Sore Flanks Redemption

[Teen Age Riot]

> 
> Whoa, what's wrong with the Shawshank Redemption.  I think you guys 
> over-analyze:  what's so wrong with some body falsely-accused getting 
> some redemption in the end?  Happens everyday I say to you doomsayers.  
> Now I'm not getting all lovey-dovey, wait-till-the next life kinda stuff 
> but also seems to me what poor old tales sung down ole christian 
> minstrelcy well I gotta say some of what the man of sorrows advocates 
> ain't such a bad thing...

I'll have to concur.  Shawshank may not be the story of the average con's 
experience in prison, but then again, that may not make for particularly 
interesting storytelling.  I think we can assume the general audience 
knows prison life isn't always so karmically-well-adjusted, so what's 
important isn't what the final "moral" of the story is, but how the 
prison brutality is presented throughout, and if the moviemakers feel 
like sweetening things up a little near the end to let us feel a bit more 
chipper as we  walk out of the theater, well, it doesn't detract much 
for me. Besides, how well *does* the system work?  Brooks finds himself 
irrevocably unfit for outside life.  Tim Robbins, regardless of whether 
or not he eventually finds freedom, spends decades in jail for a crime he 
didn't commit, without ever recieving any sort of pardon.  If anything, 
the message seems to be that the system *doesn't* work, and it left to 
the strength of the individual spirit to break free from it.

A fun movie.  Not a great movie, but a fun movie.  Now, Poison Ivy 2 
starring Alyssa Milano, which I saw this weekend: THERE'S a cinematic 
achievement.


__________________________________________
al wang
http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~alwang/home.htm
talk request at: alwang at random.resnet.upenn.edu

"What's My Solution?" 
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