“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.”

I remember the first time I watched this with my dad, I was anxious to check it out - the number one rated film on IMDb, top ten on Letterboxd, and widely known by even non-cinephiles as one of, if not the best movie ever made. It’s really easy for me to say that I wasn’t even somewhat disappointed after I finished watching it for the very first time. In my first diary entry of it on Letterboxd, I said that it slowly but surely hooks you in - I so couldn’t have been more wrong - it hooks you immediately. The opening scene, thanks to the music, the cinematography, and of course, the story, is full of suspense and mystique that immediately gets you to understand what makes this movie so special. Well, at least one of the things that makes this movie so special.

Then comes Andy’s arrival at Shawshank Prison. “I must admit I didn’t think much of Andy first time I laid eyes on him.” That’s a quote from Morgan Freeman’s ‘Red,’ and is somewhat similar to the feeling I had when I first saw Shawshank Prison. Of course, there is a mystery around the prison, as you know, there has to be something out of the ordinary about it for the movie to be interesting, but at first, everything about it seems normal - well, except for the excited inmates, of course. Then, straight away, a series of events occurs that fills you with a complete sense of dread that lasts pretty much all throughout the rest of the movie. As more and more terrible and torturous things start to happen inside the prison, the more hopeless both you and the characters start to feel.

But, thankfully, that hopelessness is helped by the fantastic characters and character work done in the movie. Despite all being accused and convicted of something, all of our main group of guys are fun to be around and people you root for the entire film. Andy and Red’s relationship throughout is also heartwarming, inspiring, and probably one of the best, I guess you could say, “friendship developments” in cinema history. They both help each other because they know deep down they are both good people, and this gets you to care about them in such an impactful way that I honestly don’t know that I’ve ever seen. This carries on to later moments in the film where you worry about them in such an extraordinary way that it almost becomes hard to watch.

Before I get to the later narrative points in the movie, without spoilers, of course, I have to mention the filmmaking aspects that elevate this movie to an even higher degree than just the incredible story. Just so I don’t have to say it every time I mention something, I’ll just say that for this movie, every aspect of the filmmaking is one of the best examples out there. First off, the musical score is amazing. It fills you with suspense when it should, fills you with dread when it should, fills you with hopelessness when it should, and finally, fills you with hope and inspiration when it should. Thomas Newman was really at his A-game, and I can’t wait to see what both he and Frank Darabont did with The Green Mile when I eventually get around to watching that.

I have the same thing to say about the cinematography. Obviously, the scenes going through the dark hall and into the room where Red has his hearings are a standout, but everything else is top-tier, too. I didn’t realize until this revisit that Roger Deakins did the camerawork for the movie, and it definitely shows. He’s an all-timer, easily. To describe the cinematography, it's really hard to describe because it’s not “stand-outish” in any way. Everything about it looks and feels natural, especially the lighting, which is to the movie’s benefit because anything above that would make the movie feel less grounded and real.

The last filmmaking aspect I’ll talk about before I sum up the review is the acting. First off, I’m not a huge fan of voice-over narration, but when you have someone like Morgan Freeman doing it, you can’t go wrong at all. Every time he talks, just like with everything, you listen, and everything he says is interesting in and of itself. Every actor, though, gives a perfect performance. You buy every feeling and emotion they have in the movie. To not repeat myself, the acting does its job in a similar way that the score does its job.

The story sums up in pretty much the most perfect way imaginable. Due to something that happens earlier, it gets you to think that certain terrible things might happen. It’s completely unpredictable for the most part, and this was an area where the writing most excelled. But as I said at the beginning of this paragraph, the story’s resolution is literally perfect. Everything, even the most minute of story details, are resolved and come to an end in a completely satisfying way.