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Author Topic: Shawshank Redemption : The greatest movie of all time ? Kamakshipalya Dhananjay Expert Film Handler Posts: 190 From: Bangalore, India Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-19-2003 01:44 AM                     SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. Year of Release : 1994 Director : Frank Darabont. One of the greatest movies of all time. A non-judgemental stance and attitude to life by the lead character. The best movie I have seen in years. I watched this movie on a pirated DVD here in Bangalore last month. A pirated DVD here costs 2 USD. These DVD are no different from the originals that sell elsewhere. Till I bought this film, I had not ever heard about this film. My response to this film towards the end of this film was something I had never anticipated - I had tears in my eyes. And I still debate with myself over whether I really cried at all. It might have been that I stared a lot to the computer late into the night and so on... I always thought that because I knew a lot about the technology behind the illusion of cinema, I was more unlikely to be moved as much as the general person. But here was this film that put tears into my eyes. The next morning, I was determined to find about more about this film and got on to imdb.com. Would I be shocked to see this film described or voted as the greatest film of all time ?  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-19-2003 02:05 PM                     I don't think I would vote "The Shawshank Redemption" as one of the greatest films of all time (films like "Citizen Kane," "The Godfather" and "Lawrence of Arabia" are in that class). But I definitely feel it is a great film, easily Frank Darabont's best directorial effort. I have a copy of the film on DVD, not a pirated version either but the one Warner Home Video released a couple years ago. I paid $14 for the thing, which I consider a bargain for a film of this quality. While the "Shawshank Redemption" is a great film, it is not an easy film to watch. It really gets unpleasant and depressing. The plight of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) just seems so totally without hope. But then that makes his victory at the end so much more thrilling. I did get teary eyed and thrilled by seeing this "everyman" win with such a resounding victory. The film had some great lines too. "Get busy living or get busy dying. Absolutely Goddamned right."  |  IP: Logged Paul Linfesty Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1383 From: Bakersfield, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 04-19-2003 03:43 PM                     Does anyone know what music was used during the original preview? I know it didnt belong to the film, but it haunts me to this day.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-19-2003 07:45 PM                     The Warner Home Video DVD has one theatrical trailer. I don't know if that is the one to which you refer, Paul. But I can say the music on that trailer is definitely from "Miller's Crossing." That music has been used in other movie trailers as well. I remember this really BAD movie from Fox called "Shining Through," released early in 1992, that used the same music. Incidentally, I think "Miller's Crossing" is probably the only Coen Brothers movie conspicuously not on DVD. I've heard rumors than Fox Home Video is working on a new DVD of it though.  |  IP: Logged Bill Gabel Film God Posts: 3873 From: Technicolor / Postworks NY, USA Registered: Jan 2002 posted 04-19-2003 07:59 PM                     "Miller's Crossing" has a DVD street date of 5/20/2003 from Fox.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 04-19-2003 11:26 PM                     Personally, I thnk that anyone on this site that admits to watching a pirated copy of a film made in the USA should be banned from being here..... Mark  |  IP: Logged Daryl C. W. O'Shea Film God Posts: 3977 From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from) Registered: Jun 2002 posted 04-20-2003 12:12 AM                        Yeah this isn't the first time this has come up this week, personally it's starting to piss me off. quote: A pirated DVD here costs 2 USD. These DVD are no different from the originals that sell elsewhere. Like hell there isn't a difference! One is stolen property.  |  IP: Logged Paul Linfesty Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1383 From: Bakersfield, CA, USA Registered: Nov 1999 posted 04-20-2003 12:23 AM                     quote: But I can say the music on that trailer is definitely from "Miller's Crossing." That music has been used in other movie trailers as well. Thanks, Bobby! It ALWAYS throws me off when I hear familiar music in a trailer and just can't place it. Legends of the Fall was another movie in which the score was used over and over in other previews and it took me two years to figure it out!  |  IP: Logged Kamakshipalya Dhananjay Expert Film Handler Posts: 190 From: Bangalore, India Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-20-2003 05:42 AM                     Come On. I do not see it as a privilege that DVDs that are available in INDIA are mostly the pirated copies of American releases. Would any of you be surprised to note that no American Cinema has ever been released in INDIA on a DVD yet ? On VHS or VCD, they are. But never on a DVD. Why ? Nobody knows why it is so but all we do know for a fact is that the pirates are having their best season in INDIA. Thousands upon thousands of DVDs which are not camera prints but digital copies of the originals with the Region Code removed for the copies sell at the heart of each city in INDIA. The Police and the authorities turn a blind eye to these. Let me ask a question here. If all you could ever get is a pirated copy and that alone, for a movie like say SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, what would you do ? Let me also remind here that options such as purchasing from the net from US websites are not feasible at all. The Customs regulations in INDIA will require the buyer to do a hundred or more things just to import a DVD. The VCDs that are released here are released only for a handful of films and without exception all of them are pan and scan copies and all of them are so badly mastered that few people would really like to watch them. Given the impossible route to acquire an original DVD, sometimes people here take to the pirated copies. And SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION never released in movie theatres here. It is not available officially on a VCD or a VHS. And as far as I can remember, it was never telecast on TV either. When I said that there is no difference between the pirated and the original, I meant not that I got a bargain at so small a price, but only that the pirated copy is a digital copy of the original DVD. Being a movie theare owner myself, it may be expected that these practices have our strongest disapproval. In fact, in the days I got into this business after my college, I personally made a complaint to the police and when they would do nothing at all, I contacted the New York Times and the MPAA to see if they would do anything to help. Did they ? Did anything change ?  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 04-20-2003 12:35 PM                     I'm sorry but bootlegging is bootlegging. Your purchasing a copy is just as bad as the pirates who create them in the first place and neither is acceptable. The bootlegging discussion needs to end right here without further comment.  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-21-2003 11:47 PM                     To get back on the topic of the movie itself, "The Shawshank Redemption" came up today in a news item on CNN. A poll asked a group of movie fans their favorite climactic lines from films. The quote, "get busy living or get busy dying" scored number three on the top 5 list. Incidentally, "The Termintator" scored the number 1 and number 5 spots on the list with "I'll be back" and "Hasta La Vista, Baby." The infamous quote, "Frankly My Dear, I don't give a damn," from "Gone With the Wind" was number 2 (kind of surprising really).  |  IP: Logged Kamakshipalya Dhananjay Expert Film Handler Posts: 190 From: Bangalore, India Registered: Aug 2002 posted 04-22-2003 12:20 AM                     A vist to IMDB.Com should reveal a number of interesting facts about this film. Of the 90000+ plus votes for this film, more than 42000 users gave a complete 10 out of 10 for this film. Some people are quite puzzled at what is truly there in this film that makes thousands swear by this. And it has been discovered that this film in fact ranks greater than or carries more votes than Godfather which is currently rated as the No.1 movie on that site - feedback in that regard has been made to the site which is in the process of re-evaluating the votes again. If I were really asked for why I would appreciate this film, all I have to give is that this movie reaches out and touches a part of oneself that no other movie manages to do. Period. As to the Box-office performance of this film when it released, this was a disaster then. I do not have information about video or DVD sales for this film. Here are some facts : U.S.Release Date : September 23, 1994 Distributor : Columbia Theatrical Revenues in the U.S : 28.34 Million USD Not surprisingly, this movie did not do well in any other country. With six academy nominations, this movie also did not win any of them. Nonetheless, I feel that this film truly is a masterpiece. With several rumours that there is an attempt to re-release this film, does anybody here know if there is indeed an attempt to re-release this film ?  |  IP: Logged Bobby Henderson "Ask me about Trajan." Posts: 10973 From: Lawton, OK, USA Registered: Apr 2001 posted 04-22-2003 01:39 PM                     It is no surprise "The Shawshank Redemption" didn't do well at the box-office. American audiences usually avoid prison movies because they think the show will just be depressing. Let's face it, most prison movies are depressing! Look at films like "Midnight Express," "Pappillon," "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and others. In truth, much of America's movie audience has no balls. They don't want to give such movies a chance. The show just gets judged on surface value. In the end the audience misses out on some big emotional payoffs. Movies like "The Shawshank Redemption" are about triumph of the human spirit and giving value to things like hope and friendship.  |  IP: Logged Matthew Nock Film Handler Posts: 82 From: Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia Registered: Jan 2003 posted 04-23-2003 09:05 AM                     I would have to agree that it is a fantastic film also. Its great to see an "everyday man" as bobby puts it, struggle through the hell that is prison, and come out fighting but not in a physical sense. I saw in recently, in our theatre - cause we are lucky that every year, it is one of those films that all the local schools request cause they are making the kids study. Its also one of those rare films that these school kids come to, they sit down, all noisy, then the film starts, and within 5 minutes, not a sound. Not a fart joke, not some crude noise. nothing. nothing at all, except what is in the film. its just unfortunate that we cant source a print that doesnt look like its been through a set of sabre-toothed rollers.  |  IP: Logged Patrick McDonough Expert Film Handler Posts: 118 From: Greenfield Ma. Registered: Jul 2002 posted 04-23-2003 09:53 AM                     I would agree with Bobby on this, it is a great film but i wouldnt say of all time.  |  IP: Logged

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