1994 was a fantastic year for films. The following year, the Academy Awards featured many best picture nominees that today are still considered to be the best movies ever made. The first of these great films was Quentin Terintino’s Pulp Fiction, a film that captured audiences with its action and beautiful use of non-linear storytelling. Next was Robert Zemeckis’s Forrest Gump, the film that won the Oscar that year, about the life story of a man who experiences it all, happy and painful, great triumphs and tragic losses. Finally, there was the film that should have won, The Shawshank Redemption.

Directed by Frank Darabont, The Shawshank Redemption is a beautifully-crafted film based on the novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption written by Stephen King. Unlike many film adaptations, Darabont worked with King to write the screenplay for the movie, leading to a final result that was faithful to the original novella.

Where the film truly excels is the story, as it follows Andrew “Andy” Dufresne, Tim Robbins, a banker sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and her boyfriend, a crime Andy swears he didn’t commit. On the first viewing of the movie, the viewer is left questioning if Andy really could be guilty. In prison, Andy eventually makes friends with a small group of inmates, particularly with a man who goes by the name Red, Morgan Freeman. Red is an inmate that specialises in having items smuggled into Shawshank Prison for other inmates for a fee. 

From there on, Andy makes both friends and enemies, and gains favor with the guards when they come to him for financial advice. The help he gives to the guards gets the attention of Warden Norton, Bob Gunton, who uses Andy’s expertise to create a money laundering scheme. Andy complies and helps Norton, but after the guards, under Norton’s orders, kill Andy’s friend Tommy, Gil Bellows, Andy decides that he better “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

The film leaves a lasting impression for its powerful message, teaching the audience that prisoners are still humans, while some are heartless and have no compassion, there are still a great many that do. 

Unfortunately, this is one of the reasons I believe that the film did not receive the Oscar for best picture. In 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was passed, leading to mass incarceration across the country. The new laws gained support from much of the media, and the harsher sentencing of criminals led to a demonization of them on major news networks. This had the effect of creating a harsh public image of them, so when The Shawshank Redemption was released, many viewers had trouble believing that prisoners still were kind, reasonable, and most of all, human. The film had bombed, making only sixteen million dollars on its initial box office release on a twenty-five million dollar budget.

Even with all the politics surrounding it, the film was still nominated for the academy award, but despite its quality and its wonderful storytelling, the film lost, in fact, the film didn’t win any of the awards it was nominated for.

This wouldn’t be the end for this film however, over the years, the film has aged extraordinarily well, as public opinion and support for convicts has risen. Today, police and prison reform is a sought after goal of many groups across the country, and the message of the film is finally understood by an audience ready to understand it. The same can’t be said for Forrest Gump, as Tom Hanks depiction of the character is believed by many to have not aged well.

Today, The Shawshank Redemption is number one on IMDb’s top 100 list, with Pulp Fiction at 7 and Forrest Gump at 12. The film might not have won the award, but it has stood the test of time to be considered one of, if not, the greatest film ever made.