Why is The Shawshank Redemption considered so great?

[SafyreSchool**]

I've seen this film a few times, and I liked it, but searching around, IMDB ranks it number one, above the godfather series, and seven samurai. (the list I linked there sucks, but there are many examples of this film on lists of top 10 films of all time.

That acting is good, I guess.
The main character, Andy, is stoic, and Freeman acts like Freeman.
It's old timey, people tend to like that era.
Stories of comeuppance, deserved justice and revenge are always good.

I just don't see what makes this a "great" film.

Put this film next to The Count of Monte Cristo, (the film) for example.

We have similar wrongful imprisonment, a person accepting his capture and eventually changing, though Andy just kind of went with it, whereas Cristo's Edmond Dant

 

[peytonlucy]

People love good prison movies: see Cool Hand Luke.

 

[Jermei]

My favourite movie of all time. Guess you have to have dealt with some shit in your life to connect to a film like this, at least I did and this movie helped me get through it... my life troubles, failed relationships, my fathers death, add it all up the theme of this film connected with me and I've watched it more than 50x. Plus it's exceptional storytelling, acting and filmmaking...

 

[faustian]

It's a tremendous story about existential freedom and will to meaning that happens to be set in a prison

 

[Rex Kwon Do]

I have no idea. I agree with you, it's a decent movie, but nowhere near deserving of the praise. Wouldn't even crack my top 100, let alone top 10.

Best thing about it was that scene with a beautiful Mozart aria.

 

[akutz1]

My favourite movie of all time. Guess you have to have dealt with some shit in your life to connect to a film like this, at least I did and this movie helped me get through it... my life troubles, failed relationships, my fathers death, add it all up the theme of this film connected with me and I've watched it more than 50x. Plus it's exceptional storytelling, acting and filmmaking...

Exactly
I love it so much because it reminds me of the time I escaped from prison and lived the rest of my life in a tropical paradise

 

[Tankeray]

I agree completely. I've always wondered why it topped the list at IMDB. Its a good film but it wasn't amazing. When I saw it listed at No. 1 at IMDB- "whaa?"

I agree with Rex here, it wouldn't crack my Top 100 either.

 

[Karelinator]

Story is rather far fetched and yet seems believable.

That's something, I guess.

 

[Concrete]

I would think it's about making a connection with the characters. Sympathising with them. If it didn't draw you in like that, it would explain why you thought it was meh.

 

[INeedARemedy]

It's a tremendous story about existential freedom and will to meaning that happens to be set in a prison

Tremendous post

The prison is just a setting. Doesn't matter too much.

Andy Dufresne - who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side

GOATness

 

[206crazy]

Man, that scene where they drink the beers on the roof....That's it right there!!!!!

 

[SafyreSchool**]

It's a tremendous story about existential freedom and will to meaning that happens to be set in a prison

I don't see the parallels.
It just seems like a simple story.
Can you cite examples?

I think another poster touched on it when they sad it's just so simple, it's believable.

 

[Madmick]

IMDb is the public's poll. It's just a story that can appeal to people from every walk of life. The most authoritative poll taken of the film geek community is by a British magazine called Sight & Sound. Every ten years they poll several hundred each of the most prominent critics and directors, globally. Only one film and one director has ever scored #1 on both polls. In 2002, Citizen Kane and Orson Welles were named best film and best director by both groups. Yet where is it on the IMDb Top 250? Only at #45. It suffers in the public eye from a lack of knowledge of what it did for film, from a protagonist who isn't as likeable as in the other films, and from the distance of time.

Take a look at the Top 10 films named in the most recent 2012 polls (IMDb Top 250 ranking in parentheses, if it holds one):

S&S CRITICS 2012

1. Vertigo (#51)
2. Citizen Kane (#45)
3. Tokyo Story
4. The Rules of the Game
5. Sunrise
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (#94)
7. The Searchers
8. Man with a Movie Camera
9. Passion of Joan of Arc
10. 8 1/2

S&S Directors 2012

1. Tokyo Story
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (#94) / Citizen Kane (#45)
3. 8 1/2
4. Taxi Driver (#56)
5. Apocalypse Now (#34)
6. Vertigo (#51) / The Godfather (#2)
7. Mirror
8. Bicycle Thieves (#87)

It really illuminates the tension between popular and "studied" appeal in forming the canon. 7/10 of the critics' picks didn't even make the Top 250. It's interesting to note that the best films picked here for Scorsese, Kubrick, Hitchcock, and Coppola aren't their top films as picked by the people: sometimes behind by several films. Tokyo Story, the top performer between groups this decade, only scores an 8.2 on IMDb.

 

[dc007]

It's a fantastic movie but I don't think I would rate it the best film of all time. But honestly, I don't think I could do that with any film. Too hard to pick.

 

[IndyCovaHart]

This is the same list that had The Dark Knight above The Godfather at one point.

I wouldn't take it too seriously if I were you.

 

[KOQ24]

While Shawshank is not in my Top 10 i consider it a perfect Film.
-story
-cast
-cinematography

[YT]dL_C19mAwUE[/YT]

 

[faustian]

I don't see the parallels.
It just seems like a simple story.
Can you cite examples?

I think another poster touched on it when they sad it's just so simple, it's believable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_(existential)


You can't let the external world define your inner being. That's what Shawshank is all about.

"Here

 

[Madmick]

This is the same list that had The Dark Knight above The Godfather at one point.

I wouldn't take it too seriously if I were you.

This criticism of the list is far less meaningful than the list itself. Of course there's a passion index in the poll. People are excited about what they just saw; thus the "test of time". Films drop from their opening weekend, from the theater run, for the first year, and then again for the first five years after their release. After that they're pretty steady. It's a much longer, slower decline into 'forgotteness'. Don't get me wrong, I think the Spaghetti Westerns are the most overrated films of all time by all three groups (public, artists, critics/historians), and I can't stand that the LOTR are as high as they are...but it doesn't invalidate that this is a list of the people. It's as egalitarian as it gets.

 

[Gates of Janus]

S&S CRITICS 2012

1. Vertigo (#51)
2. Citizen Kane (#45)
3. Tokyo Story
4. The Rules of the Game
5. Sunrise
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (#94)
7. The Searchers
8. Man with a Movie Camera
9. Passion of Joan of Arc
10. 8 1/2

S&S Directors 2012

1. Tokyo Story
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (#94) / Citizen Kane (#45)
3. 8 1/2
4. Taxi Driver (#56)
5. Apocalypse Now (#34)
6. Vertigo (#51) / The Godfather (#2)
7. Mirror
8. Bicycle Thieves (#87)

these lists suck too. none of them are in my top 10. i would say worrying about anyone's top 10 list outside of your personal top 10 is pointless.

S+S has their reason for their top 10, as does IMDB, and Ebert (RIH)

here is the correct top 10.

1 - Videodrome
2 - twin peaks: fire walk with me
3 - friday the 13th p1
4 - friday the 13th p2
5- nightmare on elm st 1 original
6 - a clockwork orange
7 - naked lunch
8 - dumb and dumber
9 - fight club
10 - a christmas story

i know my list would make sense to no one else because they have not lived my life

 

[IndyCovaHart]

This criticism of the list is far less meaningful than the list itself. Of course there's a passion index in the poll. People are excited about what they just saw; thus the "test of time". Films drop from their opening weekend, from the theater run, for the first year, and then again for the first five years after their release. After that they're pretty steady. It's a much longer, slower decline into 'forgotteness'. Don't get me wrong, I think the Spaghetti Westerns are the most overrated films of all time by all three groups (public, artists, critics/historians), and I can't stand that the LOTR are as high as they are...but it doesn't invalidate that this is a list of the people. It's as egalitarian as it gets.

And sometimes "the people," are stupid.

Putting stock in this list is only slightly more meaningful than trying to argue that Britney Spears has talent because she has sold platinum-level albums.