Frank Darabont
Le ali della Libertà

Struck by the fact that this is the favorite movie of IMDb users, I decided to watch it again because on first viewing it seemed mediocre to me.

The protagonists are Andy and Red, played by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman respectively.

Robbins is an actor with a natural malevolence that cannot be neutralized even by the most positive roles. His Andy, accused of double murder, ends up in prison. We are supposed to root for him, but for two-thirds of the film, it ambiguously plays on his possible guilt.

Freeman is an "untouchable" who conveys respectability even to the most indecent characters. His Red is a murderer who deserves a happy ending.

The story drags slowly within the prison, following the banal premise that the guards are “bad” and can sadistically abuse the “good” criminals.

The only plot twist is an absurd conversation between Andy and the prison warden. Finally possessing vital information about his case, Andy chooses to share it with the evil warden rather than with his lawyer.

This is clearly an idiotic decision, but the audience seems unaware of it.

The only female character is Andy's wife, who is eliminated at the beginning of the film, satisfying the rather misogynistic vision of the story.

Conclusion - I guess the reasons for the enormous popularity of this film (among the predominantly young male reviewers) are:

• the simple fairy tale structure with clearly delineated good and bad characters, thanks also to the politically correct role reversal;
• the exploitation of primitive emotions like the survival instinct, and
• the apparent glorification of human qualities such as resilience, hope, faith, and integrity.

The main message is even simpler "Everything will be okay"… if one considers the decades spent in prison as a metaphor for life, and the beach as paradise.