The Shawshank Redemption is a brilliant movie directed by Frank Darabont and based on a Stephen King story. First off, the very criteria there should make you interested. This is the movie that got me interested in Darabont, and I still love his work. This movie is about a sheepish 1940's banker (Tim Robbins) who's convicted of killing his wife and the man she was cheating on him with. He of course proclaims his innocence, though is sentenced to life behind bars at Shawshank prison. He meets Ellis 'Red' Redding (Morgan Freeman), and together they become the closest of friends. They look out for each other, watch each other deal with the reality behind prison walls, and in the end help redeem each other in a way few friends can.

The two leads in this movie, Robbins' Andy and Freeman's Red, are played to perfection. They play them with such a subtle grace that you instantly love them. There's nothing you can't love about them, and I feel that right off the bat this is something you need in a movie. It's just a fact. If you don't have actors in roles like these that can't perform that feat, you're doomed. As Andy and Red deal with life in prison, we learn that Andy eventually becomes fed up with being imprisoned for something he swears he never did and what follows is a prison break that can only be compared to the feeling of the Count of Monte Cristo. A brilliant jailbreak, but not only to escape the prison but to live his life.

The movie is long, but never dull. It never drags and you've never lost interest in seeing what happens. The characters are warm and engaging. I've seen this movie so many times that even the small lines crack me up. When Andy weasels a bunch of new books in to the new prison library and one of the inmates can't pronounce the author Dumas' last name..."Alexander Dumbass....That's Dumas...not dumbass." and Freeman cracks up...I do too...so heartwarming.

Highly recommended, what else can I say? It's fantastic.

Few who have seen this film can deny its excellence, it is a masterpiece and it truly stays with the viewer. The Shawshank redemption shows that no matter how overdone the subject matter is, a good character and story can really make a film stand out from the crowd. This is a very accomplished piece of cinema and is a anchored by great performances from Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, its two leads. Let me put it this way, if you haven't seen this film, you haven't yet lived.

"Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free."