Overview

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 movie, written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Ellis "Red" Redding.

The plot of Shawshank revolves around Andy Dufresne's life in prison after being convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover. Despite a poor box office reception (partially due to competition from contemporary films such as Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, and Speed), Shawshank received favourable reviews from critics and enjoyed a remarkable life on cable television, home video, and DVD.

In 1999, film critic Roger Ebert listed Shawshank on his "Great Movies" list,[1] and in reader polls by the film magazine Empire, the film ranked 5th in 2004 and 1st in 2006 on the lists for greatest movie of all time. The film has also repeatedly been voted by the registered users of the Internet Movie Database as one of the greatest movies ever made. According to the database's list of "Top 250 Movies of All Time",[2] it is one of only two movies with at least a 9.0 average rating (the other being The Godfather), and it has the most votes of any of the movies on the list. At points it has been the highest rated film on IMDB and the Yahoo movies database.

In the 1994 Academy Awards the movie was nominated for seven awards (Best Picture, Best Actor–Morgan Freeman, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound) but, in the shadow of 1995's big winner Forrest Gump, failed to win a single one.

Darabont secured the film adaptation rights in 1987 from Stephen King after impressing the author with his short film adaptation of "The Woman in the Room" in 1983. This is one of the more famous Dollar Deals made by King with aspiring filmmakers.

Plot

The movie spans over 20 years, and begins with Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) on trial for the murder of his wife and her lover, a crime of which he claims to be innocent in spite of some damning evidence. He is sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank, a fictitious prison in Maine. In Shawshank he eventually befriends Red (Morgan Freeman) and several other prisoners (including Brooks Hatlen, played by James Whitmore).

In his first few years in prison, Andy endures injustice, mistreatment by the guards and repeated abuse at the hands of fellow prisoners (most notably repeated beatings, rapes, and rape attempts by a group of aggressive inmates known as "the sisters"). Andy's pre-prison, professional life as a banker and his knowledge of accounting and income taxes bring him to the attention of the captain of the guard, Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) and eventually to Warden Sam Norton (Bob Gunton). Andy's financial knowledge earns him some freedom from mistreatment, but he also becomes involved in Norton's illegal money-laundering operations.

Time passes. Brooks is eventually released from prison, but after spending over 50 years behind bars, the elderly convict finds that the normal world is no place for him, and, in a letter to his friends at the prison, declares that he's tired of being afraid all the time; "I've decided not to stay," Brooks closes. Having carved the phrase "Brooks was here," into the wall in the half-way house, he hangs himself.

A young prisoner, Tommy (Gil Bellows), enters Shawshank in the 1960s, and tells Andy that he has information that could free Andy, or at least get him a new trial. It is only at this point that it is made totally explicit that Andy is in fact innocent of the murders, as he has maintained. Andy approaches the warden for help, but the warden is unwilling to lose Andy's financial assistance with his illicit schemes or risk being exposed and sends Andy to solitary confinement. While Andy is in solitary, the warden has Tommy killed.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Andy has long been working on his escape. Each night he has chipped away at the softening rock in his cell to form an escape tunnel that eventually leads to a 500-yard-long sewage pipe and freedom. Andy, who had a fascination with geology in his former life, uses a small rock hammer and hides his work behind a poster of Rita Hayworth, hence the original title of King's story, "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption". Once outside Andy retrieves all the illegally obtained money he has laundered for the warden and escapes to Zihuatanejo, Mexico. He also sends information to the local newspaper implicating the warden and chief guard. The warden commits suicide before he can be arrested.

Red is eventually paroled and sent to a halfway house (the same used by the late Brooks). While Red is initially as despairing as Brooks, he decides to take Andy up on the offer made to him in prison. But before leaving, Red carves into the wall next to Brook's final message, "So was Red." Red follows Andy's instructions and finds a box, hidden by Andy in a hayfield, that contains enough money for him to leave Maine and join Andy in Mexico.

References in popular culture

In the Stephen King novella, Apt Pupil, Arthur Denker mentions that the banker who helped him buy stocks was named Andy Dufresne, and in the movie adaptation of the King novel Dolores Claiborne, the titular character threatens her abusive husband with a "term at Shawshank."

Three animated series have parodied Shawshank: The Simpsons in "The Heartbroke Kid", Family Guy in "Sibling Rivalry", and Drawn Together in "The One Wherein There Is a Big Twist, Part II" and "The Lemon-AIDS Walk".

The main theme from the movie's music score (a set of piano chords in slow succession), written by Thomas Newman, appears in Seal's song My Vision as a background loop. The same theme from the score also appears in Jakatta's song American Dream, on the Visions album. The same album also features the theme in a remix of Seal's My Vision as well as in the trailer for All the King's Men. Some of the music played during the end credits also appear in the theatrical trailer for Brokeback Mountain.

Trivia

The novel appears in Stephen King's Different Seasons, which also contains The Body, which was made into the film Stand By Me, and Apt Pupil, which was also made into a film by the same name. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption appears under the Spring section of the book under the heading "Hope springs eternal," which is also the name of a documentary on the special edition DVD. Darabont also went on to direct The Green Mile, based on another work by Stephen King.

Shawshank was filmed in and around the city of Mansfield, Ohio, located in north-central Ohio. The prison featured in the film is the old, abandoned Ohio State Reformatory immediately north of downtown Mansfield. The Reformatory buildings have been used in several other films, including Harry and Walter Go to New York, Air Force One and Tango and Cash. Most of the prison yard has now been demolished to make room for expansion of the adjacent Mansfield Correctional Facility, but the Reformatory's Gothic-style ("Castle Dracula") Administration Building remains standing and, due to its prominent use in films, has become a tourist attraction. Several scenes were also shot in Portland, ME. The real warden of the Mansfield Correctional Facility had a cameo appearance in Shawshank as the prisoner seated directly behind Tommy on his bus ride to prison.

The young photo of Red on his parole forms is of Morgan Freeman's son, Alfonso, who also is seen in the yard when Andy's load of prisoners is first dropped off, shouting enthusiastically "Fresh Fish! Fresh Fish" whilst reeling in an imaginary line. Alfonso later played a parody of his father's character, Red, in a short spoof titled The Sharktank Redemption, available on the second disc of the 10th anniversary DVD.

The opera movement that Andy plays over the prison loudspeaker is the duettino "Che soave zeffiretto" sung by Maria Callas from Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro." The recording used in the film was conducted by Karl Böhm.

To escape, Andy crawls through five hundred yards of a sewage pipe that lead to a small river outside of the prison. Red describes five hundred yards as the equal of five football fields and 'just shy of half a mile.' While five hundred yards does equal five football fields, it is not even one-third of a mile.