The Shawshank Redemption Movie Review

Copyright Castle Rock Entertainment

Well time to bulk out the greats section of this thing again, this time we're looking at the classic prison film The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont and based on the novella Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, the film stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne a banker convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and is sentenced to two life sentences in the tough Shawshank prison. However only Dufresne knows that he did not commit the crimes.

The films begins in 1947 Portland Maine, because as we have previously established every Stephen King story is set in Maine, banker Andy Dufresne is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover which gets him two life sentences in Shawshank State Penitentiary, in the prison he is befriended by Ellis "Red" Redding, played brilliantly by Morgan Freeman, Redding is a fellow inmate and a contraband smuggler who is serving a life sentence. Red manages to procure a rock hammer for Andy as well as a large poster of Rita Hayworth. While working in the prison laundry Andy is regularly sexually assaulted by a gang called the sisters and their leader Bogs.

In 1949, Andy overhears the captain of the guards Byron Hadley, complaining about being taxed on inheritance and Andy offers to help in to shelter the money legally. After another assault from the sisters almost kills Andy, Hadley beats and cripples Bogs who is then transferred to another prison.

Andy is not attacked again. Warden Samuel Norton meets Andy and reassigns him to the prison library to assist elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen. Andy begins managing financial matters for other prison staff, guards from other prisons, and the warden himself. He also begins writing weekly letters to the state legislature requesting funds to improve the prison's decaying library.

Brooks is paroled in 1954 after serving 50 years, but he cannot adjust to the outside world and eventually hangs himself. The legislature sends a library donation that includes a recording of The Marriage of Figaro; Andy plays an excerpt over the public address system and is punished with solitary confinement. After his release from solitary, Andy explains that hope is what gets him through his time, a concept that Red dismisses. In 1963, Norton begins exploiting prison labor for public works, profiting by undercutting skilled labor costs and receiving bribes. Andy launders the money using the alias "Randall Stephens".

A few years later Tommy Williams is incarcerated for burglary in 1965. Andy and Red befriend him, and Andy helps him pass his GED exam. A year later, Tommy reveals to Red and Andy that his cellmate at another prison had claimed responsibility for the murders for which Andy was convicted. Andy approaches Norton with this information, but Norton refuses to listen and sends him back to solitary confinement when he mentions the money laundering. Norton has Hadley murder Tommy under the guise of an escape attempt. Andy attempts to discontinue the laundering but relents after Norton threatens to destroy the library, remove Andy's protection from the guards, and move him to worse conditions. Andy is released from solitary confinement after two months, and he tells a skeptical Red that he dreams of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican coastal town. Andy also tells him of a specific hayfield near Buxton, asking Red to retrieve a package that Andy buried there. Red worries about Andy's well-being, especially when he learns Andy asked a fellow inmate for six feet of rope.

At the next day's roll call, the guards find Andy's cell empty. An irate Norton throws a rock at a poster of Raquel Welch hanging on the cell wall, and its revealed that Andy has been digging a tunnel with his rock hammer over the last 19 years. The previous night, Andy used the rope to escape through the tunnel and prison sewage pipe, taking Norton's suit, shoes, and ledger, containing proof of the money laundering. While guards search for him, Andy poses as Randall Stephens, withdraws the laundered money from several banks, and mails the ledger and other evidence of the corruption and murders at Shawshank to a local newspaper. State police arrive at Shawshank and take Hadley into custody, while Norton commits suicide to avoid arrest.

After serving 40 years, Red is finally paroled. He struggles to adapt to life outside prison and fears that he never will. Remembering his promise to Andy, he visits Buxton and finds a cache containing money and a letter asking him to come to Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole by traveling to Fort Hancock, Texas, and crossing the border into Mexico, admitting that he finally feels hope. He finds Andy on a beach in Zihuatanejo, and the two reunited friends happily embrace.

And that was the Shawshank Redemption and its pretty easy to see why its regarded as a cinematic classic. Of course back when it came out it wasn't the classic that its regarded as now, many blame the stiff competition it faced when it was released being up against films like Pulp Fiction. Thankfully the film was rather popular on VHS which led to its classic status and now its regarded as one of the best films ever made, which I'm confident in saying, the world of cinema is richer for it.