One thing I don't understand is why there's such a gap between the public and critics regarding Shawshank. While the movie routinely comes out at or near the top in popular polls (as I said, I'd put it at number 2), very few critics seemed moved by it, none seems to consider it one of the greatest ever. Why? Reading many of their reviews of Shawshank, it honestly seems like they have no soul. They say things like "it has cliched characters" etc. Even if this is true (and I'm not sure I agree that it is), so what? I don't think a movie has to be free of flaws, even significant flaws, to still be one of the greatest ever. FDR's internment of Japanese-Americans is overwhelmingly seen today as a major wrong. Yet he still appears near the top of every poll where historians are asked to rate the presidents, because his positives are considered so outstanding. And sometimes cliches are true. In his outstanding Vietnam narrative entitled "A Rumor of War," former Marine lieutenant Phillip Caputo notes than his platoon sergeant in basic training so perfectly fit Hollywood's depiction of a drill sergeant that it seemed a perfect example "of life imitating art."
And so what if Shawshank doesn't really make any technical innovations in movie making like Citizen Kane? Isn't the capacity to emotionally move people also a valid criteria for greatness? The two major classical composers were Mozart and Haydn (Beethoven is seen as basically a bridge between classicism and romanticism). Haydn was a more innovative and experimental composer than Mozart. Yet virtually everyone views Mozart as a much greater composer, because while his music may not be as innovative, it's just so much more moving and beautiful! I guess it's appropriate than Mozart was the classical composer Andy Dufresne chose to put on in Shawshank.
It's interesting that on many critics lists, "The Birth of a Nation" ranks higher than Shawshank. So a movie that (because of how it depicts African-Americans in it's second part) makes many people sick to watch today is considered greater than one which has brought tremendous hope and inspiration to millions around the world. The feelings a movie inspires in people are judged irrelevant. I strongly disagree with this way of thinking.
