From small things, mama, big things one day come! When The Shawshank Redemption first hit movie screens in the fall of 1994, it received a rather underwhelming reaction. Audiences largely avoided it, as the film grossed less the $30 million. While it got good reviews, there wasn't a whole lot of enthusiasm over the picture.

10 years later, the movie has somehow metamorphosed into being regarded by many as a classic. Huh? How did that happened? To be honest, I'll be damned if I know.

I guess it must have been some form of popular groundswell. Shawshank first received significant attention in the winter of 1995 when it gained a decent number of Academy Award nominations. It lost out in all seven categories for which it was considered but definitely was one of those movies for which the nominations were a victory in themselves. After all, this was a small, quickly forgotten film; its Best Picture nomination came as a major surprise.

And somehow, the train kept on a-rolling until now, where you can go on IMBD and see that its readers have voted Shawshank as the second best film of all-time, behind only The Godfather. I don't know about you, but I find this to be absolutely amazing.

And absolutely off-base. Don't get me wrong: The Shawshank Redemption is an excellent film and is a topnotch production from start to finish. I'm one of those people who was taken by surprise by it. I love movies and I've gone to see more than my share of films I normally might have skipped just because the urge hit me. Some days I wanted to see a movie, and it didn't really matter which one.

Shawshank happened to be playing at a local bargain cinema when the urge hit, and since I'd already viewed all of the other selections, I gave it a look, though I wasn't excited about it. Much to my surprise, I found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable and even inspirational film. I'm normally not much of one for those "triumph of the human spirit" kind of movies; they tend to be hokey and melodramatic. That wasn’t the case with Shawshank, as it managed to evoke the appropriate feelings in me. Although I wanted Pulp Fiction to capture the Best Picture Oscar, I wouldn't have minded at all if Shawshank had taken the prize. (Too bad Forrest Gump was the eventual victor.)

As much as I like Shawshank, for it to reign as anyone's fdfsdfdsf best movie of all-time is simply absurd. Hell, it wasn't even the best movie of 1994! (For the record, Pulp Fiction made number 15 with IMDB voters, and Forrest Gump doesn't show up until number 112; the other Best Picture nominees for 1994 - Quiz Show and Four Weddings and a Funeral" - didn't make IMDB's top 250.) But I probably shouldn't waste time engaging in such debates; I'd rather talk about what makes Shawshank as special as it is.

That's actually a very good question. Overall, it's not a terribly original film. It's got an awful lot in common with all those other "triumph of the human spirit" movies - most of which star Robin Williams - and the story never goes beyond the limits imposed by that genre. In fact, it's usually quite predictable. I won't spill the beans, but one glimpse at some of the characters and you know exactly what their fates will be. It's like the new crewmembers on the Enterprise - those poor red-shirted bastards didn't stand a chance.

But the film ultimately is able to transcend the confines of its genre. Much of the credit for this is due to the fine actors who play in it. Is it just me, or is there something wrong with a world in which Sally Field owns two Oscars for acting but Morgan Freeman possesses none? What a sad, silly joke that is. Freeman is at the top of his game here as Red, longtime inmate of Shawshank Prison. The role's not much of a stretch for Freeman - he's played similar parts in other films - but he still brings an extremely wide range to the occasion. No one can manifest quiet dignity and strength like Freeman, but he still makes all of his characters seem real and avoids the sanctimony of a Williams.

Tim Robbins is also excellent as Andy Dufresne, a man who's been imprisoned wrongfully but never gives up hope. No, that's not the most original character you'll ever see, but Robbins manages to keep him from becoming a cliché. It's the estimable chemistry between Robbins and Freeman that largely makes the film work; they're a strong duo.

First-time director Frank Darabont doesn't do anything terribly special in telling this tale, but he lets it unfold at a natural and appropriate pace and he maintains a fairly objective distance. Part of the pleasure of Shawshank stems from the lack of obvious sentiment or forced emotion. Darabont is able to restrain any "shove it down the audience's throat" tendencies that would mar many other films. He does a quiet but strong job of guiding the movie to its conclusion.

Actually, that conclusion is one of the few gripes I have about Shawshank, the other big one being the predictability of much of the movie. I won't give away what occurs, but I think that Darabont shows far too much of what happens to the characters at the end of the film. No, it didn't have to be an O. Henry story, but the picture simply spells out too clearly what happens. Some like that, but I would prefer to see something left to the imagination. I think the ending would resonate more strongly without such a literal conclusion.

Despite some missteps, The Shawshank Redemption remains a powerful and moving film. It shows a strong Capra feel and delves into its characters lives with emotion and depth. It’s not the second greatest movie ever made, but it’s a very good one.

The Shawshank Redemption appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the widescreen image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. While not totally flawless, the picture of Shawshank generally looked excellent.

The image appeared very sharp and well-defined. Virtually no softness interfered with the presentation. Instead, the flick was concise and detailed. I saw no problems with jagged edges or shimmering, and only a smidgen of light edge enhancement appeared. Nary a print flaw popped up in this clean presentation. The movie remained free of defects from start to finish.

Colors weren't much of an issue for Shawshank, as the blue-gray prison environment didn't exactly suggest "Technicolor spectacular". Muted though they were, the hues seemed consistently solid and accurate. Black levels appeared strong and shadow detail was good. Many scenes occurred in low light, but they never looked murky or too opaque. I felt very pleased with this solid transfer.

The film's Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack was decent but not up to the level of the image. It's a very front-oriented mix, with a fairly active forward soundstage but little use of the rears. Some filler music here, some ambient effects there - that's about the extent to which the rear speakers were used. By comparison, the front channels received much better delineation. All three speakers offered a lot of information, and it's fairly well integrated, although the mix sometimes seemed a bit too "speaker specific." Nonetheless, it broadened the environment nicely.

Audio quality appeared fine. Speech was acceptably natural, with good intelligibility and no issues connected to edginess. Music came across as reasonably lively and bright, with pretty positive range. Effects stayed subdued throughout the film. They were accurate and concise; they didn’t pack much of a punch, but they were clean and distinctive. Not a lot occurred here to make the audio stand out from the crowd, but the soundtrack seemed more than satisfying for this sort of film.

So how did picture and sound of this new Special Edition compare to those of the original DVD? The audio seemed identical, but the new version’s image provided a definite improvement over that of the old one. The prior edition suffered from a smattering of print flaws, some digital artifacts, and a bit more edge enhancement. The original DVD looked good, but this one’s image was clearly superior.

While the old DVD came with almost no extras, the Special Edition offers a reasonable roster of goodies. On DVD One, we get the movie’s trailer plus a running, screen-specific audio commentary from director Frank Darabont. At its start, Darabont warns us that he’s a commentary virgin so we need to be gentle. He needn’t have added that caveat, as he offers a fine discussion in his initial commentary.

Very animated from start to finish, Darabont covers many topics. He gets into his initial interest in the flick and bringing it to the screen, the cast and working with them, locations and sets, variations between the movie and the book, the score and general visual design, and many anecdotes from the shoot. Plenty of great stories pop up like his escapades with the ASPCA representative. He also tosses out a funny tale about an agent who clearly hadn’t read the script, since she wanted Darabont to cast her supermodel client (Cindy Crawford?) as Rita Hayworth. He makes sure we understand why the DVD includes no deleted scenes. Darabont talks too much about the sets – we get the point quickly and he doesn’t need to belabor this – but I still really like this chatty and informative piece.

Over on DVD Two, we begin with a new 30-minute and 58-second documentary entitled Hope Springs Eternal: A Look Back at The Shawshank Redemption. It mixes movie shots, archival materials, and new interviews. We hear from Darabont, producer Niki Marvin, author Stephen King, production designer Terence Marsh, composer Thomas Newman, USC Professor Dr. Drew Casper, and actors Clancy Brown, Tim Robbins, Gil Bellows, James Whitmore, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Mark Rolston, David Proval and Morgan Freeman. They talk about adapting the story, the cast and the characters, sets, locations and the visual design, impressions of certain scenes and anecdotes, changes between the original story and the movie, the score, and general impressions of the flick. Inevitably, more than a little information repeats from Darabont’s commentary. Nonetheless, a decent mix of new topics crop up in this reasonably lively and insightful piece.

We follow this with another retrospective called Shawshank: The Redeeming Feature. It runs 47 minutes, 55 seconds and tries to answer “what the hell is so great” about the movie. This includes comments from Robbins, Freeman, Darabont, Marvin, Sadler, Gunton, Marsh, writer/friend David J. Schow, film critic John Patterson, executive producer Liz Glotzer, film critic and broadcaster James King, Mansfield Reformatory tour guide Jan Demyan, former inmate Mark Malott and Michael Marecz, former warden Dennis Baker, Mansfield OH news anchor Jane Imbody, Warner Home Video rep Brian Jamieson, IMDB founder Col Needham, and Hollywoodjesus.com operator David Bruce. As with the prior program, “Feature” covers the short story and its adaptation, casting and characters, locations and sets, issues related to the ending, the movie’s initial public reception and its subsequent popularity.

During much of the program, you’ll hear a lot of material repeated from the commentary and “Eternal”. Where “Feature” becomes different connects to its material about the film’s afterlife. We get a good feel for why the movie’s endured in the public mind. We do find too much redundant material, but “Feature” nonetheless presents enough unique insights to make it worthwhile.

For straight interviews, we go to an episode of the Charlie Rose Show with Darabont, Freeman and Robbins. It lasts 42 minutes and 15 seconds as it presents all three men together with Rose at a roundtable discussion. Shot in 2004, it goes over the production basics and also examines the film’s themes and legacy. A fair amount of repeated information appears here, but I really like the format, as it’s great to get the three main participants in the flick all together. In addition, they get into the substance of the film well, as they nicely delve into the characters and themes. It’s another useful program.

For something different, we get The Sharktank Redemption. A parody set in a theatrical agency, it pokes fun at the business as it equates that job to being in prison. At 24 minutes and 42 seconds, it’s too long and not exactly hilarious, but it’s fairly clever and amusing. The casting of Morgan Freeman’s son as Fred Redding adds a nice spark to it.

In the Stills Gallery, we find five subdomains, each of which appears as a filmed piece: “Tim Robbins” (64 seconds), “Morgan Freeman” (47 seconds), “Supporting Cast” (two minutes), “Tim & Morgan” (32 seconds), and “Behind the Scenes” (two minutes, 59 seconds). I don’t like the format, and the photos themselves tend to be fairly bland.

Storyboards cover two scenes. Presented as filmed clips like the stills, we see “New Fish Arrive”(4:00) and “Bogs Takes a Fall” (4:26). I’d prefer to watch these in stillframe format, but the moving presentation works better for the storyboards than for the photos. “Bogs” is especially interesting since it shows elements cut from the finished sequence.

Finally, Shawshank Collectibles looks at some pieces of merchandise connected to the movie. All available at a collector’s site, this is little more than an advertisement.

The Shawshank Redemption will surely find its place in many homes just because it's such a good film. While it doesn't deserve the hallowed status it now seems to enjoy, it's definitely an excellent movie and is one that happily avoided the obscurity that normally would have befallen it. The DVD offers excellent picture plus decent audio and a very nice collection of extras.

I heartily recommend this two-disc version of The Shawshank Redemption for everyone. If you don’t already own the movie, grab this version. If you possess the old DVD, upgrade for this one; it improves significantly in regard to both picture and supplements. It’s a fine movie and a solid DVD.