Shawshank Redemption, The (UK)

The title of this film does not look particularly attractive. It is only after you have watched it that you realise its meaning. The story starts at a slow pace and picks up half way to become quite involving. It finishes on a high note. Great story and well worth watching

I`m not going to bother with a lengthy discussion of the story, as this is covered on the main DVD Reviewer site. I`m going to concentrate more on the disc itself, audio and visual quality, extras etc, although I have to say that both Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are outstanding.

Shawshank is my favourite film, so you can imagine my disappointment when I got it home to find only the pan & scan version on the disc. I had thought the pan & scan version to be no more, so always check! After another trip to the shop to get them to exchange it for the new disc, a DVD10 with both the pan & scan and widescreen versions, I sat down to enjoy the film.

The first thing you notice is the video quality. It`s not great to say the least. There are noticeable compression problems in some parts, due to squeezing the whole film on to a single layered disc I imagine. It`s a pity they didn`t re-release it on a dual layered disc in widescreen format, as this is surely most people`s preference.

The sound is good throughout, although there is no 5.1 soundtrack, just a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Shawshank isn`t the sort of film to give your surround system a work out anyway, so it`s not really detrimental to the experience as a whole.

As far as extras go, this is a reasonable disc. Aside from the usual scene-access and interactive menus there are interviews, biographies, a trailer and a sub-plots menu. You also get the 4:3 version of the film on the other side of the disc. There are no subtitles though, and a commentary track would have been nice.

Is it worth your money? I would reply with a resounding yes! It may suffer a bit in terms of image quality, but this is such a captivating, moving and ultimately uplifting film that you will quickly lose any reservations you might have had. A superior R4 disc is available though, if you want to import.

jkk

For such a great film, its a shame that the transfer to DVD has been handled so poorly. Although in anamorphic widescreen, the picture is extremely poor in areas, showing washed out colours and quite often obvious compression artefacts. Perversly, the 4:3 pan and scan version on the flipside of the disc has a better picture quality. The features on the disc are reasonable, if not outstanding. The less said about the pointless sub-plot feature (shows a particular scene relating to a sub-plot... all very interesting if you haven`t actually watched the film). Definitely a film which would benefit from a re-release.

Wonderful film, uninspired extras, absolutely terrible picture quality!
The pan & scan version is flat with low contrast and a blue-ish tint throughout, and while the widescreen version is an improvement in these areas, all the dark scenes have picture noise all over the place.
This is the kind of quality you expect from VHS, NOT from DVD!!
Don`t waste your money, it may only be £9.99 but that`s a lot more than it`s worth!
I know I`m ranting a bit here but I love this film, and after suffering with a grainy widescreen VHS version for years I was looking forward to watching the film in crystal clear DVD.
Let`s just hope they delete this version too, and give this classic film the digitally remastered, special edition treatment it so desperately deserves.

Fantastic film… let down by poor video and average audio quality. We get a few extras but on closer inspection I was a little disappointed. I know some people enjoyed the sub-plots extra, but I really didn't see it as much of a bonus - I would love to have a commentary for this film, but alas - no such joy. Disappointing… very disappointing.