A list of the 100 greatest American movies ever made.ĭarabont went on to make another triumphant King movie in 1999 with The Green Mile, another magnificent movie and a fine adaptation. It even earned a spot on AFI’s 100 years…100 movies list. It eventually gained a theatrical re-release which proved a great success, returning the budget many times over and elevating the film way up to the top of many King fan’s lists. It did, however, receive positive reviews and earned itself no less than seven Academy Award nominations. The film was, unfortunately, a box office flop, returning only $15 million of its $25 million budget. Instead, later returning it to Darabont in a frame with a note saying “In case you ever need bail money, Love Steve.” It won him the rights but King never cashed the check. Darabont reportedly offered King $5000 for the rights to make “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”, a short story in the collection Different Seasons, into a movie. Shawshank was actually Darabont’s second adaptation from King’s work, though the first, an adaptation of the short story “The Woman in the Room”, you will probably never have heard of. For now, we’re going to stick to Stephen King though, as he’s renowned in King circles to be the best of those who would dare to make the leap from page to screen. Frank Darabont is perhaps most famous for his King adaptations, though he does have some other great credits to his name: The Green Mile and AMC’s The Walking Dead to name just a couple. So let’s talk a little about the man that made it. You don’t even have to be a fan of Stephen King, and if you’re one of those few folks who are still hooked up on the misinterpretation that Stephen King only makes wacky spooky stories, this isn’t that. I’m not going to claim that this is the greatest movie ever made but if you have never seen it, or like me, it’s been many many years, I ask that you go and give it a go. I was not able to appreciate it fully and I realise now I only liked it for its ending. No concept of proper storytelling, pacing, character-building or just general movie-craft. Now, at the time I first watched the movie I had no understanding of this. Every scene has its purpose and every scene fits perfectly. There’s never a scene that you think could have been excluded or anywhere that seems slow or downright boring. It comes in at way over two hours but it seems like a breeze. Let me tell you, the second time around, this film hit hard! There’s something about the way this film tells its story that really lets it crawl under your skin. It took me a few years before I watched it again and by that point, I knew who Stephen King was and I was old enough to fully enjoy the storytelling. I remember watching it and thinking that it was quite long but I have always been a stickler for good endings, even as a much younger man, and this film delivered what I thought was a great ending! Thus, it would go on my approved list of my father’s movies. I had never heard of the movie before, but my father seemed to be very excited about it and one night we sat in the dark with his then state-of-the-art surround system blaring and enjoyed-arguably-Frank Darabont’s crowning jewel. One of these movies-though I have no idea how long ago-was The Shawshank Redemption. Back then he was really into his movies and we had some great times discovering new films and series including the fantastic Band of Brothers and some of the early seasons of Lost. Mostly they were just new to me, but films my father really loved and thought I would love too-present topic included. At least once a week I would say, we would sit-just the two of us-and watch something new. Back when I was still in school and living between my mother’s and father’s houses, my father and I would have regular movie nights.
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