A look at a murderer's way of thinking in frank darabont's film the shawshank redemption

What would one expect to be the personality of a man who was sent to prison for murdering his wife? It was just such a man, a once famed banker, who Frank Darabont portrays in his film The Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne was at the zenith of his banking career, up until he was wrongfully convicted of his wife’s murder and sent to Shawshank State Penitentiary. The film focuses on Andy’s troublesome encounters over the years, of which gradually attracts sympathizers for Andy from the audience.

When comparing some of the happier and depressing scenes scattered throughout the movie, one would find that lighting plays an immense role in establishing the tone and mood. In the early stages of the story, Warden Norton announced that he needed men to tar the roof of one of the prison buildings. While on the job, Andy overheard Hadley ranting about a large sum of money he got his hands on, and how the IRS would come along and wolf a large chunk of it down. Andy offered Hadley some of his banking expertise in resolve to his issue with Uncle Sam’s taxation policies, at a cost of three beers apiece for Andy’s coworkers. The story itself combined with the golden skies and brilliant cinematography signified freedom, a safe haven away from Shawshank Prison.

Then came a point in the film where Andy put on “ The Marriage of Figaro”, one of Mozart’s symphonies on the PA. This was the symbol of freedom. The inmates felt it, the audience felt it. This was a song that drilled the concept of being free, deep into the prisoners’ minds. As Red put it, “ I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is I don’t wanna know. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful it can’t be expressed in words and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream….” The music had helped everyone forget the things that they’ve done, where they are, and the feeling of being trapped.

Alongside analyzing the film itself, it’s always worth taking a look at the scripts from which the film is based upon. To provide a little bit of context, the initial film script was an adaptation to Stephen King’s novella, “ Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”. A comparison between the novella and the film revealed many differences in certain character roles and many of the scenes in the book never made it on screen. In addition, the book itself wasn’t anything close to being cinematic, it was mostly about Andy and Red. Frank Darabont, in his interviews regarding the film’s initial production stages, said that he sat down for over eight weeks converting the source material into the script. As for the differences between the script and film, there weren’t many, because the script themselves were what Darabont was looking for. The transformation of a script into a film is that a large majority of the written details and descriptions aren’t explained to the audience, but rather portrayed using cinematic and narrating techniques, all of which were used in a nifty manner.

In every story there’s a theme. In Shawshank, it was hope. Andy Dufresne was the perfect representation of a psychologically strong and hopeful person. All of that becomes obvious when the great escape occurs, and that’s when Andy had completed digging a tunnel through concrete over the course of almost two decades. Every man in Shawshank, in fact, in any other prison, needs something to keep their lives busy. Andy couldn’t have said it better, “ Get busy living, or get busy dying.” Ultimately, Andy had proved that self-worth can be found, even in the times of trouble. When Red was granted parole, he said, “ I hope Andy is down there. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.” Five occurences of the word ‘ hope’ in a mere four sentences. This theme wasn’t present in the two scene, it had dominated the entire movie, omnipresent and almost key to every major event in the story, which allowed for a successful delivery of the theme to the audience.

The Shawshank Redemption was filmed in 1994, whereas the story itself is set to take place in the early 40’s. One of the more apparent ideas that are represented by the film would be racism, a bright example of this would be one of the scenes in which Red walks out into the field after his parole was rejected. Many of the bleachers housed either whites or blacks, in the binary sense. There were no gang fights that were rooted in racism, my theory is that hate for another race doesn’t work as well when they’re stuck living with each other for years at a time. This could also be used to explain why Red and Andy were able to bond, Red, was already an “ institutionalized” man and was used to having whites around. The movie also accentuated on women’s role in society. One of the scenes in the movie depict Warden Norton taking a bribe gifted along with some pie, who then hands it over to Andy and says, “ the woman can’t cook for shit.” This was an example of a stay-home-and-cook sort of attitude popular at the time.

In conclusion, The Shawshank Redemption played the perfect role given its outstanding cinematography, storyline and reflection on prison life in general. And to the audience’s liking, Andy and Red were able to reunite in the small city of Zihuatanejo, Mexico, as free men.