On this day in 1994, The Shawshank Redemption, starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, opens in theaters around the United States. Based on a short story titled “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,” by the best-selling author Stephen King, the movie followed the story of a man named Andy Dufresne (Robbins) who is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. Behind bars, Andy forms a friendship with Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding (Freeman), a longtime inmate known for his ability to “get things,” or smuggle contraband into the prison.
The Shawshank Redemption was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Actor (Freeman) and Best Picture (it lost to Forrest Gump). Frank Darabont, who wrote and directed The Shawshank Redemption, also helmed The Green Mile (1999) and The Mist (2007), both of which were based on books by King.
Tim Robbins, born on October 16, 1958, made his breakthrough film performance as the up-and-coming minor league pitcher Nuke LaLoosh in 1988’s Bull Durham. The movie co-starred Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon, who would become Robbins’ longtime partner. Robbins went on to appear in Robert Altman’s The Player (1992) and Bob Roberts (1992), which also marked his screenwriting and directing debut. In 1995, he wrote and directed Dead Man Walking, which co-starred Sarandon and Sean Penn.
The film, a provocative look at capital punishment, earned Robbins an Oscar nomination for Best Director and won Sarandon the statuette for Best Actress. Among Robbins’ other movie credits as an actor are Arlington Road (1999) and Catch a Fire (2006). He collected an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Mystic River (2003). Robbins and Sarandon, who have two sons together, are known for their political and social activism.
Morgan Freeman, born on June 1, 1937, gained notice in the 1980s with Street Smart (1987), for which he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination; the Civil War drama Glory (1988); and Driving Miss Daisy (1988), for which he earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his role as the chauffeur Hoke Colburn. Freeman’s long list of hit movies includes Lean on Me (1989), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Unforgiven (1991), Se7en (1995), Kiss the Girls (1997), and Bruce Almighty (2002).
He won his first Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor, for Million Dollar Baby (2003). More recently, the prolific Freeman narrated the hit 2005 documentary March of the Penguins (2005), co-starred opposite Jack Nicholson in The Bucket List (2007) and appeared in Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008), the latest two installments of the super hero franchise.
Ellis Boy “Red” Redding: “I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I? don’t wanna know. I would like to think they were singing about some thing was so beautiful it cant be expressed in words and make your heart ache because of it.I tell you this voice soared higher and farther than anybody in a Gray place dares to dream it is like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away. For the briefest moment every last man in Shawshank felt free.”
My heart does ache, or soars to heights when I watch my favorite scene of Shawshank.
“But if there were no music
Then I would not get through” –Shawn Colvin I Don’t Know Why
And my mench Andy risks his life to get beer for the gang. Even though he does not partake in imbibing cold Bohemia style beer.
stay thirsty my friends
Great comment, KS.The Mozart scene is classic, and the beer scene, too. Shawshank is in my top 20 of all time. Yeah, I know. Who cares?
But Mystic River is almost better, as it shows how, 3rd parties to victims can get caught up emotionally, prematurely being cocksure of someone’s guilt, and condemning them to death.
In this flick, it leads to vigilante (in)Justice, disaster, and regretful realization, when the truth is later discovered.
The victims relative, the judges, jury, and executioner were all WRONG about the suspected perp.
In this day and age of sexual abuse, Me Too, and conviction in the court of public opinion before due process plays out, I’d encourage people to see Mystic River.
Especially if you’re quick to condemn, when evidence is thin.
Even as old, dark trends cast new suspicions.
Lgr