The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Directed by Frank Darabont               Drama/Crime              PG-13              2h 22m

I first saw The Shawshank Redemption on January 11^th, 2019. I was at home, recovering from my first knee surgery and my mother was teaching an evening class over at Benedictine. When my father got home from work, he fed the animals, came in, joined me in the back room, and showed me what he said was one of his favorite movies. It was an experience somewhat like when he first showed me To Kill a Mockingbird almost ten years earlier, and the experience was just as impactful, for to this day, I believe The Shawshank Redemption is one of the most remarkable movies in existence.

Let me be clear from the start; I don’t love The Shawshank Redemption simply because it’s one of my father’s favorite movies, or because it is one of the few times in my life that I watched him cry (I can admit I did, as well, and still do whenever I watch it). The reasons I love Shawshank go beyond personal sentimentality, although it is a deeply sentimental film. Every single element involved in the filmmaking, from the adaptation from Steven King’s short story to the genius cinematography, the store by Thomas Newman, and especially from being one of the most superbly cast movies in recent memory, The Shawshank Redemption has solidified itself within popular culture, as being a modern masterpiece of American film.

It does seem rather odd that a film set, almost entirely in prison turns out to give audiences a truly emotional viewing experience, and leave them with, arguably one of the most uplifting endings. Despite brutal depictions of life behind bars, and the dehumanizing effects of institutionalization, and the many injustices of the American prison system, The Shawshank Redemption somehow manages to create a sense of familiarity, and almost comfort within its main characters, particularly between Andy (Tim Robbins) and Red (Morgan Freeman). Even prior to Andy’s arrival, Red’s narration of the story makes us feel like we have known this man for many years. While Red bares the honesty of his guilt, and the remorse of his crimes from many years earlier, we just cannot help but feel for him, and admire the wisdom he carries with him as the result of his life having taken a tragic turn. Andy, on the other hand, is not entirely someone the audience trusts right away. The film’s prologue leaves us to wonder, despite watching him leave the scene of the crime, whether he is innocent, as he repeatedly states, or if he is in fact guilty of the double-murder that led to his sentence. This is where the brilliance of pairing Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins carries the script. Freeman is the ideal Red, a humorous, comforting presence while Robbins, always appearing to look slightly off into the distance, carries about him a sense of unease and mystery. Yet when Red tells his audience, “I liked Andy from the start”, we know that we can trust the newcomer into this eccentric group of inmates. Still, Robbins manages to keep us at an arms’ length away from Andy, until we get to the rooftop scene where, upon striking a deal to assist a corrupt guard with hiding money, in exchange for beers for his friends, Andy sits in the shade, with a slight grin on his face, because, as Red tells us, “. . .he did it to feel normal again”. Only when we get to this particular scene, do we realize that we are not watching a movie about brutality, or a movie about prison, but rather, we’re watching a friendship evolve into brotherhood.

I could gush continuously about the dialogue, and of course, Thomas Newman’s score, with tracks I listen to daily as I sit down to do schoolwork. But Shawshank deserves much more than what I can write. Even Frank Darabont constructed the film to seem almost like an observance of the unfolding story, and not be the story itself. There are no slick camera shots, aside from the beforementioned pan over the prison, nor is there any truly innovative filmmaking technique at play. Darabont quite literally lets the story speak directly to its audiences, to the extent that once we reach the film’s final moments, only then do we understand what freedom actually meant to these two characters we had been following over the story’s span of 19 years.

The Shawshank Redemption is a film that lingers deep within the hearts of its viewers long after the credits roll. It makes itself a modern epic, out of the most intimate elements of human endurance. It presents the possibility for redemption against insurmountable odds and challenges us to contemplate the meaning of freedom. But, in one of the most spectacular endings of all time, Shawshank allows us to finally, and fully escape the seemingly inescapable cruelty and corruption in our world. It reminds us, that in the darkest corners of existence, there is still hope. And when Red and Andy see each other again, after refusing to let the harsh realities of the world break them down, do we finally understand whatThe Shawshank Redemption is truly about, and why it has endured for twenty-nine years, and will endure for many, many more. It can be summed up perfectly, in the final word spoken in the film: “hope”.

Now, that is art at its finest.

★★★★★

“The Shawshank Redemption” is available to rent/purchase on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and Vudu.