Shawshank Redemption

What can I say? Absolute perfection. I had read this story ("Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption") before seeing the movie, but I didn't even remember the story line. I had to go back and read it again to see the beauty hidden in its plot. The added scenes in the movie (the pet bird, the opera scene) bring out the incredible hope that Andy holds onto throughout. And what a friendship between Red and Andy - beautifully written and acted. It's rare to see such chemistry between two male actors. Morgan Freemen delivers his lines with such light-hearted wisdom. In the book Red is a tall Irishman - the choice to cast him as a black inmate added another dimension to his character. And Tim Robbins - he plays the mild-mannered Andy perfectly. He wasn't bad on the eyes either, IMO.

The scenes with Red before the parole bar were classic. Although he did get paroled in the book, we did not see his 'speech' before the board. "Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word." Stamp: Approved. And his voice-over during the opera scene brought tears to my eyes.

This is definitely not one of Shephen King's best works - in fact I believe King himself was surprised that it was picked up for film adaption. But what an absolute work of art was created. I'm still bitter that that flaky "Forrest Gump" won best picture that year. The Academy really missed the boat on that one.