Flicks-a-saurus Rex

The Shawshank Redemption

Director: Frank Darabont

Starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robins

MPAA: Rated R for language and prison violence

It is simply stunning how the master of Horror, Stephen King, can write a book of such phenomenal brilliance as to bring a tear to the eye and lift the spirit. The
Shawshank Redemption is perhaps the best film ever written. It is absolutely on my top 5 list, and I give it a strong 10 out of 10. My wife and I just finished the film and she gave me a big hug and a kiss and told me she loved the movie.
True, this movie has scenes implying brutal violence, including prison rape (none of which is seen of course), and is littered with profanities including many uses of the “F” word. But the ends justify the means, easily. This is an amazing drama that will change any ones view on the “ease” of prison life and how good prisoners have it.

Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are convicted felons serving out life sentences in Shawshank Prison. They are not bad men, but are men who are learning from their mistakes and becoming better people for it in the midst of violence and misconduct by the guards and the inmates. The storey covers over twenty years of time spent in the prison and the evolution of the men’s lives through humorous and tragic events within the prison.



Both men perform admirably and could have each picked up an Oscar for their roles. Freeman aptly earned his nomination, but Robbins deserved one as well. This amazing piece of artistic brilliance did not win any of the seven Academy Awards it was nominated for. It lost Best Picture to Forest Gump, though it is an infinitely better film, though Forest Gump was a marvelous movie, it just doesn’t compare to Shawshank. It also lost in Best Cinematography to Legends of the Fall, which might actually be a good call, because Legends was a beautiful film.



This is a flawless film. The acting is perfect, the script is entertaining, the cinematography beautiful, and the plot surprisingly suspenseful and intriguing. It is hard to see where this film is headed. It starts off with a murder and a trial and continues with men being beaten to death and gang raped. You never see any nudity or blood, but you see a lot of hitting and hear a lot of really nasty sounding beatings. Then there are some much lighter scenes that just make you laugh out loud. The balance of dark and light is fantastic, and the very surprising twists and turns make the film a true winner.

You can’t miss this film. It is a landmark in cinematic history. I have seen it too many times to count, and every time I am filled with such happiness. The deep dark spots of the movie are counter balanced very well with the happy moments. This is a visual and intellectual masterpiece, the best adaptation from book to movie I have ever seen. Sit back and enjoy this film of iconic magnitude.




Sex/ Nudity - 7 out of 10 – A man and a woman are shown kissing passionately and his hands go up her dress, we see them thrusting and hear them making noises. There are quite a few references to prison gangs who rape people. There is talk of prison rape, and a man is cornered three or four times and we assume he is raped. We see bare chested men a few times and one brief scene in a shower where we see a few men from the stomach up showering and talking, a man comes on to another man in the scene. We see men holding prison clothes over their privates marched to their cells, bare legs and chests are visible.

Violence/ Gore - 8 out of 10 – A few people are beaten badly by prison guards. We see them hit (or the camera pans off of them and we hear them being hit) repeatedly by the guard’s sticks. One man dies from the beating, one man is taken out in a wheel chair badly bruised and bloodied. A gang of prison rapists beat another man badly three or four times and we hear how long he spends in the infirmary recovering. One man is shot several times. A man and a woman are shot. One man hangs himself and we see him swinging in the back ground.

Profanity – 9 out of 10 – At least 50 F-words and many other profanities and religious exclimations.