Film Analysis

Rating: 10/10 (4 May 2015)

The Shawshank Redemption is a film that plays out the story of Red's, Morgan Freemans, experiences, encounters, and friendships while imprisoned for murder. Red begins with his first encounter of Andy Dufresne, Tim Robbins. Andy was quit peculiar in the way in which he carried himself and his quietness, which intrigued Red. Andy requested a rock hammer from Red, from then on Andy and Red's friendship began to grow. The film shows the hardships prisoners experience, including being jumped and raped by the "Sisters." But the film also displays what good can be done within the prison, such as Andy, an experience banker, volunteering to do taxes and give financial advice to the guards in return for a better life behind bars for him and his friends. Andy uses his privilege to rejuvenate the prison's library and offering assistance to prisoners to obtain there high school equivalency. The film is spanned out over 40 years, showing the long term sentences these men have served. There are several themes as work in this film, but the most prominent one is the power of hope. Throughout the movie, glimmers of hope are expressed by the men but then soon shattered. The beginning scene of the bet of which "New fish" would cry was soon realized to be cruel and led to a prisoner's death. Throughout the movie, Red (Freeman) had lost all hope. Red displayed this loss of hope with his uncaring attitude displayed at his parole hearings. He had no motivation to express to the board that he was a changed man and was ready to return back to society. He said the same speech at almost every hearing which lead to his denial until he later regained hope for a brighter future and spoke of his regret to the parole board. Hope was also displayed through music, the singing French woman and the harmonica. A glimmer of hope was displayed for Red when his friend escaped prison, this hope grew when he was unexpectedly granted parole. Through Red's narrative, it seemed as his Red's fate was to be the same as Brooks, "Institutionalized," but Red prevailed and pursued his long lost friend, Andy. The letter that Andy left for Red under the lava glass near the oak tree stated, "Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." This changed Red, he now understood the saying "Either get busy living, or get busy dying," and he chose life. Symbols used throughout the film were rocks and pinup posters of iconic women. Rocks were used ultimately to hide the true purpose of the rock hammer, but they were also a symbol of hope and normalcy. The posters of the iconic women, such as Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe, were posters to cover up Andy's true desire which was to escape this unjust imprisonment and return to his normal life.
An example of good sound effects is the scenes leading up to Brooks' demise. The sound effects create a sense of understanding and realism; soft music is played as her narrates his final letter to his friends back at prison. Shots of the hustle and bustle of the city, cars whizzing by and honking at Brooks, the noisy and bossy grocery manager. In the final scene of him committing suicide, the noise of his pocket knife is very prominent and creak of the chair as he mounts it to carve his name in the rafter, and the sound of the chair being kicked away and the tension on the rope is heard. This is very realistic and somber. The music is soft which created an emotion of sadness and does not drown out the important subtle noises.
A movie that shares some of the same themes and motifs is Green fried Tomatoes, this film portrays a significant amount of time and displays the power of hope as well.
In conclusion, this film displays the power of hope and how it effects people when hope is lost. Andy's unwavering hope brings "light" to others around him, possibly saving their lives.