Stig-4

this film is very convincing hokum. nice, gentle, inoffensive and insubstantial story about prison life - I came away feeling prison was a place where nobody says f##k or fears bending over to pick up the soap. check out Freeman, in the token performance of his career, neatly basking in the falsely accused smart white gentleman robbins' shaddow. what a team... so very progressive. 'hope...' . oh yeah, we've got a lot of 'hope' going on here. The lush fantasy kind, so deadly sweet and full of bull. frank darabont is a gifted man who excels in making pretty pictures that strike at the very heart of american pie values and gives them a welcome support by elevating tokenism to its greatest levels in hollywood yet - that is no small achievement, considering... if you don't believe me check out his latest masterpiece, he just can't stop doing it. hell, why not! it sells tickets.

Do not watch the US video release, it's a disgrace; a bit like cutting off a bird's wings and forcing it to bark like a dog. The original is breathless in scope and profoundly moving - it is in four parts and runs close to seven hours, and there are good reasons for its length as any can guess who have read the book. If only someone had the conviction and decency to prevent this kind of mangling. I wonder how Tolstoy would have felt if they had told him 'War and Peace', the 'US version', would only be published as cliffnotes.