The
Shawshank Redemption (1994): Favourite Films Series

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.

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.

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