Rogers' Thoughts: DRAMATIC FILMS

The Shawshank Redemption

Summary: The Shawshank Redemption directed by Frank Darabont and written by Stephen King was a work of art. Three hours and 14 minutes of pure perfection. It begins with Andy Dufresne in court. He is getting blamed for the muder of his ex-wife and a golf pro. He was framed and guilty for this crime. He is then sent to Shawshank Prison in Maine which is the most heavily guarded and extremely strict prison in the nation. Andy is very shy and is not used to the prison life. He meets a man named Red (Morgan Freeman). They become good friends throughout the entire movie. Red is the kind of guy who can get stuff into the prison like cigarttes, posters or even knives. Andy is really into geology and carving things out of rocks. He asks red if he can get a poster of Rita Hayworth and a small pick axe. Red does as asked and he gets him his things. He carved his name into the wall and a huge chunk of cement crubled in his finger tips. He realized that the wall was sandstone rock and easy to carve into. Andy starts doing things for the warden and he gets on his good side. Andy starts doing his bank paperwork becasue Andy was a banker before he was sent to prison. All the guards started to really like Andy. A new guy came to the prison from another one. He was telling stories of a man at his old prison that killed a woman and a golf pro. Red was going to tell Andy but Red told the guy to tell the warden what had happened. He did as Red asked and the Warden ordered the guards to shoot him to death. Later in the paper he said that he was trying to escape; that is why he was shot and killed. 20 years had passed and Andy started to give up. He was used to the same old rutine of cleaning the wardens shoes and doing his bank paperwork. He had asked one of his inmates to get him a six foot long rope. Andy went to his cell for the night with the rope in his hand. Red knew and thought that Andy was going to kill himself. "It was the longrst night i have ever had in Shawshank prison." Red Narrorated. In the morning when they do a head count to make sure that people are still in the prison. Red bolts out of his cell and looks to his left to see if Andy comes out... No Andy. **SPOILER ALERT** They call Dufresne's name several times and he doesn't come out of his cell. The warden and the guards run up to his cell and the screen pans into the room slowly. Andy is gone. He is not in the room at all. The warden gets pissed off and starts throwing rocks at the wall. He threw a rock at the poster of Rita Hayworth. The rock went straight through it and fell hitting the walls and pipes on the way down. The Warden Rips down the poster in anger and there is an endless hole through the wall where Andy had dug. The Alarms go off and dogs run out looknig for him. By that time Andy was in a nice car on his way to a new country to start a new life. He had stolen a bunch of the wardens signatures and account numbers. He took 400,000$ of the wardens money. In the very end Red peroled from jail and find Andy in the country he had ran off to. The Warden kills himself before he gets arrested for killing that man. Andy and Red meet up in the end and they are reunited as friends onoce again.

Personal Opinion: This is my favorite movie. There is nothing wrong with this movie. It was well directed and perfectly written. It was one of those films that i didnt want to end. I wanted it to continue on with their lives after prison. It made me tear up when they were reunited at the end and hugged. It was amazing to see the amount of time Andy had spent in Shawshank prison for a crime he did not commmit. My eyes were glued to the T.V screen the entire time. No movie will ever comapre to this movie. This is my all time FAVORITE movie that has ever been filmed. I felt so close to each character and it felt so real with the acting of each and every character. I have seen this movie at least five times and it gets better everytime. It keeps its amazing value no matter how many times i watch it. If you have not seen this movie go to the store right now and buy it. It is worth it and it will be your favorite movie.
Overall it is the best movie ever made in my opinion and I highly reccomend this movie to everybody. It is really long but it is worth it. You wont want it to end becasue it is so good.

Rating: 1 2 3 4 5-10 I rate this movie a Ten out of Five on the drama scale.

For more information on The Shawshank Redemption please click the link --> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/

Main Cast:

Tim Robbins (Andy Dufresne) ---------------------------------------->

Morgan Freeman (Red) ----------------------------------------------->

Bob Gunton (The Warden) ------------------------------------------->

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Titanic:

Summary: The Titanic is a story everybody should know. I shouldnt have to summarize it for you but I will if you hav not seen this film. This was directed and written by James Cameron in 1997. Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet played the biggest roles in this movie. The titanic was huge buzz around england. It was the biggest passenger ship ever built. It was called the Titanic but it was nicknamed "The Ship of Dreams." It departed from england and was arriving at Rose was the main character along with Jack Dawson. Rose was a rich girl that was in the first class of the cabin. Jack was playing poker and the people he was playing with bet their Titanic tickets. Jack flipped over his cards and he had a flush. He won the tickets and ran with his friend to board the Titanic. Jack is a poor third class man with no job. He just wants to live life and take risks. He is wandering the boat after it departs and sees Rose peered at the edge of the boat. He is in love at first sight. He is relaxing on a bench dozing off. Rose comes by him running and crying. She runs to the edge of the boat. You can see in her eyes that she is commited to do something drastic. He clibs over the railing of the back of the ship. She is ready to jump and kill herself. Jack runs up to her and says "I wouldnt do that if i were you." You can tell she is happy to see someone who cares but she acted like she wasn't happy. He explains to her how cold the water would be and how he would have to jump in after her to save her. She agrees to step off the ledge and not kill herself. He grabs her hand while she turns around. She slips of her dress and Jack tries to pull her up. She screams bloody murder and the guards start running to see what is going on. He pulls her over the edge and he lands on top of her. They make love eye contact and the guards come and pull him off of her. Roses family comes out and starts yelling at Jack. Jack has handcuffs on for attempted rape. Rose says it was a mistake and he gets off the hook. Rose and Jack hang out day after day falling more and more in love with eachother. The night of April 14th came around and Jack and Rose were madly in love with eachother. Roses husband sees them and starts chasing after them. They run the the basement of the ship that has luggage and cars. They hide in the car and they end up having sex. They then ran up to the top of the deck and started kissing and cuddling looking up at the stars. The captain and the crew know that there will be potential ice burgs that could mess up the ship. They go full throtle anyway and hope for the best. The two look outs see a huge iceburg taller than the ship sticking up from the below 0 water. They ring the bell for the captain to steer the ship hard right to try and avoid a fatal collision. They inch closer and closer but it is too late. The ships left side gets completely sheered off and water starts rushing into the basement of the ship. The boat fills with water and it starts to sink one end first. It tips completely horizontal to the water. It then breaks in half and then the second half starts to sink. Rose and Jack are on the edge of the boat hanging onto the railing so they dont fall. It sinks and Rose and Jack are in the freezing water with thousands of other freezing people. Rose gets onto a floating door to stay out of the water. Jack holds her hand becasue he is in the water. **SPOILER ALERT** Jack tells her to promise that she will always hang on. They both passout from the cold. When lifeboats come back for them rose blows a whistle to come and get her and jack but when she shakes jack and says his name..he doesnt wake up. She is saved and she leaves her husband. She changes her name to Rose Dawson after Jacks last name. The omvie ends with her dying as a really old woman and she goes to heaven which to her is on the titanic with Jack.

Personal Opinion: This is my second favorite movie behind the Shawshank Redemption. No matter how many times I see this movie or know what is going to happen i always get choked up and shed a tear. The entire movie has amazing acting. Kate Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio are the top actors in ever. You become so close to the characters that you kinda fall in love with rose as well. The ending is so sad and will choke people up. It is a long movie. It is longer than the shawshank redemption which was three hours long but it is three hours of pure heartlifting scenes.

Last but no least, this is an amazing film and I will always have this movie on my top five. It is a love movie but it is not a chick flick at all. I reccomend this movie to everybody who likes to watch a good movie and maybe even shed a tear or two.

Rating: 1 2 3 4 5 i give this movie a Five out of Five on the rating scale.

For more information on Titanic please follow this link --> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/

Main Cast:

Leonardo Dicaprio (Jack Dawson) ------------------------------->

Kate Winslet (Rose Dawson) ------------------------------------>

Billy Zane (Caledon/ Rose' Husband) -------------------------->

Summary: Stand By Me was directed by Rob Reiner and written by Stephen King in 1986. It is about four best friend boys that explore the wilderness. They casue trouble and smoke cigarettes. They have a tree fort where they smoke and play card games like adults. This movie has four main characters named Gordy, Chris, Teddy and Vern. Vern is digging up a jar of pennies he had burried underneath the deck of someones house a while back. When he hears the high school seniors talking about a boy that had just been killed by a train. His dead body was still by the tracks somewhere. So Vern tells they guys about it and they all decide it would be an awesome adventure if they went and found the body. They all told their parents they were sleeping over at one anothers house and then they all met up and set off on their journey. Along the way they get into some tangles. They are following the train tracks until they reach the point where they could find the body. A train is coming and they all get off but Teddy. He mumbles to his friends "ima dodge it." They all say yeah yeah in disbelief and tell him to come on. Teddy doesn't move. The train inches closer and closer. Then Chrtsi sprints up and tackles him off of the tracks. They all start fighting. Then they continue on the tracks. They come to a spot on the tracks where there is a river below them three hundred feet. They set accross the tracks for the other side when they are about half way accross they hear the trains horn and they sprint toward the other side. Vern keeps falling and the train get literally inches to them before they leap off of the bride and drop twenty feet to flat dirt. The train barley misses them. Then they go swimming and get leaches all over them and Gordy gets one on his Man Parts and he passes out when he realizes he was bleeding. **SPOILER ALERT** The kids find the body but when they get there the high school kids are there looknig at the body too. Chris pulls out a gun and holds it to one of the kids. He is too scared to shoot him. They settle their differences and set off home. The kids are shocked at what they have seen. On the long day walk home they didnt say a single word. It was completely silent. They grew up and split there seperate ways. At the end it has captions to say where they did and went in life after tjhey went their seperate ways.

Personal Opinion: Stand by Me is on my top ten favorite films and it always has been. It is a great movie. Every person in the world can sort of relate to this movie. Being young kids and rebellnig against their parents because it is fun and risky. Also we all had those three or more really close friends that do everything together. It is easy to relate to because i used to go on adventures with my friends and swin in ponds and walk on the train tracks. I made forts to hang out in with my friends. The only thing i didnt do that they did was look for a dead body and smoke cigarettes. This is a Classic Stephen King book but a Classic Movie as well. If you have bot seen this movie you need to see it ASAP. You would be missing out on an amazing classical film by not watching this movie.
If i could go back in time to when this movie first came out, i would have seen it in theatre everyday until it came out of VHS. I reccomend this movie to everybody of all ages. I cant get enough of Stand By Me.

Rating: 1 2 3 4 5 I rate this movie Fove of Five on the scale!

For more information please click the link --> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092005/

Main Cast: