ShawShank Redemption (1994)

(if you want to see the movie, dont read this - i am hinting on the anticlimax of the movie in this article)

Hmm...what was i doing when the movie was released? i had just passed out of my higher secondary school, stepped foot in college for my under grad. Well, it has taken me 10 years to discover this movie.

Well, let me cut thro the crap - this movie is about a banker (played by Tim Robins) who goes into jail for two life sentences for no crime of his own. He intends to murder his cheating wife, and that is how they show him in the starting of the movie. Very soon, it comes to light that he is innocent. Inside the jail, he develops friendship with a fellow prisoner (played by Morgan Freeman) who can 'get things done' around the prison. It is very nice how they show the 'value exchange' inside the prison - there is bribery from the very basic level (cigarettes for guards) all the way up the food chain. The crux of the movie is how Tim spends his years in the prison, and how he crafts a beautiful plot that brings all events together helping him escape with $350,000 out of the prison.

Based on a Stephen King novel, the movie is amazingly well taken. Tim Robins has played his part very well, and so had Morgan Freeman. Storywise, i think the movie is all about how patient can a man get - how many years does it take for a man to tunell through the prison walls with a small rock-hammer and how much patience the man has for doing something like that over years and years and years. Small incidents like Tim sending mails to the Government asking for funding for his prison library almost every day for over six years shows how much patient a man can get even at repeated failure. Tim's character - i am really impressed. I am reminded of how they show a tiger hunting the prey - sitting down patiently, taking up all the time it takes - and then striking at the right moment. Or the saints in the Indian mythology who sit down in penance for years together, drawing all focus on to the mantra - till the gods appear to grant the wish of their lives. Or the successful business magnets, who are patient through successive defeats and blows to their ideas, and survive to see the light. More than the movie, the character of Tim Robins has influenced my thought process more.

Overall, a very nice movie worth the watch.