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The Shawshank Redemption: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"[[Koan|Get busy living... or get busy dyin']]."''}}
''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]'' is a 1994 drama film based on [[Stephen King]]'s novella ''Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption''; it stars [[Tim Robbins]] and [[Morgan Freeman]].
In 1947, young banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is found guilty of the murder of his wife and her lover; he is sentenced to life in prison, and his sentence is to be served at Maine's Shawshank penitentiary. The conditions are terrible, many of his fellow prisoners are sadistic, and many of the guards are even worse -- but life begins to look up as Dufresne becomes acquainted with an old black con, Ellis Redding ([[Morgan Freeman]], the character also serves as the movie's narrator), commonly referred to as Red. A friendship begins after Red, "the man who knows how to get things", procures a rock hammer for Dufresne, an object he wishes to own in order to carve a soapstone chess set. The friendship will only strengthen over the coming years.
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Twenty years pass within the prison walls, showing the growth and strength of Andy and Red's friendship, Andy's various attempts to better the life of his fellow inmates through education (facilitated by the financial advice he gives the prison's corrupt warden and guards), the quest to prove his innocence, and the attempt to remain mentally free and hopeful even when surrounded by the crushing gray of prison walls.
This movie exemplifies the potential gap between [[Vindicated by History|initial box office success and ultimate popularity]]. Back in 1994, it earned just over $28 million at the US box office; it was only the 52nd most successful film of its year. Despite the lukewarm box office reception (mainly due to its [[Word Salad Title]] and the distinct [[Sex Sells|lack of female cast members]]), ''Shawshank'' received favorable reviews from critics and has since enjoyed a remarkable life on cable television and home video. Media magnate Ted Turner loved the film so much that he purchased the TV rights and showed it on one of his cable stations literally every weekend for years, which helped the film earn back its budget and give it the mainstream recognition it never received while in theaters. ''Shawshank'' continues to be hailed by critics and audiences alike even today -- it is often ranked amongst the greatest films of all time, and it is often found leading the [[IMDb|Internet Movie Database's]] poll of top 250 films (it also has the highest number of votes) -- but this has lead to some [[Hype Aversion]]. It was named to the [[National Film Registry]] in 2015. The film is definitely worth seeing at least once, though (and it's on TNT practically every other weekend).
''Shawshank'' has since been adapted for the stage. The producers insist they adapted the novella and not the film, but this claim is doubtful, since the character of Red is a black man instead of the red-haired Irishman of the book.
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* [[Ass Shove]]: In the novella, Andy smuggles five hundred dollars into the prison by this method. Taken [[Up to Eleven]] by Red at the end, in which he smuggles out [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|the pages on which he is writing the manuscript]] with the same trick. The novella is nearly one hundred pages long.
* [[Badass]]: Hadley. Though it's apparently subverted in the end, when {{spoiler|Red says he heard he "cried like a little girl" when arrested.}}
* [[Badass Baritone]]: Hadley, though it's to be expected when you're portrayed by Clancy Brown.
* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Andy Dufresne himself, of course, {{spoiler|using his knowledge of biology to explain to one of The Sisters why he wouldn't be able to help it if he "bit" after they hit him in the head, and his knowledge of geology to figure out from the weakness of the wall that he could tunnel his way out.}}
{{quote|'''Boggs:''' Where do you learn this shit?
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* [[Everybody Smokes]]: Played straight with most of the prison population, but makes sense given the time period.
* [[Flowery Insults]]: Byron Hadley is a master of these.
* [[Foil]]: Andy and Red are this to each other. While Andy was innocent of murdering his wife, Red was guilty of murdering his wife. As Red regrets killing his wife (in part due to all the collateral damage it caused), he's the only guilty man in Shawshank while Andy is the only one whose truly innocent.
* [[Foreshadowing]]: Red describing Andy's dreams of getting out as "nothing but a shitty pipe dream." {{spoiler|Andy escapes by crawling through a pipe full of excrement.}}
* [[Friend in the Black Market]]: Red.
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* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: Heywood.
* [[Karma Houdini]]: The actual murderer of Andy's wife. {{spoiler|He was apparently locked up in another prison for an unrelated crime when he confessed to doing it. We don't find out what became of him afterwards.}}
* [[Kick the Dog]]: {{spoiler|The Warden clearly hindering Andy's appeal for Tommy to testify, and out of the blue ordered him to serve a month in solitary confinement.}}
** Heywood did this earlier in the movie, as he taunted an emotionally-overwhelmed prisoner by reeling him in with what starts out sounding reassuring, only to go on to something that is practically the opposite of reassuring.
{{quote|"''Don't you listen to these nitwits, you hear me? This place ain't so bad. Tell you what, I'll introduce you around, make you feel right at home. I know a couple of big old bull queers that'd just [[Prison Rape|love to make your acquaintance. Especially that big, white, mushy butt of yours.]]''"}}
*** That emotionally-overwhelmed prisoner then broke down in tears, and Heywood laughed at this out loud. For what it's worth, {{spoiler|Heywood}} actually turns out NOT to be a [[Complete Monster]] (which shows when we see him wanting the prisoner he taunted to shut up from crying once Hadley comes in the room), but given what he did, who could blame viewers for expecting him to be?
* [[Kick the Son of a Bitch]]: Hadley, the leader of the guards, ambushes and severely beats Boggs, who screams and cries for help the whole time. Seeing as ambushing and severely beating people was what Boggs took sadistic pleasure in, one can't help but feel satisfied when Red sums up the end result...
{{quote|'''Red''': To my knowledge, he lived out the rest of his life drinking his food through a straw.}}
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* [[Pet the Dog]]: Hadley agreeing to Andy's request for the beers could be interpreted as such, Red going so far as to describe his behavior as "magnanimous". It's made particularly explicit in the novella, where Red points out that there was nothing stopping Hadley from throwing Andy off the roof and accepting his advice anyway.
** In the movie at least, Andy did point out that he could set up the tax-free gift for what presumably is cheaper than the "ball-washing bastard" lawyers would charge. So Hadley had a reason to keep him alive.
** Hadley does it again when he {{spoiler|beats Boggs so badly, that he has to be hospitalized for the rest of his life when he returns from solitary confinement.}} It comes off as another way for Hadley to thank Andy for helping with his financial issues.
* [[Police Brutality]]: Taken [[Up to Eleven]] by Hadley.
* [[Prison Rape]]: The "Sisters".
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Roger Ebert Great Movies List]]
[[Category:Works
[[Category:Academy Award]]
[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]
[[Category:
[[Category:National Film Registry]]
[[Category:Films Based on Novels]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shawshank Redemption, The}}
[[Category:Film]]
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