The Best Kind of Redemption

Recently I finally sat myself down and watched 'The Shawshank Redemption.' It was about time. I had heard time and time again how much of an awesome movie it is and it's on all sorts of lists of best movies and the original novella, 'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption' was written by Uncle Stevie. And we all know how I feel about Uncle Stevie.

It goes without saying that this is a very good movie and a great story. I really liked it and I was very impressed with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Fun fact: Red in the novella is a white Irishman but Freeman is just so impressive that they cast him anyways. And he is impressive. I mean, the man really should just narrate everything. Tim Robbins was also great. In fact, I would argue that he was better than Freeman. I was shocked when I read that he was not nominated for an Academy Award for this.

What's even more shocking to me is the fact that 'The Shawshank Redemption' was a box office bomb. It cost about $35 million dollars to make and only made about $20 million in theaters. Since then it's been well received on cable and is one of the most rented DVDs of all time. It has also made the AFI list of greatest movies ever and was nominated for 'Best Picture' at the Academy Awards (lost to Forrest Gump. Not bad). I use all of this, plus the fact that everyone and their mom at Xavier loved that movie and constantly quoted "get busy livin', or get busy dyin'"as basis for my surprise and general disappointment at the movie going public of America. Again.

I think the thing that hurt 'The Shawshank Redemption' was the fact that it came out in 1994 and not now. I think if it had come out in 2009 it would have been seriously loved by everyone. The theme of the movie is to have hope, which is something that resonates with the movie going public today. The public loves little underdog, inspirational stories like 'The Blind Side.' Back in the mid-90s we were knee deep in Nirvana-angst and 'Reality Bites''-irony. It also wasn't on the same scale of epicness as 'Forrest Gump' and it focuses on people who society tells us not to like (though Andy is innocent).

Since then, thanks to rappers, the 'Prison Break' TV show, and lots of books written about being behind bars, prison and felons and all the taboo things slide right off our backs. So, in retrospect, 'Shawkshank Redemption' is, I would argue, more beloved than other box office success like 'True Lies' and 'The Flinstones' , two of the entries on the list of 1994's Top 10 highest grossing films. To me, being loved and adored fifteen years later is really the best kind of redemption.