The Shawshank Redemption review (my 400th blog post) - Writing Wednesday
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
I've only just realised that this is going to be my 400th blog post! I can't believe how much I've actually written over the past 4 years and how many amazing memories I've recorded all on this blog so if you've been reading my posts for a while now, I thank you truly. You are honestly amazing!
In today's post, I'll be giving a review of a film that I really enjoyed watching recently and that is Shawshank Redemption.
I was a bit sceptical at first about watching this film because it lasted for about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Although it's not nearly as long, it kind of reminded me of Gone with the Wind, which lasted for about 4 hours. It was an absolute classic and I guess you got attached to Scarlett Ohara's intense personality but you did end up shuffling in your seat a bit by the end of it. We had to watch it in 2 parts because it was so long. However, with this film, I didn't even notice the time going by because I got so hooked.
The Shawshank Redemption is a film released in 1994, that showcased the famous actors that I'm sure we all know, Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Me and my family began watching the film after we'd finished watching all our detective series and had nothing left to watch. 😂 My parents watched it before and really liked it so me and my sister wanted to see what it was like too. We'd been watching many other good films as well and so we wanted to know if this film was good as well.
It's about a successful banker called Andy Dufresne who, although is completely innocent, gets sentenced to life in the Shawshank prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. However, because of his innocence and the fact that he is educated and successful, he becomes the most unconventional prisoner in the whole of Shawshank prison. Not to give too much away but since Andy was a banker, he got promoted easily and moved from his laundry job that every prisoner had to do and ends up sorting out the most senior guard's bank accounts.😂 With his determination, he also manages to scrape up the funds to set up a proper library in the prison. Although it takes time for him to settle into being around criminals and dangerous prisoners, he soon finds his niche of close friends and I think that's why you develop a bond with his and the prisoner's characters, no matter how bad they're portrayed as being.
I think that this film generally gave a really good insight into what life in prison is really like. The first setting of this film starts in about 1947 (identified by the Rita Hayworth poster) and moves through the years of Andy's sentence so obviously some of the ways in which the police conducted themselves and the ways in which some of the prisoners acted, would not be the same as today. However, the film did bring up important topics such as prisoner institutionalisation, what happens when people are wrongly accused of a crime, and general prisoner brutality that often happens in today's prisons. Nowadays, although you're allowed to have your basic comforts in prison, a lot of you're everyday freedoms are meant to be taken away and Shawshank Redemption gave a really interesting image of how complicated prison life is and how difficult it is to get out of it. We see this with one of the prisoners, Brooks, who finds it difficult to adjust to life outside of prison since prison is all he really knows.
I must also mention Morgan Freeman's amazing narration throughout the whole film. He played the role of one of the old and respected prisoners in Shawshank and one of Andy's main friends that he meets on his arrival at Shawshank. It was almost like reading a story because his voice was poetic and really set the scene. I think that's what I also really enjoyed about the film. Morgan Freeman really gave a clear view of the whole of Shawshank and it was really interesting to watch!
Age rating: 15
Adapted from Stephen King's 1982 novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.
Starring: Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman
What have you enjoyed watching during lockdown? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
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Bye,
XOX, Juliette
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This is high on my list of all time favorite movies
ReplyDeleteI know right! It's really good. 💜
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