My favorite movie of all time: The Shawshank Redemption

Source: Wikipedia

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 movie directed by Frank Darabont starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. 

I vividly remember the day I watched this movie. It was a balmy Sunday afternoon and all I wanted to do was get comfortable on the couch and zone out to a light and breezy feel-good movie while devouring gooey slices of pizza that we had ordered for lunch. My energy levels were at zero and I didn't even want my brain doing any heavy lifting. 

It was my husband who recommended The Shawshank Redemption after casually mentioning that it was number one on the IMDb top 250 movies of all time. When I asked him (disinterestedly) what it was about, he told me that it was a story set in prison. With all kinds of grisly images flooding my mind, I frowned in disapproval. This was not what I had in mind for a chill movie day. He then proceeded to tell me that it is based on a Stephen King novel which actually made me protest out loud! Don’t get me wrong, I think Stephen King is an extraordinary writer, but horror is a genre in any form of print and media that does not appeal to me. And horror is the first thing that I associate with anything Stephen King. Even after he clarified that the movie is a thriller/prison drama and not horror, I had prematurely made up my mind that this movie would be dark and disturbing. Rookie mistake!

Let's cut to the review now and you will soon understand why this became my most favorite movie of all time. 

***Plot***

The year is 1947 and the setting is Portland, Maine. Hotshot banker Andy Dufresne is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover in a "murder of passion" and is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at the Shawshank State Prison. He is befriended by Ellis "Red" Redding, a fellow inmate who is serving a life sentence. 

Andy continually maintains his innocence but is not taken seriously by the other inmates. In his initial years of imprisonment, he faces repeated sexual attacks from some of the violent gangs. But when Andy offers his financial expertise to help the corrupt guards and prison warden shelter money legally, prison life improves for him drastically. Andy also befriends several of the inmates and begins writing weekly letters to the state legislature requesting funds to improve the prison's decrepit library. Finally, after getting fed up with his relentless letters, they send him a donation which he puts to good use. 

After several years, Tommy Williams is incarcerated for burglary and arrives at Shawshank. Andy and Red befriend him, and Andy helps him pass his General Educational Development (GED) exam. Eventually, Tommy reveals to Red and Andy that his cellmate at another prison had claimed responsibility for the murders for which Andy was convicted. But when Andy approaches the warden with this critical information, the warden dismisses him and in order to protect himself from the money laundering operation, has the key witness, Williams murdered which is covered up as a prison escape gone wrong. Andy refuses to continue the money laundering but is threatened with dire consequences into changing his mind. 

Andy tells a skeptical Red that he dreams of being free and living in Zihuatanejo, an idyllic Mexican town on the Pacific coast. Andy also tells him of a specific hayfield near Buxton, giving Red clear instructions to retrieve a package that is buried there once he is paroled. Red worries about his friend's well-being especially since he knows that Andy had been asking around for some rope. 

What happens next? You have to watch the movie to find out because I refuse to divulge anything more!  

My thoughts...

It turned out that I could not have been more wrong about the movie as it turned out to be nothing like I had imagined. I learned that the movie, The Shawshank Redemption was based on King’s short novel - Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption from his widely acclaimed collection of short stories, Different Seasons. The favorable background information and persuasion finally got me curious enough to watch it. 

I don’t want to tell you the story and ruin it for you in case you haven’t watched it, but I will tell you this - at the end of the movie, I had goosebumps, and my mouth was open in sheer amazement of what I had just seen. The pizza we had ordered lay untouched and had gone cold as I had failed to even notice it.

The story, narration, dialogues and above all, characters are so powerful that it just had me captivated. This is one of those movies that grabs your interest from the first scene to the last. The tagline of the movie reads “Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free”. The story revolves around hope, perseverance, redemption and friendship. The story carries a powerful message for all that while the body may be locked away in a cell, the spirit can never be truly imprisoned.

The main protagonist, Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins is unique, enigmatic and has such a refreshing perspective on life that you just wish you could steal some of that for yourself. The narration by Red played by the legendary Morgan Freeman is simple yet so powerful. All the actors are simply brilliant, each scene is remarkably realistic, the background music is soulful and the subtle message that the movie ends with is nothing short of inspiring. I just don’t tire of raving about this movie.

After watching The Shawshank Redemption, I read the novel Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption from the collection Different Seasons. Calling it an incredible book would be an understatement. For me, it is one of Stephen King’s greatest works. After reading it, I realized that I like King’s books much better when they are not trying to scare the living daylights out of me. This thought was reinforced when I read his ‘Green Mile', in my opinion another gem of a book. But let’s leave that for another day…

As my fascination with The Shawshank Redemption continued to grow, I read several articles about the movie. I read that in spite of being nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Actor (Morgan Freeman), it didn’t win a single one as it was nominated the same year as Forrest Gump which swept all the awards. I was surprised as in my opinion; a movie of this caliber certainly deserved some sort of recognition. I was however very pleased to read that the Academy Award nominations that the movie received garnered so much attention that more and more people began to watch it and as word of mouth spread, its appreciation and popularity soared to greater heights. That is the reason why despite of the lack of awards and widespread critical acclaim, this movie has still managed to top the viewer’s choice movie polls. 

At the end of my review lies a plea to go and watch this movie. If you love it, then welcome to the club but if you don't, then I don't think we could ever be friends 😄

My rating for this movie is,

Cheers,

Megha