The Shawshank Redemption

Last night I was watching The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont, and based on the novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" by Stephen King. Opening in the 1940s, the film stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, a banker who is accused of a double murder and sentenced to serve two life sentences at Shawshank State Prison. While he gets used to the prison's regime Andy befriends the prison's "fixer", Red (Morgan Freeman). I first saw the movie at a preview screening in February 1995 and I've always thought it was a great movie. It was not successful at all in it's cinema release, but it really found it's audience on video and then on TV, and now it routinely tops polls of the greatest movie ever made. I think when it was out at the cinema they had trouble with marketing it: it had a strange title, no big stars, no prominent female characters, it's set mostly in prison and it was based on a Stephen King story but it wasn't a horror movie (although I did see one advertising slogan for the film which played up the Stephen King connection and went something like "A Fiendishly Perfect Partnership and a Horror that Goes Beyond Homicide", which makes you wonder whether they actually saw the movie). It is a great movie about the possibility of hope in even the worse circumstances. It's one of really only two movies that have ever genuinely made me tear up (the other being It's a Wonderful Life).

I still wasn't feeling good at all today. My Dad came around to look at my washing machine. We eventually did get it fixed, apparently. The problem was that the draining hose had come loose and that was what was causing the leaks. However it should work now. I went along to my parent's house as usual for my lunch, which was tacos today. The latest issue of Fortean Times had arrived during the week, which this month had a large feature on Dracula, tracing the history of the Bram Stoker novel and exploring it's phenomenal popularity. Pretty much everyone has at least heard of Dracula, even if they've never read the book or seen any of the movies. The cover promised "20 Things You Never Knew About Dracula" and one surprising thing was that apparently Ingmar Bergman had planned to do a Dracula adaptation, but never got round to it. Maybe one where Dracula discusses the futility of existance and the search for the meaning of life in a meaningless universe. Later on I was listening to the third and final part of the radio adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy based on the John le Carre thriller. It's been really good and very close to the original book.

I sent my brother an e-mail a week ago to find out what he wants for his Christmas present and he still hasn't replied. I have absolutely no idea of what he wants, because he lives in London and we don't really communicate much. Basically if he doesn't let me know by the end of the week then he's getting a book token.