The condition of the human soul. Many movies have done it better. The reviews embrace only what they know...why don't they know more? Tom Hanks is OK. Everything about this movie is OK...but only OK. IMDb herd mentality. Internet clickings etc...Learn something about truth. Shaw s hank is missing something. There are much better social justice movies. The ridiculously high rating on the net only shows the net isn't all that its cracked up to be. There is no one in this cast that would put this movie ahead of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD...so why do you? The internet is filled with fools with keyboards. If you believe that this movie is superior to TKAM ...it only speaks to your access to a computer...nothing more. The internet is dead. Reality killed the internet star. Ooops. LOL.