Of long, disappointing films

Jeffrey Demunn, Paul McCrane.
Director: Frank Darabont
Running time: 142 minutes
Type of film: Prison/Drama
Age restriction: Adults only
Believing that the colour line between blacks and whites is strictly observed in American prisons, it is surprising to see the code violated in this lengthy and often painful to watch film.
Morgan Freeman, born in America’s Deep South, in Tennessee in 1937, not only is one in a gang of buddies serving long-term prison sentences in Shawshank Penitentiary, but is their undoubted leader.
The location of the prison, within America, is never revealed and this is understandable.
Punishment for crimes committed in any of the 50 states in meted out within the same state. Conditions as depicted in this film are so bad that no state would have allowed itself to be so maligned.
The audience is given every opportunity to see the unspeakable cruelty and venality, leading right up to the warden himself.
Into this maelstrom there is a committed former, high- ranking banker, Andy DeFresne (the actor Tim Robbins), convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover.
In softer tones than one would expect from a man who knows himself to be wrongly accused and convicted, Andy settles into the prison routine. His wide knowledge of all monetary affairs soon makes him highly popular with not only his fellow prisoners. In time his abilities are recognised even by the prison warden, who installs him in an office job seeking ways for the war den to siphon off money to be put into his own account.
Despite its great length, for which it has been adversely criticised for in the international Press, nothing of any note or diversity is shown to the audience once the daily routine has been spelled out.
When, after 20 years of having been falsely imprisoned, our hero, the banker Andy makes good his escape, a natural ending for such a film, it does not end there.
And that is the severest negative critique I can make of this particular film. Very disappointing.