. I’ll never understand why it is so loved.
We know. We know. But it’s hard to say so after the prequel trilogy.
Well, someone already has mentioned that classic Abe Vigoda film, Joe vs. the Volcano.
“The Searchers” starring John Wayne, Jeffery Hunter, and Ward Bond.....
Now you’re talking! A classic.
Shawshank has long been my all-time favorite film - proudly proclaimed so on my Facebook and Myspace pages. I watch it every time it’s on, sort of like the Mel Gibson character’s obsession with Catcher in the Rye in the movie “Conspiracy Theory”. Funny thing is - I own Shawshank on DVD, and I’ve never even taken the shrinkwrap off.
I know. I'm no critic. Just like fun movies. Shawshank and Braveheart are ok, but they aren't movies I watch over and over.
Have to say, "UP" is fantastic.
Besides Star Wars and Return of the Jedi, I'd certainly put Zulu with Michael Caine up there. But, alas, I loved both Bad Boys (#1 probably the most).
One think Shawshank helped do for me was get me into classical music in a big way. One of the best scenes in the movie was when Andy takes over the prison PA system and plays a snippet from Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro."
Up to that point, I had never listened to opera music in my life unless it was part of a movie or a commercial, but I went out to the library to get a copy of Mozart's opera and that was the beginning of a long period of discovery of all types of classical music for me.
Still, one of the best lines of the movie is when Andy got out of the hole (for playing that opera music) and one of the other prisoners chastised him for not playing some Johnny Cash instead.
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