Week 2: Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.
I’m running way behind with these 52 Movies blog posts. I have been keeping up with watching a movie every week, I just haven’t found the time to blog about them too (plus the internet connection here is still sucky; fingers crossed it’ll be solved tomorrow). Hopefully I’ll manage to write the reviews for Week 2, 3 and 4 this week, and then next week I’ll do Week 5 and Week 6.
The movie for week 2 was The Shawshank Redemption, currently ranked as the number 1 film on IMDB. I’ve been meaning to watch it for at least the past 10 years, but every time it appeared on TV something managed to get in the way of watching it. Exams, delayed trains, or just plain forgetting what time it was on. It was a movie I knew I had to watch from start to finish, so I really didn’t want to jump in after missing half an hour. Frankly, I have been quite successful in avoiding seeing or hearing anything about this movie and not being spoiled at all (a rare feat considering the amount of movie blogs I read; I think I know at least the endings to half of the 52 Movies we’ve chosen).
The Shawshank Redemption tells the tale of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a man who is convicted and sentenced to life in jail for the murder of his wife and her lover. He’s sent to Shawshank Prison, where he learns how to deal with prison life.
So what did I think of The Shawshank Redemption? To be honest, I wasn’t that impressed by it. I mean, I can see and understand why it would be ranked so high; it’s a movie with not a lot of faults, and the type of movie almost no one can not like. That being said though, I don’t see it as “THE best movie ever” and that’s what this list of 250 Movies should represent, right? Especially the number one.
It is a good movie though and for those of you who haven’t seen, it definitely is a movie you should see. It’s full of hope and the lengths that we can go to when we have hope in ourselves, in our futures, and in others. The acting is superb; both TIm Robbins and Morgan Freeman are great in their roles. Personally though I just didn’t find it deserving of that number one spot.
Next week: Psycho
Twitter/mseckington
Flickr/mseckington
LinkedIn/Melinda Seckington
Facebook/Melinda Seckington
February 12th, 2009 at 18:20
One can’t despute that Shawshank Redemption is an excellent film, but I’ve always wondered about it’s position on the IMDB list. I’ve never even seen that film on an all time top 10 list before. Personally, I wouldn’t take IMDB as the last word or even starting place for a best film list. Even AFI or the various critic’s lists would probably be better choices.
Psycho (your next film), though, certainly deserves a place on an all time top film list. Remember that with it, Hitchcock invented the “slasher” genre. My favorite Hitch flicks were the less violent ones, though: The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rear Window, Vertigo. You just about can’t go wrong with Hitch.
February 12th, 2009 at 23:29
Well now, isn’t that exactly the kind of film that WOULD make it to the top spot in a user-driven list like IMDBs?
Best Film EVAR!!1 is such a subjective thing – I like sci fi, other people like romance or westerns… A straight dramatic story that avoids mistakes is going to have far more consistenly high scores than any genre favourite.
February 13th, 2009 at 10:01
Yeah, you should keep in mind that a best film list on something like IMDb will be the average of everybody’s taste which probably evens out to something mediocre or at least very much inoffensive. Having a socially weighed top100 list would be much much more interesting.
But given that, I don’t think you can dismiss Shawshank Redemption that easily without arguments and without giving an alternative. Subjectivity is nice and all, but this is a bit much.