'The Shawshank Redemption'

Many Sundays growing up, the preacher at the church I regularly attended would always say, "I'd rather be here than in the finest prison or hospital in the state."

That, clearly, was a joke on his part.

Still, he was an old man and he probably had a pretty different idea of prison than I had. I used to live close to the prison in Seagoville, Texas. It's a white-collar prison, or so we're told. The prison is actually the nicest building Seagoville. Which says more about the town than the prison.

The Shawshank Redemption proves to me that prison is one of the top 10 places that were way worse 80 years ago than they are today. Hospitals. Insane asylums. Hotels. Mexico.

But The Shawshank Redemption isn't about prison as much as its about the human spirit, psychology and man's will faced with the greatest of odds.

Andy Dufresne was placed in a world without culture and humanity. Against all that is known in a prison, he forced humanity back into the structure and the men locked inside. The general idea is that these guys may or may not have been monsters, but they were still human and deserve the decency of books to read, a beautiful Italian aria or a beer on a hot day.

By doing the taxes of the prison guards or helping some listless youth get his high school equivalency, Dufresne was selfishly trying to maintain his hope and ideal that his humanity hadn't been stripped away from him while getting raped.

Excellent film except for the dumb moment when Dufresne escapes and lands in the septic pond. It's raining hard and he strips off his shirt and thrusts his fists into the air in freedom. Dumb.