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Shiv 
"What a Wonderful World"
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 Posted - 07/13/2007 : 12:30:43
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The Blues Brothers
Napolean Dynamite
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Sean 
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 07/13/2007 : 13:19:41
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quote:
Originally posted by Whippersnapper
quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
Shawshank is one of those unusual films that nobody could be disappointed with. It's No. 2 on the IMDb Top 250 list. The breakdown of the voting shows how widespread the appeal is:-
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/ratings
It didn't immediately jump out as "2nd best movie ever made" upon release as there was nothing unique about it's premise. At face value it's "just another prison movie" or "just another wrongfully-accused man gets his own back" movie. But what a perfect example of those genres it is. It's perfect. I challenge anyone to point out flaws or any aspect of it that could be improved. And there's nothing in it that could alienate anyone; no stereotyping, no excessive violence, no politics, no preaching, no boredom etc.
No stereotyping ???? Not the corrupt warden, the sadistic guard, the loveable old institutionalised prisoner who cannot cope on the outside, the mindlessly violent gay prisoners, the wrongly convicted hero, the wise insider?????
And the plot: prisoner who must inevitably escape and end up on an idyllic beach, warden must inevitably be exposed, guard who must inevitably get punished... And one prisoner gets kept in the same cell for umpteen years and somehow unnoticed by others makes a huge hole in the wall which just happens - unlike almost all other walls where there is known space on the other side - to lead into a labarynthine area of secret passages - just what prison designers put into their design plans! - which leads to the sewers, which lead to the outside. Yeah sure, really plausible.
The Shawshank Redemption is so predictable, corny and challenges absolutely no standard Hollywood values, including everything ending happily ever after. Entertaining yes, well made yes, well acted yes, but an entirely ersatz view of the world. If there is a shred of honesty in the film it was an accident.
Precisely. It's an excellent example of that genre. That's why it didn't wow the critics when it hit the cinemas like Schindler's List or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest did. But, everyone (well, most) who rent the DVD are more than satisfied with it for precisely the reasons you've outlined. And more people have scored it at IMDb than any other movie in the history of celluloid. That's why it was mentioned in this thread as per the OP. A movie doesn't have to be honest or original to be popular. 
BTW, by "no stereotyping" I meant the discriminatory kind that annoys people such as was perceived in Passion of the Christ etc, not character genericity. |
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 07/13/2007 : 13:40:29
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You have to suspend that ol' disbelief willingly. Most every movie is, at least in part, a fantasy. Even the Dogme type of suffering is. Even Michael Moore's documentaries twist reality a tad.
I've been watching old MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episodes and thoroughly enjoying them. But isn't Peter Graves' all-purpose "foreign accent" the worst in the world? And what if the mask slipped while you were impersonating the bad guy? Or the guy holding the gun on you actually shot you before you could con him out of it? There's nothing realistic about it, or in nine out of ten of my favorite movies, even the ones "based on a true story." It's just fun, like SHAWSHANK. Prison movie cliches? The improbability of digging a secret tunnel for twenty years? They don't bother me at all, just as long as I get that catharsis and Bob Gunton goes down every time. |
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silly 
"That rabbit's DYNAMITE."
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Posted - 07/13/2007 : 15:07:03
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When we saw Potter the other night, they had a trailer for the new Get Smart.
I was impressed. Can't wait for '08.  |
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ragingfluff
"Currently lost in Canada"
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Posted - 07/13/2007 : 15:28:22
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quote:
Originally posted by Randall
There's nothing realistic about it, or in nine out of ten of my favorite movies, even the ones "based on a true story." It's just fun, like SHAWSHANK. Prison movie cliches? The improbability of digging a secret tunnel for twenty years? They don't bother me at all, just as long as I get that catharsis and Bob Gunton goes down every time.
Mrs Gunton feels the same way...
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Downtown 
"Welcome back, Billy Buck"
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Posted - 07/13/2007 : 16:22:45
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I should point out that the "cliche" of Andy's tunnel leading to an empty space between the walls where he had access to an escape route is what really happened at Alcatraz.
It was a really old, poorly designed prison. That's kind of the point. It didn't even have a "sewer," just a pipe leading directly from the toilets to a river outside (yuck). |
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Whippersnapper. 
"A fourword thinking guy."
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Posted - 07/13/2007 : 19:38:26
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You can't make films about reality. No-one would believe them.
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Underrated Films? Give Them a Second Chance?
