A Thorough Look at The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

See it twice.

Thirty Second Review: The Shawshank Redemption is a fantastic film. Nominated for seven Oscar awards, the compelling drama of Andy Dufresne and Ellis “Red” Redding tells a simple yet powerful story. The film takes an interesting view at criminals, prisoners, and the world that surrounds them. As Andy continues his journey through prison life, he helps dozens of lives, but it comes at a high cost. The theme of hope is prevalent throughout the story.  It’s this theme that propels some characters while it kills others.

Spoilers beyond this poster.

Log Line: In the year 1947 a wrongly convicted murder places Andy Durfresne in prison, where he’s forced to deal with both friendly and hostile inmates as well as a corrupt prison warden, a sadistic police officer, and the overall culture of prison life.

Synopsis: Andy Dufresne was a successful banker and a married man.  One night after a heated argument about his wife’s recently discovered infidelity she leaves him to stay with her lover, golf professional Mr. Quentin. The morning after her departure both Andy’s wife and her lover were found murdered, and Andy became the prime suspect. He maintained his innocence, but the judge and jury convicted him of the crime. Andy received two life sentences.  Andy is now brought to Shawshank Prison where he meets a wide arrangement of fellow inmates, and becomes friends with Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding and the prisoner’s only librarian, Brooks Hatlen. Red helps Andy get used to prison life, and during his first two years he is abused by a group of violent homosexuals, known as The Sisters. When the warden Samuel Norton learns of Andy’s intelligence as a banker, he does two things: He has Officer Hadley beat the leader of The Sisters into paralysis, and moves Andy from doing laundry to another type of laundry; filtering dirty money through Shawshank. Andy justifies this as the warden in turn allows him to build a library. As the library begins to come together, Brooks is released on parole after fifty years in prison. Although Brooks tries to adapt to a much faster world, he is overcome by the outside. Stricken with grief and fear, Brooks hangs himself. As Andy dedicated the final touches of the library in the name Brooks Hatlen, Andy begins helping a new inmate named Tommy who is looking to get his high school equivalency degree. Tommy becomes equally important to Andy as Tommy tells Andy and Red about his cell mate in a previous prison who gloated about killing a golf pro and a bankers wife.  As Andy asks the Warden’s permission to investigate the matter, Norton locks him up in a black room known as The Hole. During this time Norton talks to Tommy and asks him if he’s telling truth, and would further testify to that truth in court. When Tommy says he would want to set Andy free, Norton has Officer Hadley kill Tommy. When Andy is released from The Hole and hears about Tommy’s death, he completes something he has been doing all along and escapes from Shawshank Prison. Andy had used a small hammer he bought from Red and began carving away at the rock wall nearly twenty years before Tommy’s murder, and used large posters to hide the hole. After Andy escapes Red is released after forty years of a life sentence. Red comes close to suicide, as he has spent the majority of his life in prison. However Andy and Red reunite in the small Mexican town Zihuatanejo.

Genre: Drama

Storytelling

Prologue:

The beginning of The Shawshank Redemption establishes the protagonist Andy Dufresne and why he’s in a courtroom. Andy is on trial for the murder of his wife and the professional golf player with which she was having an affair. The night of the murder Andy learned about his wife’s infidelity and she said she was leaving to stay with Mr. Quentin. Andy admitted to being intoxicated and following them to the cottage where the two of them were residing. The morning after both Andy’s wife and Mr. Quentin were found murdered in the cottage. Although there was no gun and he pleaded not guilty, the circumstantial evidence convicted Andy Dufresne for two life sentences.

Act I:

The beginning of the first act shows a different but equally cold scenario. Instead of a court room, the door opens and there is a conference room. On the far wall there are six men and women in suits, sitting behind a sturdy oak table. The guard opening the door is accompanying an older black man in prison clothing. He is told to sit. The parole board states the prisoners name as Ellis Boyd Redding, and he has served twenty years of a life sentence. In this parole hearing Red is asked if he feels he’s been rehabilitated. Red quickly swears up and down he has been rehabilitated and is no longer a danger to society. Red’s parole is rejected.

After he is let back out into the prison courtyard, Red meets with a number of friends. The group is standing on an elevated piece of land, where they see a prison van coming up through a gated pathway.  As the prisoners are being released, Red and his friends begin betting their cigarettes on the new fish. Each time a group of new fish comes into the prison one of them always breaks down crying. In this case Red bet on Andy Dufresne. After lights out in the prison, whoever bet on the first new fish to cry wins the bet. As a prisoner breaks down, Officer Byron Hadley comes into the prison corridors. The bet goes sour from here, as Byron threatens the crying new fish if he does not shut up. As the prisoner continues to sob, Byron opens the gate to the prisoner’s cell and beats him into a coma. The sobbing new fish died from his injuries the following morning.

The first month Andy spends in prison is in silence, and only breaks it then to speak to Red. Red is a kind of prison merchant, a man who can get the convicts products outside of Shawshank, for the cost of the product plus twenty percent. Andy asks Red if he can get him a rock hammer. Red is initially skeptical about this product, as it could be used as a weapon. Red finds this alarming as he notes The Sisters have seemed to cultivate an affection towards Andy, especially the group leader Boggs. Red explains The Sisters are a group of violent homosexuals. Andy swears to not use the rock hammer as a weapon, and Red reluctantly agrees to help him.

For a couple of years, Andy’s life consisted of doing laundry and dealing with The Sisters. Sometimes Andy could fight them off, other times they overpowered him. In 1949 the roof of a prison building needed tarring. It was during the summer and over a hundred applicants were trying for the twelve positions. Red bribed the guards with a pack of cigarettes for him and each one of his friends. In the remaining spots, Andy was also selected. During the tarring process, the prisoners overhear their supervisor, Byron Hadley, talk about his brothers death. His brother was a millionaire and left Hadley thirty-five thousand dollars. Hadley finds this bittersweet as taxes will take a large portion of his money. At this point, Andy drops his tar mop, walks up to the guards and asks Byron if he trusts his wife. Byron assumes Andy is being smart with him and is about to throw him off a roof. Andy quickly explains the IRS allows a one time gift to a spouse for up to sixty thousand dollars. Andy assures Byron the IRS cannot take one cent, but he’ll need to file the proper paperwork. Andy is willing to do this and in exchange asks for three beers apiece for each of his co-workers. Byron agreed, and Andy made a positive impact on the guards, the convicts, and even the warden.

After the tarring event Andy and Red become fast friends. Andy begins asking Red about what crime he committed, and Red says he’s also been convicted for murder. Unlike the majority of Shawshank Prisoners, Red admits he’s guilty of the terrible crime. Weeks after the tarring event, Andy is ambushed by The Sisters. In his struggle he breaks one of The Sisters’ noses and they proceed to beat Andy, who is hospitalized from the incident. Boggs received a week in what’s called The Hole, a dark room that is approximately the size of a coffin. When Boggs is released and goes back to his cell Byron Hadley and a fellow officer are waiting for him. When the two officers are finished with Boggs, two results occurred: The Sisters never hurt Andy again, and Boggs was paralyzed and transferred to a hospital prison.

Act II

After Andy is released form the hospital, Warden Norton asked to see him. Norton and Andy quickly reach an unspoken agreement. Andy would be taken out of the laundry room and allowed to work with the old librarian Brooks, and Norton will be able to use his accounting skills for cheap pay.  After several years of working with Brooks and doing tax returns for the entire prison staff every April, Brooks is holding a knife to the throat of Red’s friend, Haywood. Red and Andy talk Brooks down, and Haywood tells them that Brooks has been released on parole. Brooks is devastated about this information, and it becomes apparent that Brooks is institutionalized. Red’s group later receives a letter from Brooks, telling them about life on the outside. He talks about how fast the world moves, and how he now spends his life in fear. This overwhelming fear crushes any hope that was left in Brooks, and he commits suicide.

Act III

As Andy continues working in the library, he been spending years sending letters to the senate asking for funds. One day he receives a surprise as the past six years of has finally paid off. The state senate gave him a check for two hundred dollars and a number of second-hand books. However Andy continues to send letters and soon the state agrees to giving him a yearly check, as long as he stops sending letters. With the library in fruition and Brooks still on the minds of the group, Andy begins talking about hope and its use on the inside. Red disagrees, saying hope gives false pretenses and can drive a prisoner to madness. Andy notes that Brooks lost hope, and the sore spot makes Red leave the table.  Not long after Red is up for his thirty year parole hearing. His speech is the same as before, but it sounds remarkably different. Red’s voice is monotone, his eyes glaze over, and he knows he is not receiving parole.

After Red’s rejection, Warden Norton begins an inside out work program that turns the prisoners into a pool of slave labor. Norton uses them to underbid other contractors, and the money begins flowing in at prodigious rates. Through each deal, Andy is still keeping the books. Andy tells Red about this, and Red brings up the concern of a paper trail. Red believes if someone were to catch on Norton would be in prison as well. Andy tells Red there is a silent partner. Andy goes on to explain that the partner, Randall Stevens, is completely fictional. By use of mail Andy has given Randall Stevens a birth certificate and a driver’s license.

With the library completed, a new inmate comes to Shawshank. His name is Tommy, and he has been in and out of prisons since he was thirteen. Andy suggests he should try a new line of work, and in time Tommy takes him up on the offer. Andy agrees to help Tommy with his high school equivalency test, and spends the next year helping Tommy prepare for the exam. Shortly after Tommy’s exam, Tommy asks Red why Andy is in prison. Red tells him about Andy’s wife and the golf professional. Tommy is disturbed by this information and immediately brings both Andy and Red to a remote part of the library. He tells them that four years prior to his sentence in Shawshank he received a cellmate by the name of Elmo Blatch. As Elmo constantly talked about his criminal life, he told Tommy about robbing a golf professionals house. According to Elmo the golf professional gave him a problem during the robbery, so he killed him and the woman he was with, and they pinned the murders on her husband, a banker.

Andy immediately goes to Warden Norton about the story, but Norton remains strangely doubtful. Norton believes Tommy was trying to make Andy feel better about his unfortunate story. When Andy insists about investigating the matter, Norton begins to grow irritated. Andy presses further and promises he would never tell anyone about the money laundering that goes on in the prison, and Norton becomes irate. He puts Andy in The Hole for a month. During this time, Norton holds an evening meeting with Tommy in a remote outside prison courtyard. Norton asks Tommy if what he said was the truth, and if would be willing to testify in a court. Tommy is more than willing to help clear Andy’s name. Norton smiles at Tommy’s adamant feelings, and looks up towards a balcony. On the balcony is Officer Hadley, who shoots Tommy four times in the back with a sniper rifle. At the end of Andy’s month, Norton speaks about Tommy’s tragic death. Andy refuses to run his scams any longer, and Norton tells him if the scams stop the library will be destroyed, and Andy will be removed form his own personal cell and placed in horrible living conditions. Norton has the guard leave Andy in the hole for another month to think over the proposition.

When Andy is release, both he and Red are sitting in the prison courtyard leaning against a piece of moss-covered stone wall. Andy is no longer speaking or acting in his normal fashion. It seems the two months in The Hole and Tommy’s murder is getting the best of him, and he begins blaming himself for pushing his wife away. Andy tells Red if he could get out, he would go to Zihuatanejo. It’s a town in Mexico, right by the clear blue Pacific Ocean. Andy asks Red if he’ll ever get out, and Red says by the time they let him out he’ll be institutionalized. At this point Andy begins pacing and asks Red to do him a favor, and go to Buxton. He tells him there is a particular hayfield that has a rock wall, and one of the rocks is a drastically different color. Andy tells Red there is something under the rock that he wants Red to have, but the only way to find out is to go to Buxton.

Later that day Red is talking to some of his friends about Andy’s odd behavior. Haywood then tells Red how Andy came to the loading dock and asked for six feet of rope. Haywood gave it to him not thinking what he might do with it. After a sleepless night in his cell, Red nearly jumps out into the corridor in the morning roll call. Andy does not come out of his cell. When an officer goes to see what the hold up is about, a startling truth hits the officer: The cell is  empty. Norton immediately begins questioning the guards and Red, trying to figure out how Andy got out and where he could have went. Through luck Norton punctured one of Andy’s large posters, and it revealed a hole in the cell. Norton ripped off the poster and learned it was hiding a hole just big enough for Andy to fit through and escape through the adjacent sewer pipes.  A manhunt occurs immediately, but all they find of Andy is his muddy clothes and a disfigured rock hammer.

At this point the story flashes back to Andy on one of his earlier nights in Shawshank.  He is seen carving his name into the wall with the rock hammer, and as he does a fist sized chunk of the wall falls onto the floor. Andy realizes this will be his escape, but needs a gigantic poster to hide the man-made hole. After this the story comes back to the present moment, where a man no one ever met stepped into a national bank. His name was Randall Stevens. He had proper forms of identification, and withdrew every cent of Warden Norton’s money, over 370,000 dollars. Andy also sent a letter to a newspaper, telling a reporter about the corruption and murder that occurred in the walls of The Shawshank Prison. No sooner did Norton get back to his office after the escape, he saw the front page. At this point police arrive to the prison, where they arrest Byron Hadley on site. Norton locked himself in his office and before he could be apprehended, Norton committed suicide.

Epilogue

Not long after Norton’s suicide Red had his forty year parole hearing. When Red is asked if he feels he has been rehabilitated, Red simply scoffs at the word and said he has no idea what it means. He cuts off the parole counselor’s  definition, saying the word is made up. He insinuates they want to know if he’s sorry for what he’s done. He tells the parole board he feels regret every day for the crime he committed, and wishes he could take it back. He ends the conversation very abruptly, and expects to be taken back to his cell. Much to his surprise, his parole is granted.

As Red is on the outside, he is almost lost in the fear that took Brooks’ life. The only thing that saved him was his promise to Andy. Red hitchhikes to Buxton and finds what Andy has left for him. There are two envelopes wrapped in a piece of plastic. One is filled with hundreds of dollars, while the other is a letter. The letter asks Red since he was willing to go to Buxton, he may be willing to go to the town of Zihuatanejo. Red breaks his parole and manages to get across the border.

Andy is on a beach, scrubbing down an old and beaten boat. He looks down the beach and sees Red walking towards him. The two embrace in a hug, and the camera takes a long look at the ocean before fading to black.

Sight and Color Palette:

The overwhelming majority of the film is in the colors blue and gray. The police are in blue, and the prisoners have blue jeans and blue undershirts. Andy also has blue eyes, and the color blue has significance in meaning. Andy talks about the color of the blue ocean and how it has no memory. The color allows for serenity and a place to restart life. The other primary color is gray, as it’s the color of the outer wear of the prisoner, and is the color of most suits seen in the film. Gray is also the color of the stone prison, and its dull gray gives an exceptionally drab emotion. I believe these were efficient colors, especially because this was a drama film. If it were an action movie I would expect to see more vibrant colors to express the life in the actors and setting around them. The few areas that were not blue and gray are either red clay fields, or an occasional moss covered stone. I believe these colors stop objects or attire from getting lost in a frame of blue and gray. I find the use of multiple colors critical as a scene can be ruined if a person’s body melds into the background, giving them the appearance of a floating head.

Camera Work and Motion:

The camera work in this film is very traditional. It appears every scene is shot on a tripod, and the frequent cuts are clean. There are no whip pans, shaky cam, or zoom ins. The few tracking shots lasting longer than a few seconds are completed on a camera dolly. As the film looks over a nineteen year time span I believe this was a good choice in cinematography. The film is itself a highlight reel of a heroes journey through a torturous setting. I also believe Andy’s quiet demeanor and often concealed emotions would not have been accepted as well had they been shot in a less traditional and more emotive format.

Space:

The space and the setting in The Shawshank Redemption is in great contrast. The courtyards are open and the halls are often large, yet the courtyards are filled with imposing prison buildings and the halls seem small as they are crammed with people.  Human beings that walk around the area are often seen as insignificant in comparison to the size of each setting. I find this a basic but well thought concept. The aesthetic of the prison system nullifies a person’s humanity. They are given no choices and designated serial numbers, so an imposing and heartless prison that does not give the feeling of freedom would assist this visual aesthetic.

Sound:

The major music theme in the film is sorrowful. Each line of music has a mournful tone and before transferring into dialogue, the music generally ends on a dissonant note. It’s only the last few scenes that the music begins to have a more uplifting tone, as if a non verbal way to tell the viewer that they can relax about the fate of Red and Andy. Sounds in the film itself are often made by the characters. The sounds of a film reel fluttering, Andy being beaten, or Red playing a harmonica are also done well. I feel the reason these were accomplished sounds was due to the fact the sounds did not border into excessive. The noises are there to assist the actors, not become the main part of the story. I also enjoyed the film’s staying true to the time period with the opening song “If I Didn’t Care” by The Ink Spots. This ballad was a popular song during the late 1940s.

Lighting:

The use of lighting in this film was in the style of heightened reality. It was not the kind of light aesthetic seen in Sin City (2005) and The Watchmen (2009) but the film seemed to rarely use natural lighting. Many scenes highlighted only half of Red’s face, or the sun would lowly glow around Andy’s head and arms on top of the tarred roof. I believe out of the three choices, heightened reality was the best lighting choice. The film did not have a supernatural or graphic novel aesthetic, and at the same time it was not the kind of visceral film that almost requires natural lighting to enhance reality.

Final Thoughts:

The Shawshank Redemption has a powerful story with two imperfect yet mesmerizing characters. Andy does indeed become a crooked accountant in prison, and Red did commit murder as a young man. Despite these major flaws it seems they can appeal to viewers from multiple generations. The iconic voice narration by Morgan Freeman and the screenplay by Frank Darabont gave the film a fantastic style that I believe was both a fantastic film and a stepping stone for their careers. Morgan Freeman’s narration and acting only became better with Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Darabont continued with an Academy Award nominated screenplay for The Green Mile (1999).