Why do Professional Critics Hate "The Shawshank Redemption"?

[Evil Twin]

Looking over EW's list, I don't have much of an issue with The Shawshank Redemption not making the list. There are, close to, 100 great films on the list. I think it's a little early for some films like LotR: RotK, The Dark Knight, Brokeback Mountain, and There Will Be Blood to be making a 100 greatest films list, but it's a respectable list.

It's also a list heavily weighted towards auteurs and genre films. The number of non-auteur, non-genre films is practically non-existent.

Frankly, I wouldn't even consider The Shawshank Redemption the biggest snub. Monumental classics like The General, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Grand Illusion, Stagecoach, Rashomon, Wages of Fear, Rear Window, 8 1/2, Yojimbo, The Godfather, Part 2, and Unforgiven didn't make the list either. Heck, the Coen Bros. aren't even represented on the list and they're arguably the most celebrated filmmakers of the last quarter century.

Frankly, you can play the "why not this?" game forever with a top 100 greatest list. Honestly once you get past the top 10 or 20, it's all fairly random, and, I bet, razor thin.

Now, the AVClub list might be another story where I think there's more legitimate complaint. I tend to think that The Shawshank Redemption might be a little square and earnest for the AVClub, but that's only guesswork.

 

[bullets]

I think we're using two different definitions of icon here. I'm talking at the level of say Bogart, Brando, Hepburn, Wayne, Nicholson, and Eastwood. Actors that practically have critical cults dissecting and discussing their works.

Is Freeman a terrific actor and a star? Absolutely. Are people busy writing critical papers on the meaning and significance of his career (which is one of the questions that matters when discussing how critics may value an actor and the significance of a movie in his body of work)? I don't get a large sense of that, although the example cited earlier of Freeman being the voice of god is an interesting counter-example, although it doesn't really apply to Shawshank.

I'll suggest that exploring Freeman's racial significance would be interesting, although I don't know if you can really separate him from Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, and Will Smith who are more or less contemporaries. Doing Driving Miss Daisy the same year as Do the Right Thing probably was an unfortunate bit of timing as that battle is still being fought.

Perhaps you can explore Freeman's role as a "post-racial" star as a critical assessment that would include Shawshank.

I'm not sure what to make of that. However I would agree Freeman does have the same iconic status as others you mentioned. No fault of his own though.