The Shawshank Redemption failed at the box office and lost all seven Oscars it was nominated for, but VHS gave it a second life: it became the most-rented film of 1995, and years of relentless television reruns turned a movie audiences had ignored into one they now rank among the greatest ever made

On its opening weekend in September 1994, the movie now rated the greatest of all time couldn’t crack the top eight. The Shawshank Redemption limped in at No. Forrest Gump ran the table, and Shawshank went home empty-handed — a flop at the box office and now, seemingly, an also-ran in history. Word of mouth did what marketing couldn’t, and the film that finished 51st at the box office became the most-rented video in America in 1995. The Shawshank Redemption is a story about a man who is written off, buried by a system that got him wrong, and who simply waits — patiently, stubbornly, hopefully — until the day the truth gets out.