The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Directed by: Frank Darabont | 142 minutes | crime, drama | Actors: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, Clancy Brown, James Whitmore, William Sadler, Gil Bellows, Mark Rolston, Jeffrey DeMunn, Larry Brandenburg, Neil Giuntoli, Brian Libby, David Proval, Joseph Ragno, Jude Ciccolella

In boys’ books, the world is often divided into crooks and crooks. Pietje Bell sometimes steals an apple, but has not finished it yet when an old woman has already crossed the street on his arm. The Black Hand mob had robbed her long ago.

In Shawshank Prison, the crooks aren’t charged with apple theft, but rather for murder. Yet they are all Pietjes Bell; looking into Morgan Freeman’s eyes, you’ll believe it right away. The real thugs are the sisters—the prison’s gay reception committee—the lecherous guard who uses them as a thug (Clancy Brown) and Director Norton.

Life in prison is presented in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ – after a novella by Stephen King – as a metaphor for real society. In it, the prisoners of life resign themselves to their fate and dreams, but not too much, then it cannot disappoint. The lords get their way anyway. Of course there is always one who shrugs. He is beaten by the boss, but is normally also slaughtered by his peers, because he threatens stability and puts them in the shade.

Not so in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. A Messiah admired by his disciples, the timid Andy Dufresne strides through prison. He teaches them to read books (from Alexandre ‘Dumb-ass’) and even leads one of them to the afterlife. The prison director is such a Pharisee, such a Yellowman with a sour look: the Bible texts are flying around your head, but it is precisely those types that squeeze the cats in the dark.

Director Frank Darabont – son of Hungarian refugees – has largely taken over the surprising plot of King’s story, with the difference that Dufresne is innocently imprisoned in one version and not in the other. The murder within the prison walls – a key moment in the film – is also a modification of Darabont.

This shocking event is the most mature moment in the entertaining drama with Andy’s ultimate revenge, but ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ remains a boy’s book with too many pretensions. Hope can become an impossibility in difficult circumstances, illustrating the sad fate of prison elder Brooks (James Whitmore). You need people who care or you need the intelligence and perseverance of an Andy Dufresne. No one will doubt that humanity would benefit from this, but the good in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ is too good to offer redemption to this viewer as well.