Probably for me, the greatest film of all time. There is so much to this film it would take me 10,000 words to get all the way through what I wanted to say.

But today we'll focus on the core message. Hope.

One of the best phrases coined in this film would be from Red, "You can either get busy living, or get busy dying" -- and that is one true statement that I live my life by. The first time I was introduced into having a positive mindset.

Sure you can let your circumstances devour you. Andy Dufrense had been falsely accused, sent down in one of the toughest prisons there was, with some of the toughest guards the prison had ever seen, and to add insult to injury he was getting beaten up and raped regulalry.

He could have folded, he could have given up and just let the world do it's wicked thing with him, but no, he had hope.

This is probably my most favourite scene from the film. Bloodthirsty it was but boggs got every last bit that was coming to him.

I'm not a violent man, but I enjoyed every last minute of the end of this scene. To see boggs get his just deserts was the icing on the cake. It was just lovely.

And the message was clear in this - send hate out into the world and that will be returned to you by a factor of 10. Sent love out into the world and that also will be returned to you by a factor of 10.

Boggs lost the ability to walk after that scene and spent the rest of his life drinking his food through a straw.

And Andy Dufrense just didn't help the guards to get a few favours from them no, he also built the best prison library the state had ever seen, and put a couple of prisoners through their high school diplomas.

So even as a wrongly incarcerated young man, he still spent his life doing good things, and trying to keep busy. The prison could have swallowed him up, and definitely a prison like that one, but he kept his head held high and he muddled through it.

This was one of the films that got me through the worst period of my life. I watched it at least once a week to remind myself that there is hope and I could change things around, and it helped, a great deal.

That's why you'll find me muddling through when things get bad, because I've probably got about 1000 hours of The Shawshank Redemption and its message of hope as the foundation for my stance on "when things get bad."

I think everyone has one or two films that has seen them through some tough times. I know I have. This one being one of them.

I would be interested to hear in the comments if any of you guys have any films that have taken you through some particularly choppy waters?

Tell me in the comments :)

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