The Shawshank Redemption
Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.
A banker sentenced for a murder he didn't commit spends two decades quietly authoring his own freedom.
- Director
- Frank Darabont
- Signature
- Drama · Emotional · Violence
- Worldwide
- $28M
Who's in it
Cast
The billed ensemble, with character names. Open any performer for their Nutevio filmography.
The Nutevio profile
Movie DNA
How The Shawshank Redemption actually feels to watch, measured on the twelve traits our editors track across every Nutevio title.
Perfect if you enjoyed
Story overview
What It's About
Spoiler-free. Read the analysis below for the full argument.
A banker sentenced for a murder he didn't commit spends two decades quietly authoring his own freedom.
Nutevio Editorial Analysis
Why The Shawshank Redemption works
Frank Darabont's adaptation is a patience test disguised as a prison movie. It spends two decades on routine — laundry, library cards, tax returns — so that a single night of rain can carry twenty years of accumulated feeling.
Morgan Freeman's narration is the film's real innovation: Red is not a witness to Andy's story but the person the story happens to. The parole hearings, repeated three times with tiny variations, are the actual arc.
Roger Deakins shoots the institution as a place of horizontal light and vertical walls, and then gives the escape the only true wide-open frame in the film.
It failed in cinemas and became, through television and home video, the most beloved film in the world by audience vote. That second life is part of what it is now about.
By The Nutevio Editors
Where to watch
Streaming
Availability verified against regional listings.
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Why We Recommend It
Why It's Ranked
The Shawshank Redemption appears in 4 Nutevio collections. Here is the argument behind each placement.
- Best Prison Movies Ranked #1
Ranked #1 because the genre's most complete statement on patience.
Two decades of quiet engineering.
- Top 250 Movies of All Time Ranked #2
Ranked #2 because the rare consensus favourite that actually holds up to a critical rewatch.
Two decades of patience, told as friendship.
- Crime Movies Ranked #2
Ranked #2 because rated 9.6 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest crime titles in the catalogue.
A banker sentenced for a murder he didn't commit spends two decades quietly authoring his own freedom.
- Drama Movies Ranked #2
Ranked #2 because rated 9.6 by the Nutevio editors — one of the strongest drama titles in the catalogue.
A banker sentenced for a murder he didn't commit spends two decades quietly authoring his own freedom.
The record
Awards
2 wins · 7 nominations
Seven nominations, no wins — and a reputation that outgrew every film that beat it.
Academy Awards
No wins yet · 7 nominations
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Actor
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Cinematography
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Film Editing
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Original Score
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Picture
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Sound
- WinnerAcademy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay
American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases
1 win
- WinnerAmerican Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases
National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
1 win
- WinnerNational Board of Review: Top Ten Films
The numbers
Box Office & Release
The Shawshank Redemption returned 1.1× its budget worldwide.
- Budget
- $25M
- Opening weekend
- —
- Domestic gross
- —
- International gross
- —
- Worldwide gross
- $28M
- Release date
- Sep 23, 1994
- Runtime
- 2h 22m
- MPAA rating
- R
- Language
- English
- Country
- United States of America
Figures from the verified production record. Fields we cannot source are left blank rather than estimated.
Watch
Official Trailer
How it was made
Behind The Scenes
Production facts, technique and the decisions that shaped what ended up on screen.
A real prison
The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield was shot days before its scheduled demolition.
The tree still stands in memory
The oak at Buxton became a pilgrimage site until a storm and lightning finally destroyed it.
Freeman's narration was the last piece
Darabont cut the film around Red's voice, recording and re-recording the narration to set its rhythm.
In their words
Iconic Quotes
“Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
“I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head.”
