R | 2h 22min | Drama | 23 September 1994 (USA) Like a handful of classics that came before this film—“The Wizard of Oz,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Citizen Kane,” “Vertigo”—“The Shawshank Redemption” was a box office failure upon initial release. Yet, for the better part of the last 25 years, it’s been ranked number one on the imdb.com Top 250 list and is on many critics’ all-time Top 10 lists. In the interest of full disclosure, it’s number six on my all-time Top 10. In retrospect, the odds were stacked against the movie before it even left the gate. The title is clunky and offers no insight to the story. The story itself isn’t what most people consider to be appealing. Although leads Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman were well-known to audiences, neither was (at the time) considered a guaranteed draw. The long running time, near-absence of female characters and lack of action certainly didn’t …