Two days ago was the 25th anniversary of the theatrical release of my all-time favorite movie: The Shawshank Redemption. As a kid growing up, my parents had a rule that you weren’t allowed to watch rated-R movies until you were 17. At about 7 AM the morning of my 17th birthday, I was on my basement couch watching Frank Darabont’s directorial debut after years of hearing my father rave (rather insensitively if you ask me) about the movie’s many qualities.
In honor of the movie based on a Stephen King novella, this week’s Big Ten Power Rankings will be tiered according to quotes from the Tim Robbins-Morgan Freeman feature that forever changed the way I looked at movies and to this day is worth countless re-watches (very unlike any football game that Rutgers is involved in).