Shawshank Redemption (BFI Modern Classics Series) »

Mark Kermode is a film critic and broadcaster. He writes for Sight and Sound and The Independent, and providing weekly film reviews for BBC Radio 5. On television he appears regularly on BBC 2's Newsnight Review, and has written and presented numerous film documentaries including The Fear of God; 25 Years of the Exorcist and Poughkeepsie Shuffle: Tracing the French Connection for BBC1, and Hell on Earth; Resurrecting The Devils, The Cult of The Wicker Man and On the Edge of Blade Runner for Channel 4.

How did a low-key prison movie which was considered a box-office flop on its original release become one of the most popular movies of all time? Mark Kermode, writer and presenter of the acclaimed Channel 4 documentary Shawshank: The Redeeming Feature, traces the history of this unexpected audience favorite from the pages of Stephen King's novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, through the icy corridors of Ohio's Mansfield Reformatory (whose imposing gothic architecture dominates the film), to the television and video screens on which The Shawshank Redemption became a phenomenon. Kermode's account draws on extensive interviews with writer/director Frank Darabont and leading players Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. The book also explores the near-religious fervour that the film inspires in its huge number of devoted fans.