There are times when The Shawshank Redemption comes dangerously close to sounding one of those "triumph of the spirit" notes. But most of it is eloquently restrained. [23 Sept 1994, p.C3]Read Full Review »
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Time: Richard Schickel
[Darabont] makes you feel the maddening pace of prison time without letting his picture succumb to it.Read Full Review »
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ROLLING STONE: Peter Travers
It's the no-bull performances that hold back the flood of banalities. Robbins and Freeman connect with the bruised souls of Andy and Red to create something undeniably powerful and moving.Read Full Review »
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ReelViews: James Berardinelli
Whitmore's Brooks is a brilliantly-realized character, and the scenes with him attempting to cope with life outside of Shawshank represents one of the film's most moving -- and effective -- sequences.Read Full Review »
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CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Roger Ebert
If the film is perhaps a little slow in its middle passages, maybe that is part of the idea, too, to give us a sense of the leaden passage of time, before the glory of the final redemption.Read Full Review »
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USA Today: Mike Clark
Kudos go to the great Thomas Newman, whose score contributes as much as either lead to what is finally a two-character movie, though one well-performed by all. [23 Sept 1994]Read Full Review »
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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Owen Gleiberman
Shouldering a laconic-good-guy, neo- Gary Cooper role, Robbins never quite makes emotional contact with the audience.Read Full Review »
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LOS ANGELES TIMES: Kenneth Turan
Paradoxically, it is Shawshank's zealousness in trying to cast a rosy glow over the prison experience that makes us feel we're doing harder time than the folks inside. [23 Sept 1994]Read Full Review »
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Washington Post: Desson Thomson
Speaking of jail, "Shawshank"-the-movie seems to last about half a life sentence. The story, chiefly about the 20-year friendship between Freeman and Robbins, becomes incarcerated in its own labyrinthine sentimentality.Read Full Review »
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