Hope is a good thing - maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies.





Does it make me a sick person that I enjoy prison films and tv programs a great deal? Don't worry friends, I'm not the pen pal to Charlie Manson kind of prison fan (Big Meanie won't answer my letters)...I kid Ladies and Gentlemen, save your firey objections.
At any rate, when a film comes out about prison life, you can usually bet safely that I'll be there. Of course, when a film comes out about prison AND is also based on a Stephen King story, well, wild horses etc...
It appears that I am not the only prison/King fan in the world. Frank Darabont has directed two Stephen King penned prison films; The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile. Both films, incidentally, were nominated for Academy Awards. So there!

If you ask anybody what they would do if they saw a maggot crawling slowly toward them, the automatic response 99% of the time would be to run away or kill the nasty thing. I applaud either reaction. Of course, there is always that 1% who would choose to nestle the maggot, take it home, name it Harry or Pete and make it a part of their creepy crawly family. And you folks think I'm crazy??
The ASPCA concluded that feeding live maggots to Brook's bird was objectionable and cruel...to maggots. Forcing the crew to find maggots which had died of natural causes. Now, I think the ASPCA is a wonderful organization and serves a very important function in society, but I really have to say....cruelty to maggots?
I call your 'ick' and raise you an 'ewww'.

......

I can still remember the day I went to see this movie. I though I?d give it a try. There were maybe 5 or 6 other people in the theatre. In any case, two and a half hours later I came out awe-struck and exhausted from such a powerful emotional journey. I was so fortunate to have seen it on the big screen. The film was a revelation. It?s an incredibly moving and riveting piece of cinema - a struggle in the face of a seemingly insurmountable situation. Please excuse the hyperbole but it was a profound experience. And I'm not alone on this. The film's universal themes (friendship, hope, despair, overcoming adversity) seem to speak to a multitude of different people on many levels. Right now it sits at #3 on the Internet Movie Data Base list of the greatest movies of all time as voted by its 250,000 members (just behind The Godfather and Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King). In my humble opinion, it justly deserves to be ranked as one of the all-time greats.

Here are a few tidbits. The film was written and directed by Frank Darabont. It was his first major studio film. A definite masterpiece!!! He later directed The Green Mile - another Stephen King story - another incredibly moving film. If you haven?t read the Stephen King short story, Red is supposed to be a white Irish guy. But when Morgan Freeman was mentioned to the director as a possibility for Red it felt right. The entire cast was bang-on. And did you know, that at the time, there were some Hollywood heavyweights interested in the movie. Can you imagine Tom Cruise or Nicholas Cage? Or even Charlie Sheen??? Also interesting is that the director's original cut of the film ends with Red on the bus heading down the lonely country road towards Mexico with only the hope of a reunion. The studio disagreed and felt that additional scenes had to be shot with the two characters finally meeting. They felt that after putting the audience through an emotional wringer for 2.5 hours a release was needed. Was it a case of the suits tampering with the director's artistry? Pandering to the audience? Who knows? After investing so much emotion in the film I wanted, no needed, that happy ending dammit!!!!

Nevertheless, it didn?t matter in the end. The movie bombed at the box office. Was it the title? What?s a Shawshank? Redemption? Sounds like a religious film. A prison movie?!? With no action! Little violence!! No special effects!!! What gives? Nope. Just good old-fashioned storytelling at it?s very finest - perfectly directed, perfectly acted. The film garnered 7 Academy Award nominations including one for Best Picture but won none. It was the year of the Forrest Gump blockbuster and another genre defining classic named Pulp Fiction. But thanks to the nominations, it gave notice to the general public to seek out this overlooked gem. And through home video, it became the most rented movie of 1995 and to this day it continues to grow in stature - a modern classic.

Ten years later, I still get a lump in my throat when I see this film. Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free. Cornball? No. Magnificent? Absolutely yes!!! Embrace this film.

Comments are welcome. Email us at reelmud@movieposter.com