redhawk23
Wrestlin'
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2008
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Most people I know consider the film to be a bona fide classic. It has a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and for a while now it has topped the IMDB Top 250 as the greatest (most popular) film of all time.
But then there is this weird backlash against the film among professional critics at various publications. I've seen the film snarked upon in other reviews, comparison to it intended as derogatory. Then there is the matter of retrospective lists and the like.
You would think a film as popular and respected as The Shawshank Redemption would be a shoe in for many best of lists, especially Best of the 90s lists but certain critics are purposely rejecting the film pretty much just to spite its popularity among the General Audience it seems.
Last year The AV club ran a massive set of articles detailing their staffs picks for the 100 best films of the 1990's. Notably, two very famous and popular major movies were left off the list: The Shawshank Redemption and Jurassic Park. Again this was a list of 100 movies, not just 10 or 20. I left a comment inquiring about the matter.
To my surprise the AV Club staff actually responded, not surprsingly they were kind of d*ckish about it though if I remember correctly most of the snark was more aimed towards Jurassic Park in that case.
Recently Entertainment Weekly ran a list of what their staff considers to be best 100 films of all time. Their stated intent in this was to give a fair shake to newer, less obscure films, or at least more generally recognized movies than the type that often show up on such lists. The Shawshank Redemption was not mentioned on their list.
This past week in their write in column they mentioned that they recieved a massive outpouring of defense of The Shawshank Redemption from their readership and actually issued a response.
Have any of you noticed this?
What is the cause in this rift of critical and popular perception of the film?
How do you feel about the film, now 19 years later?
But then there is this weird backlash against the film among professional critics at various publications. I've seen the film snarked upon in other reviews, comparison to it intended as derogatory. Then there is the matter of retrospective lists and the like.
You would think a film as popular and respected as The Shawshank Redemption would be a shoe in for many best of lists, especially Best of the 90s lists but certain critics are purposely rejecting the film pretty much just to spite its popularity among the General Audience it seems.
Last year The AV club ran a massive set of articles detailing their staffs picks for the 100 best films of the 1990's. Notably, two very famous and popular major movies were left off the list: The Shawshank Redemption and Jurassic Park. Again this was a list of 100 movies, not just 10 or 20. I left a comment inquiring about the matter.
To my surprise the AV Club staff actually responded, not surprsingly they were kind of d*ckish about it though if I remember correctly most of the snark was more aimed towards Jurassic Park in that case.
Recently Entertainment Weekly ran a list of what their staff considers to be best 100 films of all time. Their stated intent in this was to give a fair shake to newer, less obscure films, or at least more generally recognized movies than the type that often show up on such lists. The Shawshank Redemption was not mentioned on their list.
This past week in their write in column they mentioned that they recieved a massive outpouring of defense of The Shawshank Redemption from their readership and actually issued a response.
Owen Gleiberman said:
Have any of you noticed this?
What is the cause in this rift of critical and popular perception of the film?
How do you feel about the film, now 19 years later?
