“Same old shit, different day.” So says Morgan Freeman as Red in The Shawshank Redemption. It turns out a different day (or in this case, nearly two decades of different days) can make all the difference. Shawshank wasn’t that big a movie when it first came out. But in the years since, it has become a perennial favorite. And why not? They somehow turned life in a maximum security prison into a feel-good classic. From Vanity Fair: The little-known story of how The Shawshank Redemption became one of the most beloved films of all time.

+ The story behind Bill Murray And Harold Ramis’ 21 year rift.