12 Brilliant Understated Movie Moments

Honourable Mention: The Shawshank Redemption

For a film that is so enduringly loved, not a huge amount happens in The Shawshank Redemption. There is, of course the ending, but the story of Shawshank as told by director Frank Darabont is less about major events and more about the journey through a particular phase of a few men’s lives, in which what does happen is often just a vehicle for a deeper commentary on life in general. Although Stephen King’s original book is only a short novella, when King does this sort of writing he does it brilliantly – and when Darabont directs it, it is made even better (see the wonderful The Green Mile, another film that was reluctantly left off the list above, for similar reasons to Shawshank).

The bond between Andy (Tim Robbins) and Red (Morgan Freeman), Andy’s patiently endured treatment at the hands of ‘The Sisters,’ the character of the Warden, the claustrophobic passing of time, Red’s unhurried, contemplative voiceover – every last piece of this story is so carefully measured and presented that as moving and as inspirational as Shawshank is, the overall effect of the film is a strangely gentle one (once everyone has stopped crying, that is).

Lines such as ‘file that under education too’ (Red’s response to finding out that The Count of Monte Cristo is about a prison escape), or details like the dust falling onto Brooke’s shoes from his carving, reflected later by the dust falling from Andy’s pocket as he disposes of the evidence of his own escape plan, could be thought of as being understated, but they seem no more or less effective than any other moment in this masterpiece. The Shawshank Redemption wasn’t left out from the list above because there were no standout moments of understated glory – it wasn’t included because the entire film is one long standout moment in the history of western cinema

For that reason, The Shawshank Redemption is also a good note to end on overall. There can be very few better examples of how – just as the minor moments in real life are often the most important – it is often the most subtle details of a movie that reflect the real depth of its story. Living is complicated, making movies is complicated – and when these two facts combine and get it right, the result is essentially one of the reasons we started making movies in the first place; to look at human life in all its weird, wonderful, dramatic – and sometimes very quiet-glory.