The Shawshank Redemption is a story of resilience and grit, but most importantly this is a story of hope. Hope found in the most sinister of places, prison.
The bleak walls inside The Shawshank Penitentiary speak through the direction and writing of Oscar nominee Frank Darabont. Inspired by Stephen King’s 1982 novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption,” this film challenges the basic ideas of incarceration while also putting the repulsive truths of the inside center stage.
The narration by Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman) takes us on a page by page trek of his time in the pen with our protagonist Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins). When Dufresne first is escorted into the prison Red is automatically intrigued by him. They soon become confidants. They both find uses for each other. Red is the middle man for all things coming into the prison. He can get you anything you want…at a price of course. Dufresne is a highly educated man who also has a way with him that can get himself just about anything from the guards and correctional officers. They use each other throughout the film. It begins when Dufresne convinces Captain Hadley (Clancy Brown) to let him help with his financial issues, but it is prison so of course, there was a price. That price just happened to be some cold beers for his newest buddies, including Red.
Now there is nothing better than a narration coming from the soulful voice of Freeman, but the b-roll in this film might just take the quality commissary. The aerial shots of the yard filled to the brim feel like a punch in the gut. Hundreds upon hundreds of inmates in matching pajama-like uniforms living as cattle puts this story in perspective. It makes it real. That is identical to what it looks like on the inside. Though set in the ‘40s, the happenings in this film are far from farfetched. The direction and cinematography take that into consideration when proceeding with this film. It is so realistic that it could be a biopic, and no one would know.
Through a series of peaks and pits, Red and Dufresne survive with an everlasting and hard to come by hope that keeps them both alive through their life sentences. Dufresne sums up the theme by saying to Red, “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” Hope, it doesn’t die and neither will this film.
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