The Shawshank Redemption

Before watching this movie, I'd seen The Shawshank Redemption in the five-dollar movie bin at Wal-Mart at least a dozen times. I'm not sure why I never bothered to pick it up before seeing it on this list, after all, Morgan Freeman is on the cover and that should have been enough for me. I happened to be browsing Netflix on my Wii with my father when we passed it and he nearly had a heart attack. "Watch it." he says. "It'll change your life." So I did.
The Shawshank Redemption, as anyone who is reading this blog probably already knows, is about a man who is sent to jail for a crime he did not commit (surprised?). He is raped, taunted, beaten and humiliated, just as any beta-white male in a prison movie should be. He's quiet and uninteresting; fades into the background except for those occasional moments when he pops up to ask for something obscure, like a tool for carving rocks. He is, for lack of better words, pathetic, but who wouldn't be if they were in prison for a crime they didn't commit.
He does manage to capture the interest of Red (Morgan Freeman), an inmate that has been behind bars for an insurmountable sentence. He assists Andy with getting the rock carving tool, and they forge a sort of friendship that involves keeping each other relatively sane throughout the turmoil that they live in.
In one bold and sweeping gesture, Andy (sad, pathetic guy) takes the movie from teetering on just-another-prison-movie-mediocrity to slightly more interesting prison movie mediocrity when he risks his own life to help a prison guard save money on his taxes (God bless him). His popularity grows and before you know it, hes at the top of the prison hierarchy. The thing that sets Andy apart from every OTHER main character in a prison movie is the fact that he is widely liked by, not just a large percentage of the prisoners, but also the guards/warden, ect. That is a luxury that most prison movie main characters do not get to enjoy.
Years, and years go by. The warden is an asshole. Red is becoming institutionalized. Andy seems to be losing his mind. I honestly thought he was going to kill himself for a moment. To say that I didn't see the prison break coming would be an understatement. It shocked the hell out of me, and I stared at the TV with my mouth gaping wide open as he crawled through that prison sewage to freedom, to the pacific ocean, to his boat, to his bed and breakfast, to his life. It was a a glorious moment, that, even weeks after watching it, I can still picture in my mind as vividly as if I'd  watched it yesterday. Red leaving prison (finally) was the icing on top of a perfect ending. The Shawshank Redemption is definitely an eight to nine-ish movie.

12 Angry Men

 I love that movie. So complex, and the black and white aspects add a certain depth that color would just diminish. 
-Alexandra McManus

First, I just want to say that ever since I was young, I lived this delusion that my taste in movies was more sophisticated than that of my generational counterparts because I appreciated the distinct qualities of a black and white movie. I still believe this about myself, mainly because those of my friends who don't watch black and white movies BECAUSE they are black and white are missing out on an entirely different side of cinema. I cannot justly say that I have seen a recently made movie that took place solely inside a jury room, and still managed to be completely captivating. The fact that this movie was limited only to a jury room made the movie completely dependent on the complexity of the characters. They did not disappoint. Almost every one of the jury members had some kind of chip on his shoulder. The whole of the movie consisted of eleven men, unanimous in their verdict of guilt for a defendant in what appeared to be an open and shut case, who were one by one, convinced by one man that while the evidence SEEMED irrefutable, a closer examination of details showed that there was plenty of cause for reasonable doubt. Also, it discouraged the idea of putting a man to death based on
A. ignorant and ill founded prejudices
B. personal relationships with one's OWN children
C. the fact that you've got tickets to the baseball game and just wanna get the hell outta there so you can get good seats.

 It's definitely got the type of morals you'd want to instill in your children.

All and all, i'd say it was a solid seven. I still kind of wish it hadn't JUST taken place in a jury room, even if it did make for some very strong characters.

And who said the first two years of college were full of useless preliminary classes??

Judging by the title of this blog, I'm pretty sure it would be completely redundant to spend this first entry writing about what it is i'll be using it for. I got this idea from my English 211 teacher, who requires us to keep a blog for her class. She didn't actually give me the specific idea to watch movies from a list that was compiled by The Yahoo Movies Editorial Staff (YMES, since I’ll probably be referring to it a lot), but the blog idea definitely inspired me. While she was detailing the specifics of our blog assignments, I was thinking about what I'd write about if I had my own blog, and I must say I can't help but feel a little Julie/Julia-y about the whole concept of watching something, and then blogging about it. I mean sure, there are the obvious differences, but I'd be lying to myself if I said that I could have come up with this idea before I saw the movie (which, in my humble opinion, wasn't too bad). At any rate, it seemed like a semi-entertaining thing to do with my spare time (which I'm just overflowing with, what with my 18 college credits, and my assloads of homework).
     I feel as if it should go without saying, but just in case it doesn't let me just throw this out there: I am not claiming to be a movie critic of any sort. My opinion should have no worldly value to you, so if you are one of the 100 people that may or may not accidentally stumble across this blog, please don't be upset if I write something unsavory about a movie you like. I am but a sophomore college student who, like most college students, is spiraling deeper and deeper in to debt every year, and hardly ever has anything important to write about.


In case you wanted to gaze upon the list from which I will be watching these movies, here's the link
http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/100-movies-to-see-before-you-die.html