Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #3 The Shawshank Redemption

Box Office: $28.8 Million Dollars

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Morgan Freeman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, Best Original Score

Oscar Wins: None

MovieRankings.Net: 97/100

Available To Stream: Pluto TV, Amazon Prime ($4)

The Shawshank Redemption is very similar to It's A Wonderful Life. Both movies were Academy Award nominated for Best Picture but had no real chance and didn't end up even winning a single Oscar. They also both reached a level of film immortality that very few movies can equal. Both deal with evergreen topics of redemption, friendship, and feeling trapped. Much like the Jimmy Stewart classic, I think Shawshank will be watched for generations.

The Shawshank Redemption originally appeared as a novella written by Stephen King that also included The Body (which later became Stand By Me) in the larger novel Different Seasons. It was called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. I love the story and read it a couple times before I saw the movie. Even knowing the ending before I saw the movie, I still loved it. I'm clearly not alone. It's one of the most rewatchable movies ever.

So, why is a movie that almost solely takes place in a miserable prison with no love interest remain so interesting? There's an element of just enjoying hanging out with these guys. Morgan Freeman is never better than he is as Red. Freeman has to do so much of the emotional heavy lifting which allows Tim Robbins' Andy Dufrense to be this aloof yet brilliant Christ-like figure. 

No one is better as adapting Stephen King than director Frank Darabont. This is clearly his greatest movie but (#53) The Green Mile and The Mist are both very good. Sadly, Darabont stopped  making movies. In fact, he's directing an episode of Stranger Things coming out this year that will be the first thing he's worked on in over a decade. He hasn't directed a movie since The Mist in 2007. He was unable to get financing for a movie about the Civil War and that process left him disillusioned with Hollywood. It's really too bad. He captures King like no other.

I don't know of many other works of art that do a better job showing not just losing your freedom, but your soul as well. Of course, you see Andy struggle but it's the story of Brooks that is the most heartbreaking. He literally can't exist in a life with freedom because he's been locked up for so long. The movie does a good job not asking us to feel badly for Brooks because he did commit crimes, but instead to try to understand how hard it could be for a man who had served his time to adjust to the real world.

Maybe if The Shawshank Redemption came out in a different year, it would have gotten more attention? 1994 was a difficult year for a movie to make an award splash going up against Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump. But I'm not sure that anything would have changed even if it had been released at a different time. There's are levels of familiarity and comfortability that come with Shawshank that make it more effective when you are watching at home. This is also true about the aforementioned It's A Wonderful Life. These are movies that deal with prison and suicide. These should not be movies that warm your soul.

But these classics also embrace the human condition. They do it with no irony and with open hearts. These are sincere movies and that's what they last. We are certainly more cynical than we were in 1946 when It's A Wonderful Life came out. We're also angrier than we were when Shawshank was released in 1994. But maybe what we are searching for are movies like The Shawshank Redemption that remind us what humanity should be.

3. The Shawshank Redemption

4. Good Will Hunting

5. Casino

6. Groundhog Day

7. The Silence Of The Lambs

8. Office Space

9. The Sixth Sense

10. Boogie Nights

11. Jurassic Park

12. Jackie Brown

13. A Few Good Men

14. The Fugitive

15. The Truman Show

16. Fargo

17. Swingers

18. Reservoir Dogs

19. There's Something About Mary

20. Sleepers

21. Schindler's List

22. Rushmore

23. Fight Club

24. Saving Private Ryan

25. True Romance

26. Dumb & Dumber

27. Kingpin

28. Donnie Brasco

29. Heat 

30. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

31. Rounders

32. Unforgiven

33. Trainspotting

34. The Game

35. Out Of Sight

36. Carlito's Way

37. Seven

38. L.A. Confidential

39. Speed

40. Gattaca

41. Misery

42. Tombstone

43. Ransom

44. Wayne's World

45. The Insider

46. Back To The Future Part III

47. A Bronx Tale

48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt

49. Eyes Wide Shut

50. The Sandlot

51. Happy Gilmore

52. Contact

53. The Green Mile

54. Man On The Moon

55. Boyz N The Hood

56. Grosse Pointe Blank

57. Independence Day

58. The Rainmaker

59. Go

60. The Firm

61. Magnolia

62. The Talented Mr. Ripley

63. Tommy Boy

64. The Usual Suspects

65. In The Line Of Fire

66. My Cousin Vinny

67. Awakenings

68. JFK

69. Toy Story

70. Home Alone

71. Jerry Maguire

72. Titanic

73. Billy Madison

74. Apollo 13

75. Braveheart

76. Edward Scissorhands

77. Cape Fear

78. The River Wild

79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

80. 12 Monkeys

81. Stir Of Echoes

82. Mission: Impossible

83. Total Recall

84. Quiz Show

85. For Love Of The Game

86. Being John Malkovich

87. Men In Black

88. Scream

89. Alive

90. Three Kings

91. Glengarry Glen Ross

92. Die Hard With A Vengeance

93. The Blair Witch Project

94. Twister

95. Dirty Work

96. Election

97. Tremors

98. Any Given Sunday

99. The Wedding Singer

100. Clerks