it's just a story told with good direction and characterization about justice delayed and not surrendering to despair. lots of people like those stories, where the goodies end up happy and the baddies get their medicine.

the redemption arc wasn't Andy. it was Red. Red was deeply cynical, on his way to becoming Brooks, but found his way out through friendship.

U could also take it as "use your visible signifiers as a protected class to grift the powers that be, right up until the point where you utterly fuck them over, while using what access you have to power to the betterment of everyone around you"

Idk, I like the movie, I do think you're being cynical, but I'm just one person on the internet

Edit: I also feel like there's an obvious theme of "our justice system is utterly fucked and does not care about reintroducing people into society, only about breaking their humanity." Only then does Red get paroled. I don't think there's anything unique about Shawshank where they're like "this is the one spooky, evil jail," it's just like, prison is an utterly fucked institution upheld only by the sadism of those who run it, and real justice is a bullet through the warden's skull

No, you get it perfectly. It's "American Dream: The movie". Innocent white middle class man can pick himself up from his bootstraps even from the prison cell. I watched it years ago, and felt exactly what you describe.

The movie going out of it's way to let the audience know that the guy has been innocently convicted just takes all the interest ouf of the whole thing. This being the all-time IMDb top movie is pretty telling for just how wide as an ocean-deep as a puddle that sites understanding of film was. Thank God for letterboxed (which also sucks in tons of different ways).

If you are in the mood for other prison films I'd recommend Grand Illusion by Jean Renoir (although that films pre-WW2 humanism could definitely rub someone the wrong way if they're not in the mood for it) or Reform School Girls which is an absolute exploitation masterpiece.

Love the scene where they redeem the shawshank

Hadn't watched it full only the final 10 minutes, does the shawshank gets redempted?

I don't disagree that it's an ultra liberal text and is on the cheesy side but I also really like it for what it is, a very well crafted 90s flick that tells a compelling story well. sure it's overrated but it's a very enjoyable watch imo. miles better than Forrest Gump which kinda holds a similar place in peoples minds

then people jerk it off for 'showing the humanity of prisoners for the first time EVER in cinema and not treating prison rape as a joke'

no way people say this. this is what someone who has seen exactly one prison film would say

I think it's fine but agree it's nowhere near a best movie list. At least it's not what I'm looking for in a movie.

Cheesy and without charm, idk. Might be cynical or just a taste thing. But the movie does feel really white in a way I can't put into words, and "cheesy" kinda works. There's kind of a charm to it, but in an idyllic faux grittiness, like a portrayal of societal problems in an unthreatening, individualistic way that wraps it all up in a feel good ending.

Who gonna make a George Jackson movie?

Part of me feels like this take is cynical just for the sake of being cynical, but then I remember that I watched the movie around the time that it came out, before it became 'the best movie of all time'. It got good reviews at the time, but it definitely didn't get that kind of praise out of the gate.

I remember that TBS would play it non-stop, and thinking about that now, it's probably a huge reason why this film got voted to that spot on IMDB. For me, I just watched a movie that I thought was pretty good ,worth re-watching, and years later when I heard 'it's been voted as......' , I thought 'yeah, I guess I could kind of see why it would get that vote'.

But if it's always been hyped to you as the greatest film of all time before you watched it.... I could also understand you asking what the big deal is.

As far as performances go, Freeman and Robbins aren't where the magic is. They're fine in their lead roles, but nobody ever says 'oooh Robbins was so good in that!'. It's the character actors that give this film it's shine.

I learned beer tastes so good after forced manual labor, it almost makes it worth it!