The Shawshank Redemption Reviews
Top Critic
Freeman, who is simply a great actor, a man who has never struck a false note in his career, both narrates this tale and anchors it with his authoritative playing.
Film4
Powerful, poignant, thought-provoking and finally irresistibly uplifting.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Empire Magazine
If you don't love Shawshank, chances are you're beyond redemption.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Spiritually moving old-fashioned prison pic.
Full Review
| Original Score: A-
Common Sense Media
Gritty but comforting story of friendship.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Urban Cinefile
I love this film. It's a story about hope and dreams and one whose emotional impact is as great as the Pacific Ocean is blue.
Hollywood.com
Darabont explores the range of human kindness and cruelty as he lovingly and patiently sculpts his large cast of characters against magnificent scenery.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Movie Metropolis
...itself a testament to overcoming odds. It is sentimental and stereotyped, yet we are able not only to suspend our disbelief but to root for it all the way.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
Reel Film Reviews
...has certainly earned its reputation as one of the most effective prison movies in cinematic history...
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
eFilmCritic.com
It's an old-school melodrama at heart, sturdy and forthright and upstanding, but without a whisper of complexity or wit.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
TV Guide's Movie Guide
A 'life-affirming' tale about life imprisonment, The Shawshank Redemption is the kind of old-fashioned entertainment that is easily overvalued in an era of diminishing expectations.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
A passing reference to 'The Count of Monte Cristo' offers a partial clue to what makes this movie compelling.
EmanuelLevy.Com
I have not read Stephen King's novella (his first non-horror), but some of the movie's deficiencies, such as the old-fashioned morality tale and portentous messge about camarderie and redemption--must have been in the source material.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
...a throwback to the kind of serious, literate drama Hollywood used to make.
JoBlo's Movie Emporium
An amazing movie. Easily one of the best movies made during the 90s and definitely one of the top 'prison' movies of all-time. Pretty much everything about this movie works and works extremely well!
Full Review
| Original Score: 10/10
Arizona Daily Star
An unhurried, engulfing prison drama.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Fantastica Daily
The Shawshank Redemption works not only as an excellent prison drama, but as a metaphor for overcoming our own private prisons.
| Original Score: 4/4
