The Shawshank Redemption 4K 1994 HDR 2160p

Banker Andy Dufrein is accused of murdering his wife and her lover and sent to a prison called Shawshank. There he falls into the net of cruelty and lawlessness that reign on both sides of the lattice. But thanks to his resourcefulness and kind heart, he finds a way to survive in this slavery. At the same time, he begins to develop an escape plan.

The Shawshank Redemption 4K Review
To be honest, instead of talking about cinema in a historical context, literally the following should be printed here, in large letters: "The Shawshank Redemption" after several years of rivalry with "The Godfather" became the number one film according to the results of voting by imdb.com users. Almost half a million voted, more than half of them were generous with the maximum rating. What else could a filmmaker dream of?

It is in this assessment of unnamed netizens, and not in the sentimental story of a prison accountant with two life sentences, that is the main plot and drama of the film. It doesn't matter whether the writer Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption" his directorial debut) staged his goal to coincide with millions, the main thing is that he succeeded. Moreover, Darabont managed to solve a much more difficult task: he showed what an ideal film adaptation of Stephen King should be. Before him, except that Brian de Palme ("Carrie") managed to discern material in King's prose for a full-fledged cinematic expression. The rest, even the most pompous film adaptations of the writer, are nothing but sturdy handicrafts with eerie oddities in the script.

It was hard to expect this from the screenwriter of numerous "Tales from the Crypt", the third "Nightmare on Elm Street" and the second "The Fly", but Darabont was able to infuse into King's story a fair share of old-fashioned Hollywood respectability, which fit a work written with an eye on this very Hollywood. Selling the rights for one dollar to his friend Frank Darabont, the author admitted that he wrote the story "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" as a tribute to the classic prison dramas - "cold-blooded hatches", escaped convicts and other Alcatraz inmates. So Darabont had only to push into the background a cunning plot move with an escape - until the very end, nothing foreshadows the outcome that appears in the title - and focus on human relations.

As empathetic Roger Ebert remarked, "It's incredible to say this about a prison drama, but The Shawshank Redemption fills the heart of the viewer with warmth and makes you feel like a member of a large loving family." Well, it's hard to disagree with him. The main character of the film, the financial genius Andy Dufrein lives under the guise of a library worm and an altruist, and The Shawshank Redemption itself quite successfully pretends to be a tough story, being, in fact, a melodrama for family use. Morgan Freeman's noble voiceover and a measured pace, which the director diligently maintains, provide the proper softness factor in an aggressive prison environment.

Disregarding the harsh nature, Darabont focused on the affairs of everyday life. Instead of getting ready to escape from the worst prison, we watch get-togethers in the cafeteria, walks around the yard, the first attempts at socialization and fights with sexually active jocks. Like at school. Time is being measured by the posters in Andy's cell. First Rita Hayworth (Gilda, 1946), then Marilyn Monroe (The Seven Year Itch, 1955), and then Raquel Welch (A Million Years BC, 1966): a wonderful teenage set, three women who illuminated a gloomy male kingdom fenced off from the rest of the world.

Evaluate the central conflict: an uncompromising dispute with the harsh "father" - Shawshank's boss - for the right to leave his father's house. Andy, escaping from the prison that has become his home (or maybe from the house that has become his prison), is, in fact, born to a new life. He slips past the "neighbor girl" Raquel Welch, hanging on the wall, overcomes the cleaning kilometers of the sewer pipe. Like yesterday's tenth grader, he rushes to Mexico, to the sea, to the sun. Twenty years have passed. It's time to live your life.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)

Subtitles
English SDH, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Swedish.