The Shawshank Redemption

When it comes to films that most people consider to be the best, one that usually pops up on the is the 1994 prison film, The Shawshank Redemption. Based on the novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, written by beloved horror writer, Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption has continuously been considered not only the best Stephen King adaptation of all time, but one of the greatest films ever made. After being convicted to two consecutive life sentences after supposedly killing his wife and her lover, Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) is brought to Shawshank State Prison to live out the rest of his days surrounded by equally depressed inmates (some more dangerous than others) and abusive and corrupt prison guards. One light that comes from this experience is a friendship that blooms between Andy and fellow inmate, Red (played by Morgan Freeman), the prison’s contraband smuggler who feels repentance for his past crimes but is continually refused bail. While Red informs Andy about the way Shawshank operates as well as all the things to look out for, Andy’s distant attitude and unreadable expression makes him an intriguing prisoner for most of those working in Shawshank, especially Warden Samuel Norton (played by Bob Gunton) who finds Andy’s knowledge of banking details and legal ramifications surrounding money useful in his secret money laundering scheme. This provides him more benefits and safety from the prison guards, especially the captain of the guards, Byron Hadley (played by Clancy Brown), and yet Andy’s desire for freedom is all he seems to think about. While most of the other inmates have accepted their fates, and even Red acknowledges how those who leave are too institutionalized to survive in the real world (like himself), if Andy’s deceptively quiet demeanor hides his true intellect, is he hiding his own schemes to escape as well? Although it was a critical success upon release, the film was actually a box office failure and didn’t manage to get any Academy Awards from its seven nominations, and yet it is still held in such high regard. So the question is, what is its special secret?

There were a lot of factors going into why the film wasn’t a financial success; the film having to going up against similarly beloved Academy favorites like Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump, its lack of female characters causing a demographic split, its title appeared confusing for average moviegoers, and the most telling component was the general unpopularity of prison films. Taking all these into consideration, it didn’t manage to halt the film’s success from a critical standpoint and once casual audiences check it out, they too greatly admired the film and appreciated it regardless of those previously listed issues. Shawshank was a rare and even interesting source material to adapt as even Stephen King himself had no idea how his small and relatively minimal stakes novella could be turned into a film, but director Frank Darabont (who previously worked with King in his short film adaptation, The Woman in the Room) saw plenty of potential and set out to construct this film, expanding and adding a lot more components to the otherwise small story. It appeared to pay off as the changes made and additions were loved by not only the audience, but by King as well (being one of the few adaptations of his work that he actually likes). For a limited original source, the story is very well structured and paced out nicely to operate as this surprisingly hopeful and almost fantastical experience that very much transcends other prison-based stories of its kind. This film feels largely dissimilar to films like The Great Escape, Papillon, and Escape from Alcatraz, as the experience of escaping this prison is never the focal point of the narrative (if anything its ignored and used as a surprise tool for the ending), with Shawshank instead opting to take a more emotion-driven approach that makes the film feel more like a tall tale (which is an exaggeration of real events). Despite the oppressive environment, aggressive style and often times unpleasant and sorrowful content, the movie is strangely positive, upbeat and never feels hard to get through in comparison to other prison films which may have goofier aspects, but portray their content dead serious. Though Darabont had only directed one film prior (with his other work consisting of writing for films like The Blob, The Fly II, and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors), he does a very good job helming this film, capturing the messy side of the story while managing to channel the hopeful angle with a sappy edge without going too far overboard.

King has always had great positive qualities to his books that make him a very impressive author, and one element that he has usually always nailed (even in his lesser stories) is his lead characters and the connections that come between the characters. Since this is a film that doesn’t have any action, dramatic twists or supernatural world ending plots, the relationships between the characters is all that can be focused on, and this movie does it very well with two very well laid out and portrayed characters. If you didn’t manage to get good actors for these roles, a lot of their good qualities would go unnoticed, but both Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman really sell their parts, create a genuine friendship between the two, and say a lot with very little. Andy went through several different actors who could portray him with people like Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Paul Newman, Tom Hanks, Kevin Costner, Johnny Depp, Nicholas Cage, Charlie Sheen, and Tom Cruise all being candidates, but Tim Robbins really manages to capture the withdrawn nature of the role that most of these other actors arguably couldn’t have pulled off as well due to their larger-than-life personas. Through limited dialogue, a subtle delivery and just enough expression to not feel lifeless and depressed and just enough sparkle to carry hints of a deeper hidden identity, it’s a very well-handled performance. Its true that the movie could’ve benefited from never giving away whether or not he was guilty (like the opening was intentionally doing) as that confliction could’ve been really effective in this kind of film, but the trajectory it does take isn’t bad by any means, but definitely feels a lot more Hollywood. The villains of the story really suffer this the most sadly, both Clancy Brown and Bob Gunton feel like they could play legitimately great villains that fool themselves into believing they’re good while partaking in these awful corrupt schemes, but the film’s direction of going a bit too commercialized and even a little megalomaniac in parts, leaves these two just feeling like cartoon characters. Morgan Freeman’s portrayal of Red helped shape him as an actor into the stardom status he would gain in the future, and as a first major role, he handles it very nicely. Despite being an actor that usually plays himself over and over again (even if he does it effectively), this role feels like an extension of his usual persona and he truly feels like a man whose committed wrong in the past and is willing to move on even if he doesn’t know how too.

For a film about a prison that is meant to be claustrophobic and oppressive, there’s oddly a lot of sweeping shots that show off the expanse of this place a lot of times. Though this could be an issue, cinematographer Roger Deakins really knows how to compose his shots and how to make even the mundane look visually pleasing. This prison is very well shot and showcased in a way that shows off the repetitive dullness of the holding cells, but also the baroness of the outdoor sections which is large in size, but cramped in nature. Even the moments where its shot outside the prison, it feels grander and larger, like you truly feel the largeness of the space once you’ve been in this enclosed location for so long. The screenplay (also written by Darabont) could’ve very easily fallen into the author’s trap of being too dialogue heavy and not allowing for much visual direction to make it work as a film, but either through King’s impressive writing or just a good job of picking what to keep and what to leave out, the writing for this film is delightfully lyrical and not always the most realistic, but matches with the film’s tone and really plays up the hopeful even hoaky nature that this movie is trying to get across. Morgan Freeman narrating a good chunk of the movie is an effective way of getting out book dialogue and exposition without it feeling too out of place and random, and Freeman’s talent at narration really helps out in the long run. The score by Thomas Newman could very easily come across as overly sappy, wistful and in your face, but through limited use and the structure of tone balances it out just enough and results in it never overstaying its welcome.

The Shawshank Redemption is a very well-constructed movie from a technical level, arguably being one of the best made films ever in that regard, but its hard to pretend likes it’s the peak of cinematic creation. Even just ignoring personal preference or those already mentioned issue that kept people from seeing it when it came out, there are just bond to be people that won’t get into what this film is doing, even if they’re done perfectly fine. The Hollywood-ism of some of the story, the somewhat cartoonish characters, and the tone that can be a little overly sappy in parts, are things that aren’t fantastic about the film, but people still adore it regardless, and its more than likely that it comes down to the fact that this isn’t really a realistic movie. It’s a feelings movie in every meaning; the characters aren’t very deep, but they emote a lot, the story is relatively straightforward and a little too cliched in parts, but it carries a lot of emotional intrigue and will make people feel good come the end, and the writing does feel more like book dialogue than real people talking, but the lines are still good, well written and stay in people’s memories. Overall, Shawshank has an effect on people that could appeal to anyone if they’re in the right mindset and not wish to overthink something, and in that regard, the movie is handled very effectively. Ironically one of the more uplifting prison films as well as one of the more straightforward King stories (there’s no killer clown alien or time eating meatballs coming in to weird up this film), Shawshank can stand proud as easily one of the most beloved films of all time.