The Shawshank Redemption Movie Review

Many movies offer us various experiences and sometimes mixed emotions. Shawshank Redemption uses the narrator’s calm, observant voice to include us in the story of men who have formed a community behind bars. It is deeper than most films; about continuity in a lifetime, based on friendship and hope.

Interesting that although the hero of the film is the convicted former banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), the action is never seen from his point of view. The film’s opening scene shows him being given two life sentences for the murder of his wife and her lover, and then we move, permanently, to a point of view representing the prison population and particularly the lifer Ellis ‘Red’ Redding (Morgan Freeman). It is his voice remembering the first time he saw Andy (“looked like a stiff breeze would blow him over”) and predicting, wrongly, that he wouldn’t make it in prison.

From Andy’s arrival on the prison bus to the film’s end, we see only how others see him – Red, who becomes his best friend, Brooks the old librarian, the corrupt Warden Norton, guards, and prisoners. Red is our surrogate. He’s the one we identify with, and the redemption, when it comes, is Reds. We’ve been shown by Andy’s example that you have to keep true to yourself, not lose hope, bide your time, set a quiet example, and look for your chance. “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really,” he tells Red. “Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.”

The key to the film’s formation is that it’s not about its hero, but about our relationship with him, our curiosity, our pity, our admiration. If Andy had been the heroic center, bravely enduring, the film would have been conventional, and less mysterious. But we wonder about this guy. Did he kill those two people? Why does he keep so much to himself? Why can he amble through the prison yard like a free man on a stroll, when everyone else plods or sidles?

People like excitement at the movies, and titles that provide it do well. Films about “redemption” are approached with great wariness. A lot of people are not thrilled by the prospect of a great film, it sounds like work. But there’s a hunger for messages of hope, and when a film offers one, it’s likely to have staying power even if it doesn’t grab an immediate audience.

“The Shawshank Redemption” premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 1994 and opened a few weeks later. It got good reviews but did poor business (its $18 million original gross didn’t cover costs; it took in only another $10 million after winning seven Oscar nominations, including best picture).

There wasn’t much going for it: It had a terrible title, it was a “prison drama” and women don’t like those, it contained almost no action, it starred actors who were respected but not big stars, and it was long at 142 minutes. This was a movie that needed word-of-mouth to find an audience, and indeed business was slowly but steadily growing when it was yanked from theaters. If it had been left to find its way, it might have continued to build and run for months, but that’s not what happened.

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