8 ms·
Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the world who doesn't like this film.
by austinjp 8mo ago
Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the world who doesn't like this film.
- tptacek 8mo agoYou may very well be! Why?
- kgwxd 8mo agoIt's good for a single watch. I don't get how people can rewatch it without groaning non-stop. We get it, he's smarter than the warden and the warden hates him for it, prison sucks, and Morgan Freeman can make even the lamest cliches sound "deep".
- tptacek 8mo agoThe warden does not hate him for being smarter than him? The warden covets him for being smarter than him!
- austinjp 8mo ago@padjo said it well. Schmaltzy and manipulative. Freeman's folksiness is eye-rollingly clichéd. I cringed throughout the film the first time I tried to watch it, and I haven't lasted more than a few minutes every other time I've tried. I am very well aware I'm in a minority, though!
- padjo 8mo agoYou're not alone. I find it pretty dull, manipulative and schmaltzy. This is the great thing about art, there's no objective measurement, people are free to disagree and like what they like.
- hackeraccount 8mo agoI like it but it's not amazing. And I've seen it ... 4 or 5 or more times. It's just such an easy watch. I think the deal is that the emotional beats in it work so well that the plot can be set aside. It's also not a problem that those beast aren't particularly clever or imaginative. It's like a jump scare in a horror movie or Old Yeller. Even when you know what's going to happen you still startle or shed a tear. Honestly even when you know you're being manipulated and think it's cheesy you still get that response. The weird thing to me about Shawshank is that it's not a monster out of the dark or a dog getting killed. It's not a cathartic thing but something else.