I can't consider Shawshank or The Sixth Sense even remotely in the same league as the others. Shawshank was a decent adaptation of King's story, but otherwise nothing special.
NOTHING SPECIAL!!! (Words fail... visions crumble... the ground opens wide...)
Okay, I know that "mileage may vary", and I'm not
really upset or trying to convince you that you are a big, unfeeling, heartless, brainless .... um, scratch that last bit....
But seriously, there are a very few movies that I point to as all-time favorites, and would be willing and able to defend with references, quotations, and anecdotal evidence of the life-changing impact they had on me. One is The Fisher King, and the other is Shawshank Redemption.
I don't suppose you want my life story (though the tale of Ketchup Girl might make a good Pseudopod... as would most of my dating life), but I was profoundly moved by that film. The root of it -- "Get busy livin', or get busy dying" -- was brought into sharp focus for me by the events of the rest of the story; and the parallels I discovered later between being unjustly sent to prison (which hasn't happened to me) and being ground down by a lousy stint in the military (which has) were close enough that the film actually worked to help me survive that experience. I knew guys like Brooks (the old man that hung himself after being paroled from a 40+ year sentence), and I knew guys like the guards (had to salute some of them and call them sir, though I would have preferred smacking them with sticks). And I realized I had to be smart, and bide my time; stay focused on my Zihuatanejo.
This was the first slam-dunk,
no question about which one I'm voting for poll in the whole series, but I see once again, I am alone. *sigh* Just me and Ron Paul on prom night, again.