It is 30 years since The Shawshank Redemption debuted, but it remains as beloved as ever, and its star Tim Robbins credits one man for its survival – Ted Turner.
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Robbins rails against algorithms dictating our viewing habits and cites his 1994 film about the fates of prison inmates as one that wouldn’t have made it in this era.
Robbins said:
“We’re at 30 years now [on from] Shawshank Redemption. When it came out it got good reviews, it got nominated for Academy awards, but nobody saw it. It was VHS and [Ted] Turner playing it on his television channel [Turner Classic Movies] that changed that. That is a beloved movie. It remains on top of IMDb as the most favored movie of all time. So I know that a quality movie, a quality television show, will last. Whether it’s a hit or not is irrelevant compared to what people are going to think about it in 10, 15, 20 years.”
The Shawshank Redemption was made on a budget of $25million and went on to make $73million at the worldwide box office. It was nominated for seven Oscars,
Robbins compared this with the wealth of movies freshly available on streaming platforms:
“You go on Netflix right now, you see what films are coming out and you tell me that that’s the future of cinema? We’re in big trouble.”
Robbins, who appears in Apple TV+’s Silo, also used the interview to call for better working conditions for crews on set. He said:
“Actors have it easy, they don’t work every day. When they finish their job they go to have some time off, do a different job. It is crews really that you’re talking about. What winds up happening is that you have people on these crews that are overworked, exhausted, and don’t have the emotional input that one needs to live a rounded life.”