Better without Morgan Freeman?

Yeah, you are almost certainly in the minority. This is not an historical document. I find it goofy to cast a non-white actress as Anne Boleyn (unless that series is some sort of historical fantasy - I haven't seen it) but this film is exempt from that sort of accurate detail...

Morgan Freeman was perfectly cast because he was amazingly good in the role and has pretty much crowded the red-haired Irish character of Stephen King's novella out of my memory.

The man from long, long ago known as Jesus of Nazareth wasn’t a caucasian as most films portray him. I’ll accept an African-American chowing down with honkys in a 1940s Maine prison.

I couldn't disagree more. This is my favorite Morgan Freeman performance next to Driving Miss Daisy. I do however understand wanting it to be closer to the book. I feel the same way about First Blood.

I haven't read the book, so I guess it doesn't matter that much to me.

Freeman's narration was great in this though. It's hard to imagine this movie without him because of this.

I can't name a movie where the narration had more of a impact on the viewer.

I would be curious to see (with some fine editing of course) a version of this movie without a narrator.

I understand your point about historical accuracy and I'm not against a re-imagining or tv adaptation of Shawshank that is truer to the books, but the statement "I am willing to suspend disbelief if a movie is very good" kind of answers the question because, really, Freeman's performance is exceptional and for a movie to go from a box office flop to constantly being named in the top movies of all time speaks for itself.

I understand what you're saying in regard to the time period, but I don't agree that it is an issue for this movie. I think the fact that the prison was in Maine changes things a bit. In the 1950s, probably less than 1 percent of Maine's population was black. They wouldn't have had separate facilities for black inmates.

The fact that the other inmates all respect him and don't use racial slurs around/about him may be a bit unrealistic for the time period. However, when we meet Red, he had already been in prison for a long time. Perhaps things were harder for him when he first arrived, but he was able to earn the other inmate's respect over time.

I didn't have an issue finding the character believable. I honestly can't imagine anyone else playing the part.

It works because he's the Magical Negro

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro

https://confluence.gallatin.nyu.edu/context/interdisciplinary-seminar/the-magical-negro-trope-in-literature-and-film

"The “magical Negro,” as described by Kwame Anthony Appiah and recontextualized by Cerise Glenn and Landra Cunningham, is “‘the noble, good-hearted Black man or woman’ whose good sense pulls the White character through a crisis."