Amazing Hopeful

Rating: 10/10 (26 June 2014)

The Shawshank redemption is about a man who is wrongly accused of murdering his wife and her lover and sentenced to life in prison. In prison the man makes friends with the inmates while improving the prison's library. He also gives financial advice to the prison security guards and personnel. The theme of this film, The Shawshank Redemption, is about finding friendship and having hope while being at a hard time in your life. Andy Dufresne is play by Tim Robbins and is the main character who is accused of murdering his wife and her lover in a jealous rage. Morgan Freeman also plays a huge part in this film as Ellis "Red" Boyd. Ellis or Red as he preferred to be called in the film is Andy's best friend in prison. There are five main plot points in my opinion within this film. These points include when the inmates are betting on the new arrivals, when some of the inmates are re-tarring the roof on one of the buildings, when new library books finally arrive after all of Andy's attempts, and when the warden of Shawshank discovers that Andy has escaped. This films theme is similar to the retelling of the mythical story of "Perseus" by author Edith Hamilton. There are several techniques that were used throughout this film but a few really caught my attention. The first technique is a motif, this is the repeated showing of the crow that Brooks rescued and raised. The birds represent a hopefulness of freedom but it also represented the loss of hope after prison. When Brooks is released, he also sets "Jake" the crow free and continues to look for him in a park nearby hoping that he will return to him. However, when Jake does not return it represents the loss of hope in Brooks for life after prison. Another technique that attributed to the emotions of the film was the lighting aspects. In the scene after Andy escapes where he is standing in water while it is raining with his arms spread wide, the light is directed down on him with his back in the shadows. This lighting technique in this scene adds to the feeling of triumph, of hope and of freedom. This film absolutely reflects the feeling of hope onto the viewers.