The Shawshank Redemption - Analysis

The Shawshank redemption is a superb film directed by Frank Darabont and written by Stephen King. What’s noticeable about this film is the writer is a famous author known for his globally successful books, with up to 350 million book copies sold worldwide. Back when the film was released in 1994, advertisements that would have had Stephen King’s name on them simply would have been a no-brainer for the public to watch. Hence this is why I contemplate the films outstanding success, for the reason being of Stephen King’s narrative for the film. The summary of the film introduces us to Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a sharp banker falsely sentenced to two life terms for the double-murder of his wife and the man she was cheating with. He’s sent to Shawshank State Prison in 1947 and the film revolves around his life from this point forward.

Taking into account the reoccurring events based around criminal activity and given that the film is set inside a prison, the obvious genre that the Shawshank redemption falls into is crime. This brings us into the themes of the film. I feel that the main theme that this film focuses around is ‘hope’ which ties into the religious themes this film inhabits due to all of the prisoners using the bible as a guidance on how to live and how the writer and director attempts to depict the protagonist as a false prophet looking for a miracle. Another theme explored is rehabilitation, as the film preaches forgiveness with its religious themes, I believe that it preaches second chances with is sociological themes. The film makes you adore and like the characters who are in fact criminals who have murdered innocent people, which makes us believe that people can be rehabilitated and actually teaches us a lesson to forgive as an example as we lead on with our own lives and may come across similar situations where someone has changed from a mistake they've once committed in their lives and learnt from that.

The use of religious themes is backed up by examples as the protagonist gathering convicted inmates to follow his guidance and look up to him, similar to the prophet Jesus and his twelve disciples. The character who dialogues the film, RED, also describes his escape from his jail cell as a miracle when stated earlier on in the film that it’s impossible to escape. Once Andy escapes the prison he’s seen travel through a sewage tunnel and once out, looks upon the sky in freedom while rain falls down on him, signifying hope and relates to the scene in the bible where Jesus calls upon God on the night before he is captured by the Roman soldiers. This also ironically relates to the resurrection of Jesus as they both finally become free after enduring similar yet different journeys in their life.

The narrative of this film is told in a oral narrative style, where the actor, Morgan Freeman who plays RED, provides dialogue/narrates throughout the film to recount a sequence of events, essentially telling the audience the life of the protagonist, Andy Dufresne’s sentence time in the prison. I believe that Stephen King, the writer, chose this method of telling the story because of how easy it makes the storytelling be and refrains from confusing the audience with the amount of time skips that occurs in the film.

Performance in this film is without flaw. Every actor who plays a character creates a strong personality that we can love but also hate.

I believe the only non-digetic sound in the Shawshank redemption is the narrators voice throughout the film and the punch sound effects in the scenes where Andy is being harassed and beaten up to engage in homosexual activity.

Most of the cinematography is used to express the various characters emotions and facial expressions using close up shots of the face. Close up and mid shots are very common in this film when a conversation is occurring because the photographer, Roger Deakins, wants the viewer to get to know the characters on the same level as the people they are conversing with. He does an excellent

job at this as it made me feel engaged during the film and feel sympathy for these characters even though having prior knowledge on their bad deeds when in turn should make you hate and resent them. Without the frequent use of close ups, it wouldn’t make the film feel as personal as it truly is.