Final Film Critique
Richard Hogan
ENG 225: Introduction to Film
October 25, 2011

Final Film Critique
Introduction
The movie, The Shawshank Redemption (1994), is based on a character Andy Dufresne. Andy is a young and successful banker who is sent to Shawshank Prison for murdering his wife and her secret lover. His life is changed drastically upon being convicted and being sent to prison. He is sent to prison to serve a life term. Over the 20-years in prison, Andy retains optimism and eventually earns the respect of his fellow inmates. He becomes friends with Red, and they both comfort and empathize with each other while in prison. The story has a strong message of hope, spirit, determination, courage, and desire.
I feel the characters do help the storyline and the film does address the universal truths of hope. An example of the universal truth of hope is that Andy uses the “hope” many times in the movie when talking to Red. The acting in this film was outstanding. I mentioned earlier who the actors were and what roles they played, but I didn’t do it in depth about the style of acting that was used. The film is filled with stars like Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. I consider both actors character actor. The book describes a character actor as an actor that can fit into many different roles seamlessly (Goodykoontz & Jacob, 2011). Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins can defiantly be described as character actors. Their characters as Andy and Red are way different from any other role they have played. I feel that method acting was used by the actors too. I was so convinced of the acting and that each actor was truly immersed in the role they were trying to portrait; that’s how good the acting was. The director did a great job on casting the actors for each character in the story. The viewer had no difficulty understanding the role of the character and if he fit the part. I believe the movie was up for a lot of Academy Awards and this is a tribute to the acting and directing. The