Hope, Despair, Assimilation and Rejection

Rating: 10/10 (20 November 2003)

Spoiler!! The philosophical ebbs and flows of The Shawshank Redemption make it the finest movie of the last ten years. Andy is a ping pong ball of hope and despair, of assimilation and rejection. The same is true of Red, but the philosophical contrast between the two, and the way each is forced to consider the other's viewpoint, is why this movie's message is so poignantly delivered.
Andy, in his earliest prison days, is a loner, whose hope that his nightmarish incarceration will not prove real delays his assimilatation into the culture and society of Shawshank. Ultimately, though, while clinging to an inner belief that Shawshank is not home, he realizes that, in assimilation, lies his only hope of coping with prison life.
Contrastingly, Red, a long-term inmate whose once-a-decade parole rejections have become a ritual reminder of the fact that he has no hope of getting out of prison, has assimilated to the fullest possible extent, and clearly views Shawshank as home.
Each is frequently exposed to the viewpoint of the other. Red expresses concern when Andy dreams of life in Mexico, but Andy takes exception when Red proclaims himself to be dependent on Shawshank for his livelihood. Red, in essence, suggests that Andy accept Shawshank as home.
Red is selling despair and assimilation to Andy, but Andy is selling hope and rejection to Red. When Andy escapes from Shawshank, Red's chance to sell Shawshank to Andy evaporates, but it's impossible to tell whether Andy has reached Red or not, and it appears that it doesn't really matter.
The brilliant twist toward the end of The Shawshank Redemption is that it is the manifestation of his despair to the parole board that results in Red's parole. Even in parole, however, Red finds despair in assimilation, the same despair that prompted Brooks to commit suicide some years earlier. Only when he reads the note Andy left for him in the hayfields of Buxton is Red presented with a chance to pursue a course of hope and rejection.
Rejection, in this case, means parole violation, and results directly from Red's, seemingly unprecedented, hope for a happy life. When Red acts on his impulse and travels to Mexico to, presumably, live out his life alongside the greatest friend he has ever known, he, finally, buys into Andy's philosophies about hope, despair, assimilation and rejection.

In doing so, he provides a happy ending to a film that may live on forever due to the criticality of its subject matter and its masteful delivery of its message.