The Shawshank Redemption is a highly regarded and a much-loved film. This is far from a professional analysis, and is but only a humble interpretation of a viewer who was deeply moved by the story and screenplay when she watched the film for the first time and merely wants to remember her thoughts and feelings from the whole experience.
The film starts with a trial. The black and white is obscured from the viewer and that compelled me to not take sides. I felt nothing towards Andy Dufresne, the accused and I was mostly indifferent to the announcement of his sentence and subsequent incarceration, wavering towards suspicion because of the ingrained trust in our judiciaries. My analysis begins from the point when the the Shawshank prison warden, Samuel Norton is introduced and he offers his welcome repertoire. The sudden act of violence took me aback but was softened by the colorful threat that followed, setting the rhythm of the whole movie.
“YOU EAT WHEN WE SAY YOU EAT! YOU PISS WHEN WE SAY YOU PISS! YOU SHIT WHEN WE SAY YOU SHIT! YOU SLEEP WHEN WE SAY YOU SLEEP! YOU MAGGOT-DICK MOTHERFUCKER!”
I believe such instances of dark humor were so clever in the way they managed to balance the aesthetic of the film so as to not actively make it uncomfortably horrifying for the viewers, the reality of which is much more grave and unpleasant than could be fathomed.
Well, that was the part where I could draw parallels between the initiation of the inmates and the birth of a newborn. The dousing of the convicts with a fire-hose and the medical examination were cruel re-imaginings of the procedure followed after a baby is born. Some don’t make it through, as is mirrored in the film. Life and life in prison are both unforgiving from day 1. I could also feel a similarity between the pathetic crying of the fat prisoner to a baby’s wails, and the intrigue of the inhabitants of the Shawshank prison as the anticipation surrounding birth but I’m not too sure about those.
“Fishee fishee fisheeee...You're gonna like it here, new fish. A whooole lot...Make you wish your daddies never dicked your mommies...You takin' this down, new fish? Gonna be a quiz later.”
Following is a scene that could be overlooked but holds gravity according to me. It is when we meet Brooks who asks Andy for the maggot he picked out from his portion of the prison food. Andy feels apprehensive at first and so do I about the film as a whole in the 20–30 minutes of play. I do not see promise of redemption as mentioned in the title of the film. But then, Andy feels relieved when Brooks reveals that he meant to feed the maggot to a baby crow named Jake and that is maybe some foreshadowing towards what I can expect from the film itself. An unsettling apprehension turning to reassuring warmth. Regardless, it was unlike anything I could’ve anticipated anyway.
Andy’s question about the deceased fat prisoner offers insight into his character. His conversation with Red is one of my most favorite dialogues of all time.
“Everyone's innocent in here, don't you know that? Heywood! What are you in for, boy?”
“Didn't do it! Lawyer fucked me!”
Andy’s curiosity about what’s said about him immediately made his character endearing to me, I could finally relate to him, he wasn’t a bad guy! I am a bit more trusting than Red you see.
“I understand you're a man who knows how to get things.”
“ I'm known to locate certain things from time to time. They seem to fall into my hands. Maybe it's 'cause I'm Irish.”
Oh my god, hilarious!
The rock-hammer! It looks like a cross, doesn’t it? Wonder if that holds any significance... I am not well-versed with the Bible so I believe I could have missed out on the not-so-obvious Biblical references. I totally overlooked the whole bit dismissing it as a geology-thing. But they made plenty of indications so I should’ve noticed.
“Neither are they. You have to be human first. They don't qualify”.
I love this piece of conversation. Honestly, I could go on and on about it. Brilliant. Dialogue.
Andy’s genius and superiority over the other inmates is subsequently established. It is interesting to me that the rock-hammer, the object of Andy’s salvation was delivered to him by Brooks, the man who couldn’t be saved.
Afterwards, the films picks up momentum. Andy is assaulted by “The Sisters”. There is deliberation on routine. The parallel to life shines through.
“He always fought, that's what I remember. He fought because he knew if he didn't fight, it would make it that much easier not to fight the next time.”
Insight into Andy’s character and a recurring theme: perseverance or hope.
A significant turning point is the roof re-surfacing job. Red’s resourcefulness is brought out. Andy, who I believe had been waiting for the chance, displays the beginnings of a plan in action.
“We sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders, and felt like free men. We could’a been tarring the roof of one of our own houses. We were the Lords of all Creation.”
This repeats on the occasion when Andy plays music over the speakers. An embarrassing awareness of the freedom taken from them.
As for Andy’s motives here. A beautiful narration sufficed.
“You could argue he'd done it to curry favor with the guards. Or maybe make a few friends among us cons. Me, I think he did it just to feel normal again...if only for a short while.”
Life hits us with its highs and lows. It makes us complacent and averse to an appreciation of what a weird miracle it is in itself and if there exists a normal, I believe it is the one described, something that could not be more well-said. It is a momentary awareness that can only be conveyed through expressing by example and mutual understanding and not through text or spoken word.
“Andy? I guess we're gettin' to be friends, ain't we?”
“I suppose we are.”
“I ask a question? Why'd you do it?”
“I'm innocent, remember? Just like everybody else here.”
We are brought back from the freeing narrative to the reality that we are still amidst murderers and we are still going on half-truths and our own prejudiced misdirected perceptions when Red confesses his guilt to Andy quite casually.
Another high is the movie screening where Andy asks Red to bring to him Rita Hayworth. A chivalrous and nostalgic exchange. The same pattern repeats itself here, as the short exchange is proceeded by a violent face-off between Andy and the sisters. It is repulsing and foreboding.
“Bogs didn't put anything in Andy's mouth, and neither did his friends. What they did do is beat him within an inch of his life...”
Another insight into Andy Dufresne’s persona and a recurring theme: refusal to submit or free will.
It could be said that it was a sort of a twisted pawning ritual where it can be presumed that Hadley getting rid of Bogs was a consequence of the favor he owed Andy. Accompanied by Andy’s friends making good on their word. And a surprised inspection, a ruse to assess Andy Dufresne, as anticipated by our fellow analyst, Red, who put just as much stock in Andy Dufresne as I put, in the both of them. One, an instinctively free man, the other, an inspired one.
“I almost forgot.”
“He reaches through the bars and returns the Bible to Andy.”
“I'd hate to deprive you of this. Salvation lies within.”
Another well-executed exchange foreshadowing Andy’s escape. It was made ridiculously obvious, how did I not notice…
Andy was soon reassigned to the library and was engaged in carrying out financial consultation for the Shawshank prison staff. He persistently presses forward to bring in more funds for the library. There is another long-winded description of the new routine, we are submerged in it. Andy is becoming crucial, indispensable. An example of beautiful screenplay here:
Dark. Andy's in his bunk, polishing a four-inch length of quartz. It's a beautifully-crafted chess piece in the shape of a horse's head, poise and nobility captured in gleaming stone.
He puts the knight on a chess board by his bed, adding it to four pieces already there: a king, a queen, and two bishops. He turns to Rita. Moonlight casts bars across her face.
Right before this routine sets in, before we drown in it and our attention becomes irredeemable, we are pulled out. I’m talking about the incident with Brooks.
“Institutionalization”: THIS UNDERUSED UNDERRATED TERM.
Believe what you want. These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. After long enough, you get so you depend on 'em. That's "institutionalized."
I see this in nearly everyone, this bondage to norm. It’s the rhetoric on our obsession with conformity, comfort and complacency that gets me every time. It is wasted on those already immersed in the routine and is a motivation for those who chose to design their own blueprints. I hope this simple piece continues to inspire people from any and all walks of life.
Brook’s release from prison is a goldmine of emotion