‘Rita Hayworth and the surrender of Shawshank’ is the first part from the novel ‘The Four Seasons’, by Stephen King (more specifically the part dedicated to spring, eternal hope), a compilation of four stories from which three of the best films based on books by the writer from Maine have come out: ‘ Count on me’, ‘Summer of corruption’ and, of course, the story in question, the one based on IMDb’s Favorite Internet Movie: ‘Life imprisonment’.
14 years (and those who remain)
On August 10, 2008, the same day that Michael Phelps broke the 400m world record and Katy Perry was number 1 on the radio with ‘I kissed a girl’, ‘Life imprisonment’ became number 1 on IMDb with an average rating of 9.1, which over the years would rise to 9.2. He never came back down from there, just like her eternal second-rate does not‘The godfather’, with which he shares the same note.
It wasn’t always like that, of course: in the first top 250 in the page’s history, the first number 1, with an 8.7, it was… ‘Star wars’. George Lucas’s tape was replaced over the years, and that position has also been occupied by ‘The Godfather’, ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’ and ‘The Dark Knight’ also enter this five movie club in which, with more than two and a half million votes for ‘Life imprisonment’, it seems unlikely that any more will enter.
It is noteworthy that ‘Life imprisonment’ never, not even in the first top in history, has dropped from the top three positions, it has always been present in the conversation since its premiere in 1995. It has been the Internet’s favorite movie for 5,124 days, and not even Vito Corleone himself can get it down from there. Now, keep in mind that it is a simple game: a movie top that does not have ‘Paddington 2’ in its top 250 cannot be taken seriously.