The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Critically-acclaimed movies based on Stephen King tend to be few and far between. Yet the valiant attempts to adapt never seem to subside, and now it is spreading into television, which has largely replaced movies without tons of explosions.

I first saw this movie back in 1994 in the theater. I was visiting a friend in New York and had no idea it had any connection to Stephen King. At the time I definitely didn't think it would become the award-winning basic cable staple that it turned in to. Now I think I should have had shirts made bragging that I saw it "first". Oddly enough I never saw it in its entirety again until this summer, so when it came up in this project, I was actually pretty excited.

Clearly a good deal of time passed between my first viewing of the film and reading the story. Therefore, I felt that the movie messed around with the source material to make the story more cinema-ready. However, on the second viewing I think I'll take that back. I think Shawshank culture (see below) made me forget that much of the grit from the original stayed in the movie. There are a few understandable consolidations of various events, but nothing sending the plot in a different direction. Red and Andy still reunite at that hard-to-say place on the Mexican coast. Ahhh....

Speaking of which, Shawshank culture is amazing. Some genius managed to manipulate it into a rom-com trailer:

And although released in the middle of the 16-bit era, here is the 8-bit video game version:

God bless the Internet!