The Shawshank Redemption has been in my Top 3 favorite movies since 1994. I can't tell you how much I love this movie or even how many times I have watched it over the years. I put this worlds ahead of classic films like Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Gone With The Wind, etc...There are so many great things about this movie that it's hard to list them all, so I will so at the top. Frank Darabont, there hasn't been a greater directorial debut for a feature film...ever. Sit down Orson Wells. Not only does he have an amazing eye for composition and framing his shots, but the dude knows how to direct his actors and get the most out of them. I've been a fan of his since and would pay to watch him direct traffic.

The cast is 100% perfect. I can't think of any other cast that had every single role cast flawlessly as this one. Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Clancy Brown and James Whitmore were all brilliant. The screenplay to this day is one that I always look to for inspiration (along with T2 and The Breakfast Club), when diving headlong into writing of my own. The pacing and the editing of TSR is also perfect. There is never a dull moment to be found through the movie. The first two acts of the movie is EXACTLY how you do it, because the 3rd act...the reveal, is one of the most enjoyable and rewarding experiences a viewer will get.

I will always defend this movie against any naysayers that try to demean it or say it doesn't warrant the accolades. I do have issues with so-called "screenplay guru's" that think they know their sh*t when it comes to writing. As a writer myself, I read a lot of screenplay books because I'm always curious to see what the next wave of writers have to say about format, style, etc...And every time I hear them say that writing Narration is a cop-out and shows the writer to be weak in the form of storytelling, I say...Bullsh*t. If that's the case, then I hope to write weak sh*t like this for the rest of my life. Okay, rant over.

If you have never seen this one, you owe it to yourself to Buy it. Buy! Buy! Buy! I have the original DVD release and this Special Edition release. If they have a 20 Year Anniversary Special Edition in the works with new stuff, I will gladly triple dip on this one for sure.