Agenda of Shawshank Redemption, why Shawshank Redemption is so great

The great Durga Puja is around the corner, and with this festive mood, words decided to play a joyous incantation of a selective creation. So for this month's cinematic criticism, I chose the most well-known film, Shawshank Redemption. A significant number of people already cherished this film in their hearts without knowing about its true richness. Its plot, characters, story development, screenplay, and dialogues doubly exceeded a mediocre spectrum of a beautiful film. For a very detailed analysis of the film, let's follow its storyline first.

As it is a post about the inner world of the film, I will not warn you again about the spoiler issues. Obviously, go and see the movie first and then return to this blog to read it further. No one enjoys spoiling the fun of a great film, and I am no different.

Following the Story -

In 1947 Portland, Maine, banker Andy Dufresne is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at the Shawshank State Penitentiary. Andy is befriended by the contraband smuggler, Ellis "Red" Redding, an inmate serving a life sentence. Red procures a rock hammer and later a large poster of Rita Hayworth for Andy. Working in the prison laundry, Andy is regularly assaulted by "the Sisters" and their leader, Bogs. In 1949, Andy overheard the captain of the guards, Byron Hadley, who was complaining about being taxed on an inheritance. And he offers to help him legally shelter the money. After an assault by the Sisters that nearly kills Andy, Hadley beats Bogs severely. And his chapter ends there. Warden Samuel Norton meets Andy and reassigns him to the prison library to assist elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen. Andy's new job is a pretext for him to begin managing financial matters for the prison employees.

As time passes, the warden begins using Andy to handle matters for different people, including guards from other prisons and the warden himself. Andy begins writing weekly letters, asking the state government for funds to improve the decaying library. In 1954, Brooks is paroled. But he cannot adjust to the outside world after fifty years in prison and commits suicide by hanging himself. Andy receives a library donation that includes a recording of The Marriage of Figaro. He plays an excerpt over the public address system, resulting in him receiving solitary confinement. After his release, Andy explains that hope is his source of courage. It gets him through his time, a concept that Red dismisses. In 1963, Norton started exploiting prison labor for public works, profiting by undercutting skilled labor costs and receiving bribes. He has Andy launder the money using the alias Randall Stephens.

In 1965, They incarcerated Tommy Williams for burglary. Andy and Red befriend him, and Andy helps him to pass his GED exam. In 1966, Tommy reveals to Red and Andy that an inmate at another prison claimed responsibility for the murders for which Andy was convicted. Andy approaches Norton with this information, but he refuses to listen and sends Andy back to solitary confinement when he mentions money laundering.

Norton has Hadley murder Tommy under the guise of an escape attempt. Andy declines to continue the laundering but relents after Norton threatens to burn the library, remove Andy's protection from the guards, and move him to worse conditions. Andy is released from solitary confinement after two months. And he tells Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican coastal town. Red feels Andy is being unrealistic but promises Andy that if he is ever released, he will visit a specific hayfield near Buxton, Maine, and retrieve a package Andy buried there.

He worries about Andy's well-being, especially when he learns Andy asked another inmate to supply him with six feet (1.8 meters) of rope. The next day at roll call, the guards find Andy's cell empty. An irate Norton throws a rock at the poster of Raquel Welch hanging on the cell wall, revealing a tunnel that Andy dug with his rock hammer over the last 19 years.

The previous night, Andy escaped through the tunnel and prison sewage pipe, using the rope to bring Norton's suit, shoes, and the ledger containing details of the money laundering. While guards search for him, Andy poses as Randall Stephens and visits several banks to withdraw the laundered money, then mails the ledger and evidence of the corruption and murders at Shawshank to a local newspaper. FBI agents arrive at Shawshank and take Hadley into custody, while Norton commits suicide by shooting himself to avoid his arrest. After serving forty years, the Government paroled Red. He struggles to adapt to life outside prison and fears he never will.

Remembering his promise to Andy, he visits Buxton and finds a cache containing money and a letter asking him to come to Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole and travels to Fort Hancock, Texas, to cross the border to Mexico, admitting he finally feels hope. On a beach in Zihuatanejo, he finds Andy, and the two friends are happily reunited.

Analysis of the Film -

Can anyone guess a film which is grated for a host of obscenities, produced by a cast and crew of non-believers, and which paints the only Christian as evil hypocrite be, in fact, the greatest Christian movie ever made?

The Shawshank Redemption is one of Hollywood's most beloved films, according to public voting on IMDB. It ranks just above the Godfather in the number one spot. People are drawn to this film for its message of hope and enduring friendship.

There is a Christian act of redemption in the film. When Andy Dufresne escapes after 2 hours of screen time, 19 years in the story, it hits us as a miraculous twist. Escapes are endemic to prison films, viewers might have expected it. The work of the camera and screenplay of Shawshank Redemption turns attention elsewhere by the exceptional story development. Contrary to every expectation, the prisoners of Shawshank fear release. While they may hate the walls of the prison, they are not seeking to escape from it. They might turn up there for committing crimes and started to hate it at first. But with time, they felt more at home within the walls. Even they become accommodated with those walls. In Brooks's character, we get to see it.

After being locked up for 50 years, Brooks responds to his parole by attempting to kill a friend so he can stay behind bars. "I'm telling you these walls are funny" - for Brooks, 'Freedom' is as an exile to the world he doesn't belong. So when he ultimately finds himself in that exile, emptying alone, he sees no other option but to hang himself - this is the principal problem for the prisoners of Shawshank, and yet not for Andy Dufresne.

Andy comes to Shawshank as the innocent outsider and refuses to give up hope. He subverts the prison's dehumanizing system of rules and regulations. Extending to his fellow prisoners rare and extraordinary reminders of the outside world - 'cold beer after hot days work', 'angelic music over the prison speakers', 'new books to educate men', etc. Andy's strength derives from his innocence, but when at last the warden erases evidence of his innocence, Andy appears to succumb to the same institutional pessimism of his fellow prisoners.

"Andy comes down to the loading dock today he asked me for a length of rope, remember Brooks Hatlen? - no, and he'd never do that." He returns to a cell, and there appears to hang himself. And that is when the unexpected occurs. The next morning, the guards find that the cell is empty.

Here, readers, I implore you to stop and consider if you thought this film was just another prison flick, take another look at it. The film infuses Andy's escape with the symbolism of new birth. It proceeds through a woman's womb (PIPE) and ends with him something headfirst from the other end(PIPE's Opening). This symbolism fits within the film's larger allegory. Prisoners enter Shawshank like newborns naked and coated in white. They come to fear release with life's corresponding dread of death. In his escape, Andy is born again, becomes a new man spilling her little secret, a man nobody ever laid eyes on. His pro preach of the identity of wealthy McHugh is a master plan. He went abroad with a new persona. And here, he escapes the clutches of the warden. Finally, Andy passes judgment on the warden and his hypocritical system. In the end, the warden performs on himself the faith that only moments before he is assumed to be Andy's end.

Now, look at the empty cell again. It is an allusion to the empty tune, "Oh My Holy God". Andy's 'Escape' is an echo of Jesus's resurrection. But this alone isn't what makes Shawshank the greatest Christian movie ever. It is beyond the illusion where Shawshank touches people in a way that gospel films do not. Rather than ending with the resurrection, Shawshank went on to show why it matters to have a re-life. It is not by accident that Andy, the only innocent man in Shawshank, becomes the best friend of Red, the only guilty man. It is Red and not Andy who needs to be redeemed. Like Brooks, Red is institutionalized in three parole hearings - at the beginning, middle, and end of the film. It demonstrates Red's transformation. In his second hearing, he admits to no longer being a danger to society. It is not, as he is a better man but because, like Brooks, he no longer looks forward to the outside world. But it is Andy's miraculous escape and his life on the outside that redeems Red well.

In his final hearing, at last, Red speaks as a free man. He no longer cares whether he remains or goes, whether he lives or dies. The world outside no longer concerns him. As Andy lives, Red can face what the future holds. So when the time of release does come, it is hope and Andy that propels Red beyond Brooks's fate, having a life in a world beyond Shawshank.

It is obvious now why Red finds Andy working on the wood of a fishing boat all before an eternal sea. The Shawshank Redemption is a parable, and like the parables of Jesus, it had seeds that open in the right soil. You might find it hopeful, but it is fate that brings them together, the same fate that forms with their struggle. With living, they provide an ever-changing life.

So here it ends, another post concerning a movie. No doubt, Shawshank expels many films with its message of giving orientation, and I also find peace in writing about that orientation. I hope you liked reading my blogs. It is my only joy that you might find your joy in reading my words. And Thank you, see you in the next month.