Criminally ignored when it was released in 1994, the commercial success of The Shawshank Redemption failed to match its critical reception until it was released on video, and outfoxed the marketing suits by using an old fashioned ploy – word of mouth.

The script had done the rounds in Hollywood with numerous A-list stars clambering to take on the role of Andy Dufresne, the wrongly imprisoned banker who spends the better part of 20 years serving time for the murder of his wife and her lover.

Aware that the script itself was the star of the movie, director Frank Darabont cast Tim Robbins in the lead role, and while it's impossible to imagine anyone else in the role, the lack of A-listers in the movie helped the film to avoid the cinemagoers radar.

Based on Stephen King's short story, the film charts Andy's incarceration inside the walls of a gothic prison, where he hits the bowels of despair and comes out clean on the other side, thanks largely to the relationships he forms inside the prison walls, particularly with Morgan Freeman's Red.

The true nature of this story isn't a prison tale, but a tale of hope, love and most importantly of all, friendship.

Yet despite the buzz in Hollywood that surrounded the project and glowing reviews from the critics, on release the movie was a mitigated disaster.

Perhaps, in a time when slick marketing techniques tell a resenting public what they should or should not like, Shawshank became a personal movie to each fan that viewed it in the privacy of their own home.

Technically, Shawshank provides every element a film should have – stunning cinematography, a sharp and touching script, expert casting and an ending as fulfilling as any other in Hollywood history.

And while it may be somewhat ironic that the film is now being released by the studio in a simple marketing ploy to rake in some more cash, it's almost impossible to turn down the chance of seeing a modern day classic on the big screen, probably for the first time.

Richard Phippen