Iconic film

Rating: Null/10 (19 March 2017)

The Shawshank Redemption is easily one of the greatest films ever made. We see the survival of an innocent prisoner over a period of time who survives with the power of hope. From the effortless acting, a near perfect story, great filming and symbolism this film is a treasure and hits it out of the park.
The filming techniques used were masterful. Darabont uses various camera angles and shots to give an image of an institution and explore one of the themes of institutionalism. Andy uses hope to free himself, the pickaxe is a symbol of that hope and the projects such as the library are the ways he sustains himself. In some ways he makes prison life more humane by getting beers for his inmates and playing Mozart for the prison in iconic shot showing the inmates stunned when they hear it. Although we see him escape in an iconic scene we have to understand that he had freed himself and even if he spent time in the hole he was not institutionalised. However Brooks was not able to overcome this and could not survive life outside the institution and its rules, it had consumed him. We have seen this theme in other films where just like it got the better of Brooks it got the better of McMurphy in One flew over the cuckoo's nest. We see and feel the overpowering and grey on grey prison. One of the most beautiful moments in the film and probably film history is Andy's statement that he had to come to prison to become a crook. The corruption within the large prison walls is carefully explored by Darabont.
The only tragedy is that this film won 0 Oscars. A film with a plot that was flawless and stood the test of time. A film that was ahead of its time. At least the other biggest Oscar snub in history which occurred for Goodfellas at least resulted in one Oscar being claimed by the film. The Shawshank Redemption deserved to clean up at the Oscars.