Tom+does+have+really+blue+eyes...

The Shawshank Redemption While the conclusion on the movie may have aired on the side of cheesy and everything deep, dark, mysterious critics hate, I thought it was refreshing in a world of films that constantly kill off my favorite character in the last thirty seconds and end leaving me bewildered and depressed. I think this movie had a great combination of appropriate carnage. Afterall, three inmates died, that goes beyond painting a sad, unjust portrait of prision life. There was plot twists. He's innocent, he's quilty, he's a bookkeeper, he's a slave, he's a genius, he's a criminal on the inside when he was just on the out. Be honest, did you really see the end coming? Did you guess they where going to shoot the Elivis look-alike? In my opinion it was intircate, suspenseful, and well played out. As for the pic-nic-esque prison life portrayal, it's a movie. A piece of film. I've seen documentaries about being in prison, it's painfully boring when you're sitting with Juan and he's telling you about his daily routine. The only interesting thing about prision is, let's face it, when someone gets into a fight, when someone smuggles in something pointy concealed in there anal cavity, or when someone dies. I do not want to watch two and a half hours sitting in a theater watching people kick the crap out of eachother because they have nothing else to do. This movie paints a portrait of what happens when an intillectual goes to prison, and while that prison may not be on par with the brutality of real life prisons, let us not forget that for the premise of the film, it fits. He gets raped, beaten, locked in solitary for months, they murder his friend and esstentially kill his only legal chance of being released, and in the end is hardened enough by prison life that HE CRAWLS THROUGH 500 YARDS OF FECES. PRISON INMATE, FECES. Even if that would never happen now, or in the time period when it was set, if it's not real enough for you, you cannot deny that it is fantastically creative in a really disturbing way. COME ON. He holds the rock and waits for the thunder, I loved that. Maybe I'm not as demanding as all the other critics, but I dont think a movie has to have mystic and harshness to be good. I Liked it, as is, for reasons beyond realism, and violence level. If I wanted violence I'd watch The Hills Have Eyes. If I wanted a realistic expeirence of prision... who wants to have a realistic prison expierence?