The
Shawshank Redemption (1994): Favourite Films Series
Andy
Dufresne is wrongfully accused of murdering his wife and her lover and sent to
Shawshank prison, where he befriends Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding, the man who “knows
how to get things”. They become friends, and as the years wear on, Andy never
loses hope, despite the poor quality of life Shawshank offers, the harsh
warden, the rapists, and the toll prison life takes on everyone. I don’t want
to spoil anything, even though the movie is over twenty-five years old as of
writing this, because if you are
reading this and haven’t yet seen it, then let me explain somewhat briefly why it’s
one of my all-time favourite films.
Put
only into words, The Shawshank Redemption
sounds like it has potential, but for someone who has never seen it, words
alone make it sound…alright? There’s no romance, just friendship, there’s
little action or variety, and it’s largely just dialogue scenes set in a depressing
prison. This is part of the power of cinema: it can take a solid concept and
elevate it into a moving experience that wouldn’t be quite the same in any
other medium.
Frank
Darabont had already been making a name for himself in Hollywood with numerous
screenplay credits before he took on The
Shawshank Redemption. Shawshank
was to be his first directing job for a film to be released to theaters (his
first being the television movie Buried
Alive). It was his theatrical debut, and I can’t think of a more
extraordinary debut. By the 1990’s, Stephen King had already put out dozens of
novels and short stories. Darabont had a wealth of source material to pick
from. He didn’t select one of the grander, flashier horror tales for which
the author was most well-known like IT
or Pet Sematary or Dark Tower. He bought the rights to
adapt King’s short story Rita Hayworth
and Shawshank Redemption back in 1987, and in 1994, the film was finally
released. Though it didn’t win any Academy Awards or make a significant amount
at the box office, Shawshank
resonated with those who saw it, and as the years went on, it gained greater
recognition as being an exceptional film, and is now regarded by many as one of
the greatest films of all-time.
I
can’t think of a single thing to criticize. The story is excellent. The
dialogue is memorable, much of it pulled straight from the story. The camerawork
is precise and purposeful. The editing is tight and impactful. The
cinematography is somehow beautiful despite most of the film taking place in a
prison made mostly of layered stone and steel bars and grey concrete. It’s a drab background that
lets the characters pop out. The acting, too, is faultless. If Morgan Freeman
and Tim Robbins had turned in average performances—showed up, read their lines,
went through the motions—the film would still be good, but they elevate it to a
significantly higher level. Morgan Freeman has given many good performances,
but this is certainly one of his greatest.
There
are many underrated aspects to Shawshank
that sometimes get overshadowed (understandably so) by the big three
highlights: the lead performances, the screenplay, and the directing. I can’t
think of one bad performance from any of the supporting actors. The warden,
played by Bob Gunton, is quietly detestable at first, then just gets more and
more villainous as time wears on. Even Red’s gang of cohorts, most of whom
don’t get much dialogue or even that much screen time, are all great. The
character of Tommy Williams, a young, fast-talking crook, is introduced quite
late into the story, but he makes a strong first impression, and despite only
having a small part in the overall story, proves to be incredibly memorable
even in that short time.
The
casting contributed significantly to the memorability of the characters, with
great players like William Sadler and James Whitmore, just to name a couple.
The music, too, is another underrated element of this masterpiece. It isn’t a
big, imposing score, but it enhances many scenes, most memorably for me when
there’s that sinister shot of the prison as Andy arrives and the music swells
to make it even more foreboding, and the beautiful, hopeful music during the
final moments of the film. In contrast, sometimes the absence of music makes
certain scenes better, too, like when the new overweight prisoner is beaten to
death in a horribly realistic manner on the first night, or when Andy negotiates
with Captain Hadley on the roof as he’s about to throw him off.
In
the discussion of best Stephen King stories, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption is up there, but it
certainly isn’t in the top tier of his greatest works. In terms of the film
adaptations, though, Shawshank Redemption
is usually everyone’s number one pick. It’s a faithful adaptation, not leaving
out any major elements from the story, and expands on the source material in
eloquent ways. It’s a strange thing to consider one of the best stories to come
from the mind of Stephen King isn’t a horror story or even a supernatural one.
It’s a deeper, more meaningful tale, where the monsters are human and the focus
is not on terror but on hope. Like Andy says, it comes down to a simple choice.
“Get busy living, or get busy dying.” 