Redemption Hollywood-style

On Saturday, I finally watched the shawshank Redemption all the way through, having previously only watched the first half of it due to time constraints. It is a memorable movie and I can see why many rate it as one of their favourites, with a hrash film that has a quasi-materialistic redemption at the end. It is very similar in fact to the first half of The Count of Monte Cristo (which it namechecks along with Treasure Island), but still expands that over a mammoth 2hrs 20 mins. It also has a manipulative pull (like the Dead Poets' Society) to set up black-and-white (and indeed unlikely) situations of characters within the colour that can be afforded the drab pallor of a mid-twentieth century prison stretch, so that we are given very clear directions on who to root for. Tim Robbins' Andy has a saintly fortitude beyond endurance until other people start getting hurt, Morgan Freeman reprises his salt-of-the-earth persona that he play so well in so many movies. The coterie of crims around Andy and Freeman's character 'Red' are loveable types at heart. The rest are neutral at best, with plenty of liberal Hollywood cliches such as the unforgiving senetencing judge at the beginning "Andy du Frain, you have shown yourself to be a person with no remorse..." that could be filched from dozens of fictions. Also, there is a logistical impossibility at the end. If you haven't seen the film don't read the next few sentences. Andy busts out of prison by digging a hole over 19 years with a small rockhammer. He burrows from a place near the cell door which he covers with a poster. Yet on the day after his breakout, as morning roll call goes ahead, we see two prisoners before the end of the block to emphasise his absence in a visual medium. Yet, if Andy was burowing through, surely that he would encounter those two prisoners before he got into the waste disposal area. That's something that should have been picked up in the rushes, though I admit, it only came to me after a night's sleep, testament to the powerful and vivid nature of the movie. I feel the need to criticise because so many uncritically hail it as a great movie, but for all that I've said, it's a very good film.