Product Description
A prominent banker unjustly convicted of murder spends many years in the Shawshank prison. He is befriended by a convict who knows the ropes and helps him to cope with the frightning realities of prison life.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #301 in DVD
- Brand: CASTLE ROCK HM VIDEO
- Released on: 2007-05-15
- Rating: R (Restricted)
- Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Original language: English
- Subtitled in: English, French
- Dubbed in: French
- Dimensions: .25 pounds
- Running time: 142 minutes
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential video
When this popular prison drama was released in 1994, some critics complained that the movie was too long (142 minutes) to sustain its story. Those complaints miss the point, because the passage of time is crucial to this story about patience, the squeaky wheels of justice, and the growth of a life-long friendship. Only when the film reaches its final, emotionally satisfying scene do you fully understand why writer-director Frank Darabont (adapting a novella by Stephen King) allows the story to unfold at its necessary pace, and the effect is dramatically rewarding. Tim Robbins plays a banker named Andy who's sent to Shawshank Prison on a murder charge, but as he gets to know a life-term prisoner named Red (Morgan Freeman), we realize there's reason to believe the banker's crime was justifiable. We also realize that Andy's calm, quiet exterior hides a great reserve of patience and fortitude, and Red comes to admire this mild-mannered man who first struck him as weak and unfit for prison life. So it is that The Shawshank Redemption builds considerable impact as a prison drama that defies the conventions of the genre (violence, brutality, riots) to illustrate its theme of faith, friendship, and survival. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay, it's a remarkable film that signaled the arrival of a promising new filmmaker--a film that many movie lovers count among their all-time favorites. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com
When this popular prison drama was released in 1994, somecritics complained that the movie was too long (142 minutes) to sustain its story. Those complaints miss the point, because the passage of time is crucial to this story about patience, the squeaky wheels of justice, and the growth of a life-long friendship. Only when the film reaches its final, emotionally satisfying scene do you fully understand why writer-director Frank Darabont (adapting a novella by Stephen King) allows the story to unfold at its necessary pace, and the effect is dramatically rewarding. Tim Robbins plays a banker named Andy who's sent to Shawshank Prison on a murder charge, where he gets to know a life-term prisoner named Red (Morgan Freeman). Andy's calm, quiet exterior hides a great reserve of patience and fortitude, and Red comes to admire this mild-mannered man who first struck him as weak and unfit for prison life. So it is that The Shawshank Redemption builds considerable impact as a prison drama that defies the conventions of the genre (violence, brutality, riots) to illustrate its theme of faith, friendship, and survival. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay, it's a remarkable film that signaled the arrival of a promising new filmmaker--a film that many movie lovers count among their all-time favorites. --Jeff Shannon
From The New Yorker
Tim Robbins returns to his best form with his haunted, cunning portrayal of Andy Dufresne, a young banker sentenced to life imprisonment. It's the nineteen-forties, and he is sent to Shawshank, a dark and doomy jail where the inmates protest their innocence and the satanic warden (Bob Gunton) brandishes a Bible. Frank Darabont's movie never grabs at you, preferring to work patiently on your sympathies and nerves while finding time for casual jokes. What at first seems like a plotless tale of companionship-principally between Andy and a fixer named Red (Morgan Freeman)-tightens into excitement. There are moments of hokey togetherness, and way too much voice-over, but the picture stays on track and leaves you, appropriately enough, with a surging sense of release. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker
Customer Reviews
The Greatest Movie Not to Win an Oscar
It has long been my contention that it is the moviemaker's task to hold the viewer's attention, not to burden him with his self-indulgent, difficult-to-follow symbolisms.
That having been said, I find it difficult to find another movie I would recommend more highly than The Shawshank Redemption. Without any high-adrenaline action sequences or steamy sex scenes (two sure-fire ways to get the vewer's attention), this film somehow has the power to make you sit through all 142 minutes without for a moment getting bored. And I challenge anyone who has seen it to delete any scene, even any minute, from the final edit. The fact is, you can't. Because every single scene is an essential element that contributes to the final result: a masterpiece that captures the drama of enduring friendship and resiliency of the human spirit more powerfully than any other film ever made. Even those who normally do not watch movies with a critical eye will find themselves so drawn into this experience. I really can't say enough about this film. Suffice it to say that this is certainly the Greatest Movie Not to Win an Oscar. (Since Citizen Kane, at least. )
Actually, I can forgive the Film Academy for not honoring this film with the Oscars I firmly believe it deserved. But when the American Film Institute in 1998 put together their list of The 100 Greatest Movies of all time (covering the period from 1896-1996), and so myopically overlooked Shawshank in favor of such titles as Rocky, Dr. Strangelove, Network, and Jaws, well, I thought that was absolutely ridiculous.
I wouldn't hesitate to put it in the top five of all time.
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