Movies that inspired : The Shawshank Redemption

"Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free." - was the tagline of this extremely inspiring 1994 movie : The Shawshank Redemption. And this is what the movie is all about, this is what it teaches you - "Hope". As Andy Dufresne (character played by Tim Robbins) correctly said in the movie,"Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." The movie was so powerful, so moving - I was spellbound after watching it, and then I watched it again and again. IMDB ranks this movie 9.2/10 as I type and places it second in its prestigious list of top 250 movies of all time. The movie also features in almost all the trusted "Top Movies" list published. The theme was stupendous, the direction was perfect and the acting from almost everybody was the best in the business. The movie starts with a young banker Andy Dufresne being wrongly convicted and imprisoned for life for the murder of his wife. It centers around the life of Andy and his co-prisoner 'Red' Redding (played by incredible Morgan Freeman) in prison and his perfect redemption at the end. Any more revelation than this may be termed as "spoiler" for my friends who are yet to watch the movie. It is difficult (at least was for me) to just watch the movie and take away nothing. It makes the audience realize the power of hope - real hope, not simply accepting life as fate; but hope for something more, crave for it.

Here are some of my favorite quotes collected from the movie (courtesy : IMDB)

Red: [narrating] I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend.

Warden Samuel Norton: Salvation lies within.

Andy Dufresne: I was in the path of the tornado... I just didn't expect the storm would last as long as it has.

Warden Samuel Norton: I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you'll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.

Red: There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit

Red: Geology is the study of pressure and time. Thats all it takes really... pressure, and time... that and a big goddamn poster.

Red: [narrating] I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.

Andy Dufresne: [in letter to Red] Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

Red: [narrating] I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.

Roll that spectacular reel

Lights, camera, action !!! And the magic begins. Fascination, illusion, drama, romance, tragedy, comedy - everything begin, impossible becomes possible, the future becomes the present, giants roared, soldiers martyr, nature destroys, emotions bursts. Cinema has always been captivating me, pulling me into a whole new astonishing world. I am not a film critic, but simply someone who enjoys watching the magic being cast in screen. There are a number of movies that have inspired and deeply affected me. Every time I watch one such movie, my head nods for those extraordinary filmmakers and their extraordinary vision towards the world and human race. In this and a few of the future posts, I would like to mention some of these movies - the list is long and there has been quite some time since I watched many of them. I shall only touch upon some of those that I can think of little more vividly at this moment compared to the rest. But first, in this post, let me recollect the names of some of these stupendous cinematic wonders; those that come to my mind right now are:

• The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
• Life is beautiful (Italian: La vita è bella) (1997)
• Dark Knight (2008)
• A beautiful mind (2001)
• Hotel Rwanda (2004)
• Schindler's List (1993)
• Forrest Gump (1994)
• The Pianist (2002)
• Dinabondhu (Assamese) (2005)
  
• Casablanca (1942)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Italian: Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (1966)
• Memento (2000)
• Sholay (Hindi) (1975)
• The Matrix (1999)
• Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001)
• American History X (1998)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Fight Club (1999)
• Psycho (1960)
• Léon (1994)
• The Departed (2006)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
• Saving Private Ryan (1998)
• The Green Mile (1999)
• Rebecca (1940)
• Braveheart (1995)
• The Sixth Sense (1999)
• Gladiator (2000)
• Ben-Hur (1959)
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
• 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
• American Gangster (2007)
• Blood Diamond (2006)
• Mystic River (2003)
• Finding Neverland (2004)
• Taare Zameen Par (Hindi) (2007)
• Dil Chahta Hain (Hindi) (2001)
• Gone with the Wind (1939)
• Jurassic Park (1993)

May be I have missed some of the movies in the above list and shall keep adding them as and when I watch or remember. But all of these films have influenced me deeply in some way or other and they gave me much more than a mode for just time pass !!