DrJoTab

I was a little surprised at first to see this film ranked #1 out of all possible candidates in the IMDB user ratings. When I thought about it, though, it made more sense--this is a "Rocky"-type feel-good movie that doesn't really make you think and reinforces what we would all like to believe about human nature. Don't get me wrong--it's a fine film (I gave it a solid 7 out of 10), it's just not, in my view, up there with _Casablanca_ and _The Graduate_.

I guess the main problem I have with _Shawshank_ is the nature of the script and characters. Think about it: is there a single person in the film who isn't a one-dimensional cardboard cut-out with very simple motivations, or a Hollywood cliche or stereotype? We have (in no particular order), a corrupt, bigoted prison warden (who is a religious hypocrite for good measure), a brutal prison guard, a man who is wrongly accused of murder, an old convict who knows all the ropes and can't live on the outside, and a convict who is murdered by the brutal guards. Now where have we seen this stuff before? Only in a few dozen movies made from the 20s to the 90s. There's really nothing new here. Probably this comes from the fact that the story is from Stephen King, who doesn't really do well with complex characters (a problem I noted as far back as _Carrie_).

If you want to see a good prison picture, try _Cool Hand Luke_ (from which this movie borrows considerably). If you want an escape picture, see either _The Great Escape_ or _Papillon_, both with Steve McQueen. Or if, by some chance, you want a crime and punishment movie that really makes you think, go with the late great Stanley Kubrick's _A Clockwork Orange_.

I couldn't stop thinking about the warden: doesn't he have a family? How did they feel? What are they going to do now? I realize the story is inside the prison, but I wish the movie had made better use of its characters than simply as simple-minded symbols of EVIL or VIRTUE.

I'm not Mr. Cranky, I did enjoy the movie, but I enjoyed it the same way I do an Italian dinner at the Olive Garden--a well-constructed genre product with nothing special to commend it.

I saw this movie in a theater at the tender age of eleven in its original release. I've seen it a number of times on TV since (I even own a copy of the video), but it's just not the same . . . it's a shame it can't really be appreciated on the small screen.

Anyway, the story is plausible (especially given when it was made), Bruce Dern is terrific as his usual Character on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown (© ® Patent Pending), and the special effects don't get in the way of the story as they do in some films made contemporaneously with this one. Instead, we get a real performance from Dern, not just a collection of tics, and a thought-provoking, emotion-tugging plot with a beautiful payoff and final scene.

I like this film better than _Star Wars_, not because it's fashionable lately to trash SW and SW-mania, but because _Silent Running_, like _Close Encounters_, is a more intellectually and emotionally involving movie experience.

By the way--fuhgedaboudit, Joan Baez was great on the soundtrack.

I remember seeing this movie in a theatre with my then-girlfriend in 1980. I remember how I had to hold my tongue and not trash it on the way out, because she loved it (or maybe she just loved Mr. Reeve). I remember really _hating_ this movie, and my opinion hadn't changed when I recently saw it again on cable TV.

I'm not sure why. It is reasonably well-directed and the costumes and sets are beautiful to behold. It is even competently acted, though I think that all of Christopher Reeve's work is being re-evaluated in light of his terrible accident, much as JFK's presidency is overrated because he was killed, and I think _Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman_ is the best thing Jane Seymour ever did. (Note: Damnation-with-faint-praise alert for the irony-impaired.)

There is something that appeals to the romantic nature, I suppose, in stories of love that survives time and even uses supernatural methods to triumph over adversity, but somehow this movie doesn't do it for me. Maybe I'm comparing it unfavorably with _Time and Again_, one of my favorite novels which I understand has been on the Hollywood back burner for a decade or so (see the IMDB entry for more information), or the 1979 _Time After Time_ with Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen.

At any rate, I'd say this ranks up there with _Sleepless in Seattle_ (which I liked) as the Ultimate Chick Movie. I was also intrigued by Mr. Santiago Collazo's comment that this story may have inspired _Titanic_. The more I think about it, he's right. And that gives me yet another reason to dislike _Somewhere in Time_.