The Shawshank Redemption - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Shawshank Redemption



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
I’m going to reveal an embarrassing confession here. I…… (hides head in shame)…..have never (guiltily shuffles feet), watched The Shawshank Redemption up until this day. Yes, I know it is kind of a big thing to be as much as a film buff as I am and have never watched one of the biggest movies of the 90s. I mean, I owned the Blu-ray ever since the 2008 Digibook came out, but it has sat on my shelf waiting for the right time to watch a near 2.5 hour long drama and I kept putting it off for “next time”. Which then turned into another “next time” and so on and so forth till I get to this 4K UHD disc from Warner and I realize, “yes, it’s time”. As such, this review is going to be from the point of a virginal viewer, having never watched anything but the trailer in his life, and going on recommendations of “one of the best movies ever made”, and won’t be able to reminisce about the good old days, or give comparisons to previous formats experience with the film.

The story sets up rather quickly, showing one Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) being sent to prison for a murder he POSSIBLY didn’t commit. The evidence is pretty hard to ignore though, and his lack empathy for supposedly killing his wife and her love leaves the judge cold to his please of innocence. Thus he’s sentenced to two life in prison sentences in Shawshank Prison, Maine. Andy is not the typical convict. He’s a white collar banker who gets sent in for murder, and he’s in over his head. He’s got prison thugs after him due to being a little soft, and the only friend he’s able to cultivate turns out to be the prison “gofer” named Red (Morgan Freeman), a man also in prison for murder (although Red has no qualms about admitting to his crime).

As time goes on Andy begins to carve out a life for himself in prison. His quick thinking and business acumen catch the eye of Warden Norten (Bob Gunton) who sets him up in a cushy library job. Soon Andy is doing the prison guards tax returns, and before you know it he’s helping the Warden set up the biggest scam of the last century. Creating a limitless supply of slave labor by using prisoners to do work outside the prison, allowing Warden Gunton to make hundreds of thousands of dollars under the table in bribes, skimming off the top and other various nefarious things. However, things come to a head for Andy when it’s revealed that the true killer of his wife and her lover may be found, which forces the warden to push him down harder and keep him EXACTLY where he is. A move which triggers Andy enough to end his time at Shawshank Prison.

With next to no knowledge about the film except for basic bullet points, I wanted to see how the movie held up some 27 years later. Honestly, I was blown away. The movie uses its period piece elements to set itself apart from “modern” prison stories, and focuses on the characters in away that only Frank Darabont can. Tim Robbins famously stated a few years back that The Shawshank Redemption holds up today BECAUSE it’s not filled with car chases, daring escapes, or a buddy comedy angle. It’s a movie about two men and their friendship forged over hard times. A friendship that takes 20 years to develop in a world where that kind of bond is the only thing you can hold on to (paraphrased). I would have to agree with that sentiment as The Shawshank Redemption holds up incredibly well, and that camaraderie is really what cements the movie as one of the greats. It flows smoothly despite it’s nearly 2.5 hour run time, and the side characters do an amazing Job. Clancy Brown uses his usual gruffness to impeccably create one of the nastiest villains of the movie, and Bob Gunton goes from hard but fair, to pure evil withing that same time frame.




Rated R for language and prison violence




4K Video: Video:

While I never watched the movie over it’s VHS and DVD or Blu-ray years, I have the Blu-ray on my shelf and the included Blu-ray in the combo pack is a direct clone of it. Watching through it after viewing the 4K UHD makes me realize that the mediocre complaints from reviewers on the 2008 disc were definitely correct. The two discs don’t look alike at all, with the Blu-ray appearing over sharpened and DNRd, as well as drastically over brightened with wonky colors. The 4K UHD is vaguely referred to as “taken from a previous 4K Master” (which means we have no idea when that master was struck) and appears to be a drastic change in color reproduction and tone. The prison sequence opens up with much cooler tones, with blues and grays as the highlights instead of the warmer, orangey look of the Blu-ray. The VC-1 encoded Blu-ray had a problem with black crush and noise as well. Something which the 4K UHD disc handles with relative ease. The movie is a little grainy at times, with a softness that implies a specific Frank Darabont aesthetic that he puts in a lot of his films (The Mist comes to mind). Blacks are much deeper and inkier, but the colors are softened and not as garish, especially facial tones. The film still has a weathered and slightly parchment colored feel to it, but the actual blues of the prison uniforms and the facial tones appear more natural and pleasing to the eye.







Audio:

The original Blu-ray sported a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track that APPEARS to be identical to the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track found here. I’m not sure if it IS identical, but it appears to most likely be the same source track repackaged in DTS-HD MA with POSSIBLY some minor tweaks and put on the disc. The DTS-HD MA track is certainly louder by several decibels, but once level matched it was hard to differentiate between the two. It’s possible my ears are playing tricks on me, but I swore the surrounds felt a little hotter than the Dolby mix from the Blu-ray but it could be my own biases deceiving me as the loudness of DTS is well documented and the differences so slight as to be margin of error in my ears processing the two tracks. Dialog is clean and clear for the most part, with some harshness on the high end of the vocals. The surrounds are used well with the musical portion being the best (such as when Andy blasts the record over the prison), but it’s a fairly front heavy dramatic track that doesn’t use a whole ton of bass and immersive capabilities. Probably why it wasn’t remastered for Atmos. It’s just not a film that has massive audio requiements.





Extras:

• Audio commentary by Frank Darabont
• Hope Springs Eternal: A Look Back at The Shawshank Redemption
• Shawshank: The Redeeming Feature
• The Sharktank Redemption
• Two Storyboards:
-- Bogs Takes a Fall
-- New Fish Arrive
• Photo Galleries

Final Score: ​

Coming from zero knowledge of the movie to full immersion in one sitting, I’m thoroughly impressed. It’s held up so well over 27 years, telling a tale as old as time. Friendship, suffering, and the inexorable draw towards freedom. It’s a beautiful film that drew me from the second it started and I don’t think I got up to do anything but a coffee refile for the full 2 hours and 22 minutes. The new 4K disc is a VERY solid jump up over the old Blu-ray and although the audio is still the same, this is still a must own for fans of the film.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, Clancy Brown, William Sadler, Brian Libby, Neil Giuntoli
Directed by: Frank Darabont
Written by: Frank Darabont (Screenplay), Stephen King (short novel)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Chinese DD 5.1, French (Canadian), French, German, Italian, Spanish (Castilian), Spanish (Latin), Hungarian, Polish, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Japanese, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 142 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 14th, 2021

Recommendation: Great Buy

 

[Todd Anderson]

WHAT??????

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WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!


Oh my goodness, Michael. I'm not sure if I should make you bang out 400 push-ups, or go to your room and write "what was I thinking" 1,000 times.

At least you were able to man-up and admit a serious, SERIOUS!!! violation of movie-fandom conduct.

That said, I'm glad you gave it 5-stars... or else!


All kidding aside, this is one film that will never enter the Time Crushed HOF. I think you can agree, it could easily have been filmed and released last year. Pure, solid gold!

 

[Asere]

Thanks for the review. I can't believe you had never seen it till now. I am glad you gave the movie the 5 reels it deserves. Excellent move indeed!!

 

[Michael Scott]

yeah, I figured my revelation of never having seen it would send shockwaves out lol

 

[Todd Anderson]

I actually fell over!

 

[Epoxy1]

Arguably the best movie of my lifetime (born in 69). Glad you finally got to see it.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review and I agree with everybody here, a timeless classic.