Shawshank Redemption #2 on iMDB -- why? (1 Viewer)

[Justin W]

The reason it's so high is because it reaches everyone. My mom loves it, I love it, my dad loves it, and my brother loves it. It is more for everyone than The Godfather, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Seven Samurai, and Citizen Kane. My mom dislikes all those movies, my brother likewise, my dad likes Star Wars. That's why it's so high. It reaches EVERYONE. I wouldn't disagree with calling it the Casablanca of the 90s.

 

[FilipM]

Its a human story and I belive that hardcore film buff types if they cannot step away from viewing all movies as a technical, mechanical and functional "art" will probably miss the point entirely. The story is what makes it so popular and enduring with normal people, and people far outnumber serious film buffs - who just don't think of it very highly as a technical piece... Plus frankly there is a fair dose of elitist snobbyness expressed against the populist appeal of this story.

What do I think?

It's my favorite movie,I love it's message of hope, friendship and perseverance despite terrible odds. For example there is just something so powerfully human, beautiful, liberating and unabashedly positive and hopeful in the scene where Andy locks himself in the warden's office and plays the record to all the prisoners. I love it!

 

[MatS]

I have the answer
there is a subliminal message in the print used on TNT (which airs almost every other week) that says "vote for Shawshank Redemption as the #2 movie on iMDB"

carry on

ps. amazing film

 

[Rob P S]

AMC is carrying it now...

 

[Mitch Stevens]

Shawshank Redemption is in my top 10 movies of ALL TIME. I believe it's number 7 of my list. Like many people have already said, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with it. It's absolutely perfect. Why wouldn't it be so high on the IMDB? It makes sense to me.

 

[Matt Stone]

Another theory is that maybe people are more likely to vote for Shawshank because they assume that the more fanboy-ish movies already have enough supporters, so they want to vote for an underdog.

Just looking at the responses in this thread, do you still believe Shawshank is an underdog?

 

[Brett_B]

I am surprised that this topic seems like a complete, virtually unexplainable, mystery.

IMO, it is quite simple, they are people's opinions whether we like it or not. If any one of us were to write up our top 100, 200, 500, or 1000 movies of all time, and then compared the results with one another, I would be willing to bet that no 2 lists would be exactly alike. Does that mean whoever's list doesn't agree with mine is wrong? No. It is just their opinion. Do the opinions of people on IMDB reflect the vast majority of all movie-goers? Not in the least.

The only thing that the "list" from IMDB represents to me is that based on the people who "visit" IMDB, those are the movies they like. Do I visit the IMDB website on a regular basis? Yes, I do (constantly). Do I vote on movies in IMBD. Not at all. Do I form opinions based soley (or even at all) on the rankings at IMDB. NEVER! Is it amusing to look at the rankings there? Yes, and so is every other publication in print or on the web because it is all opinions. Would there ever be a time that a movie's ranking (whether it is the "best" film, or not) would be based on fact? I don't see how, so at this point it is still a matter of opinion, not fact.

 

[Nathan V]

I was getting worried. It had been almost a month or so on HTF, and there wasn't a thread with people arguing about Shawshank!

Whew.

For my money, the film is terrific. It has incredible rewatch value, and the ending is brilliant. It's also a terrific crossover film for mainstream people and the art crowd. It's created an overwhelming on VHS and DVD. 9 years ago this was an underdog; not anymore, that's for sure.

 

[Kachi Khatri]

Don't take IMDB seriously. It's more based on popularity and/or votes.

It's a good film nonetheless but most ranking systems tends be subjective.

Ranking films don't see eye to eye well in general. It's more of individulistic preference.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Said it before - this movie is food for the soul.

There are far better technical and artistic movies out there but SR works on a basic emotional level that many people respond to.

"Hope is a good thing."

 

[JackMe]

Here is the thing I most note about the movie. No matter how many times I have seen (too many to count), I never hesitate to view it again. An excellent movie.

 

[Brian Lawrence]

Another thing to keep in mind about the IMDB rankings is that they are based on ratings rather than top 10 or 20 lists. So a film that most really enjoy, will get high placement even if these people would not put it on their top 10.

Example, If I where to poll 100 HTFers at random, asking for Top 10 lists, I'm guessing that 2001 would end up on a lot more lists than Shawshank. The problem with this and other lists compiled in a similar manner (AFI, S&S and so on...) is that they do not give any weight to dissenting opinion).

However if I where to poll the same 100 people and ask them to rate the films on a scale of 1-10 , I would expect Shawshank to end up with a higher average rating, because the film is disliked by only a very small number of people, where as the more highly regarded 2001 has left a lot more viewers scratching their heads and bored to death, thus these people would tend to give it a low rating, which would lower the films overall average score a bit (I think 2001 is the better film, but that's not the point here)

Taking this into consideration, I feel the IMDB list is a much better indicator to overall opinion than those other lists. The IMDB rankings are culled from a wide range of ages and tastes. The results are more discriminating and varied than the junk you would see in a newspaper/Magazine poll or what you would see on the People Choice Awards, yet they are not as snooty and obscure as a list compiled entirely by film crit/scholars or snob wannabes.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Ok, Brian gets my vote for the best explanation of how Shawshank gets rated so high at iMBD!

 

[Holadem]

Ditto. And it happens to be in line with what I thought

Seriously, I have always believed that while Shawshank isn't ground breaking in any way (which IMO explains it's absence from scholar's lists), it is hard to find any fault with this movie, except of course for those think everything must have an ambiguous ending.

--
H

 

[Jordan_E]

To each his/her own. I love SHAWSHANK, but could care less about any of the RINGS movies.

 

[Rob P S]

I love SHAWSHANK, but could care less about any of the RINGS movies.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

 

[Mark_vdH]

And don't forget that Shawshank is actually the number 1 movie on IMDB, if one considers all votes instead of only those by "regular" voters:

http://www.azillionmonkeys.com/qed/imdbfix.shtml

 

[Chet_F]

I have enjoyed TSR for years. It was one of my first DVD purchases. Great acting, memorable story line, heart tugging ending with a tremendous payoff. In fact a greater payoff then:
the sixth sense


In fact I can't think a film of the top of my head with a better ending. Just great.