![]() ![]() We see him at three parole hearings, after 20, 30 and 40 years. ![]() ![]() The Morgan Freeman character is carrier of the film's spiritual arc. The camera doesn't focus on Andy's wounds or bruises, but, like his fellow prisoners, gives him his space. The movie avoids lingering on Andy's suffering after beatings, he's seen in medium and long shot, tactfully. The moments of violence (as when Andy is sexually assaulted) are seen objectively, not exploited. But much of the movie involves quiet, solitude, and philosophical discussions about life. It does have entertaining payoff moments (as when the guards from another prison, wearing their baseball uniforms, line up to have Andy do their taxes). Maybe it plays more like a spiritual experience than a movie. Polls and rentals reflect popularity but don't explain why people value "Shawshank" so fervently. When the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the "Shawshank" groundswell in April 1999, it was occupying first place in the Internet Movie Database worldwide vote of the 250 best films it's usually in the top five. ![]() Within five years, "Shawshank" was a phenomenon, a video best seller and renter that its admirers feel they've discovered for themselves. Instead, in one of the most remarkable stories in home video history, it found its real mass audience on tapes and discs, and through TV screenings. If it had been left to find its way, it might have continued to build and run for months, but that's not what happened. Clearly this was a movie that needed word-of-mouth to find an audience, and indeed business was slowly but steadily growing when it was yanked from theaters. There wasn't much going for it: It had a terrible title, it was a "prison drama" and women don't like those, it contained almost no action, it starred actors who were respected but not big stars, and it was long at 142 minutes. It got good reviews but did poor business (its $18 million original gross didn't cover costs it took in only another $10 million after winning seven Oscar nominations, including best picture). "The Shawshank Redemption" premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 1994, and opened a few weeks later. But there's a hunger for messages of hope, and when a film offers one, it's likely to have staying power even if it doesn't grab an immediate audience. Films about "redemption" are approached with great wariness a lot of people are not thrilled by the prospect of a great film - it sounds like work. People like excitement at the movies, and titles that provide it do well. Did he really kill those two people? Why does he keep so much to himself? Why can he amble through the prison yard like a free man on a stroll, when everyone else plods or sidles? If Andy had been the heroic center, bravely enduring, the film would have been conventional, and less mysterious. The key to the film's structure, I think, is that it's not about its hero, but about our relationship with him - our curiosity, our pity, our admiration. "I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really," he tells Red. We've been shown by Andy's example that you have to keep true to yourself, not lose hope, bide your time, set a quiet example and look for your chance. He's the one we identify with, and the redemption, when it comes, is Red's. It is his voice remembering the first time he saw Andy ("looked like a stiff breeze would blow him over"), and predicting, wrongly, that he wouldn't make it in prison.įrom Andy's arrival on the prison bus to the film's end, we see only how others see him - Red, who becomes his best friend, Brooks the old librarian, the corrupt Warden Norton, guards and prisoners. The film's opening scene shows him being given two life sentences for the murder of his wife and her lover, and then we move, permanently, to a point of view representing the prison population and particularly the lifer Ellis 'Red' Redding ( Morgan Freeman). Interesting that although the hero of the film is the convicted former banker Andy Dufresne ( Tim Robbins), the action is never seen from his point of view. It is deeper than most films about continuity in a lifetime, based on friendship and hope. It uses the narrator's calm, observant voice to include us in the story of men who have formed a community behind bars. Many movies offer us vicarious experiences and quick, superficial emotions. It is a strange comment to make about a film set inside a prison, but "The Shawshank Redemption" creates a warm hold on our feelings because it makes us a member of a family. ![]()
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