What so good about "The Shawshank Redemption"

Danarchy said:

Speaking of good movies, I just watched Dark City for the first time in years. Man, the director/writers should so sue the Wakisaki brothers or whatever for totaly ripping off their ideas to make The Matrix.

Wait... you say the Matrix ripped of Dark City, other people say it ripped off Sofia Stewart's "The Third Eye", a few people say it ripped off various Philip K Dicks stories, yet more people claim it ripped off William Gibson's "Neuromancer", and still more people believe it ripped off Ghost in the Shell. I'm confused :P.

EDIT: Oh and some people say that Dark City is a rip-off of various Philip K Dick stories, particularly "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" (the same short story Total Recall is very losely based on). If that's true, they'd have a difficult job suing someone else for copying "their" ideas ;).

What's so good about Shawshank Redemption

everything

Ok genius, if Red hung himself like Brooks, then what the fuck is it with him GETTING OFF THE TABLE, AND GETTING ON THE BUS, AND RIDING IT ALL THE WAY TO THE U.S./MEXICO BORDER

NiGHTMARE said:

Oh and some people say that Dark City is a rip-off of various Philip K Dick stories, particularly "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" (the same short story Total Recall is very losely based on).

I wonder if these people have actually read "We can remember it for your wholesale." I have, and I can't think of the slightest resemblance with dark city :)

NiGHTMARE said:

Wait... you say the Matrix ripped of Dark City, other people say it ripped off Sofia Stewart's "The Third Eye", a few people say it ripped off various Philip K Dicks stories, yet more people claim it ripped off William Gibson's "Neuromancer", and still more people believe it ripped off Ghost in the Shell. I'm confused :P.

EDIT: Oh and some people say that Dark City is a rip-off of various Philip K Dick stories, particularly "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" (the same short story Total Recall is very losely based on). If that's true, they'd have a difficult job suing someone else for copying "their" ideas ;).

First off, I said the suing thing half-jokingly.

Secondly, I've not read much cyberpunk type stuff so I don't know if these ideas have been around forever or no.

Of course, I just read the release date of Dark City and it only came out about a year before The Matrix, so perhaps they just ripped off the same story. At any rate, Dark City did it better and more convincingly. :P

Danarchy said:

First off, I said the suing thing half-jokingly.

Secondly, I've not read much cyberpunk type stuff so I don't know if these ideas have been around forever or no.

Go read some philip k dick - but don't stop at one novel. You really need to read a sample to get the taste of him properly. Read the big novels: androids/sheep, ubik then a scanner darkly (due to be a film this year).

sad fact, hollywood just remakes the same ten movies year in, year out and gives them different names.

Arioch said:

Ok genius, if Red hung himself like Brooks, then what the fuck is it with him GETTING OFF THE TABLE, AND GETTING ON THE BUS, AND RIDING IT ALL THE WAY TO THE U.S./MEXICO BORDER

that's a happy ending tacked on... but you can interpret the movie however you wish.

Opulent said:

that's a happy ending tacked on... but you can interpret the movie however you wish.

Andy never really went to prison, or murdered his wife and her lover. The whole movie was just a drunken hallucination

Sgt_BFG said:

Escape From Alcatraz was better.

escape from new york was even better.

Jon said:

Go read some philip k dick - but don't stop at one novel. You really need to read a sample to get the taste of him properly. Read the big novels: androids/sheep, ubik then a scanner darkly (due to be a film this year).

Ooooh, that guy. Wasn't he crazy or something?

Opulent said:

that's a happy ending tacked on... but you can interpret the movie however you wish.

A happy ending tacked on? It was one of the most important scenes of the movie! It was showing that the friendship between Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman was strong enough to overcome the institutionalization that one invariably succumbed to after being incarcerated at Shawshank.

DC

Danarchy said:

Ooooh, that guy. Wasn't he crazy or something?

Hard to say... in later life most likely. Some people think he was just constantly winding everyone up. Either way, he wrote some terrific stuff. Here's a non-fiction essay by him: how to build a universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later.

Doom-Child said:

A happy ending tacked on? It was one of the most important scenes of the movie! It was showing that the friendship between Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman was strong enough to overcome the institutionalization that one invariably succumbed to after being incarcerated at Shawshank.

DC

You are right.

Escape from prison, happy ending.
Kinda one of those crime sometimes pays movies.

I thought it was interesting, and yes some emotional value, but not much more than that.

What? Every criminal in the story got shafted ...

Danarchy said:

Speaking of good movies, I just watched Dark City for the first time in years. Man, the director/writers should so sue the Wakisaki brothers or whatever for totaly ripping off their ideas to make The Matrix.

Heh, that's what I thought