What a great movie! The first time I ever saw it was a few years ago; I was almost mad that I hadn’t seen it before then. The story is incredibly written by Stephen King and, much to my satisfaction, not a horror story. I do love those other classics by Mr. King, however it was nice to see another side of him.
The movie takes place in 1946 when a young, introverted banker, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), is sentenced to two lifetimes in Shawshank prison for the murder of his adulterous wife and her lover. Of course he pleads innocent, but how often do we really believe these people are actually innocent when all of the evidence is stacked against them? During his stay at Shawshank, Andy went through quite an ordeal: brutal beatings by fellow inmates, on and off again relationships with the warden and the guards, and one relationship that would last for a lifetime…maybe two.
Red (Morgan Freeman), a fellow inmate and soon to be lifelong friend, first sees Andy the day he joined the Shawshank gang, and actually made a bet that he would be the first to crack. Was he wrong! Their first real conversation convened when Red was approached by Andy who was inquiring about locating a rock hammer since Red was “a man who knew how to get things.” Little did Red know at the time that he just had just agreed to help Andy make his break. The friendship the two came to have is one for the books, and a movie in this case.
I know there is an underlying message about our penal and justice systems, but I’m not going there on this one. I want to talk about the characters and the emotions that were at play. I really love how this movie touches on personal determination, the strength of friendship and due justice. Did the warden get what he deserved? Some might say he did. Would Red have committed suicide had it not been for Andy’s foretelling of a tree in the middle of nowhere? I’m not so sure, but I like to think that it certainly helped. And was Andy a patient and clever man? Absolutely freaking yes! Convicted of a crime he did not commit, ignored and defeated when there was a chance at proving it, and the courage and inner-strength it took to conspire against the warden right under his nose and loose almost 19 years of sleepless nights tunneling his way out of his cell to crawl through 500 yards of human excrement (and who knows what else) to be free at last…what can you say. What a character. I would love to be in the head of Andy Dufresne. I think he is a fascinating character and possess qualities that we should all strive to achieve.
In the end, after all of the heartache and crap (literally) that Andy had to go through, he gets his freedom in Mexico and his best friend comes to join him. Love it. Of course I’m a sucker for letting the good guy win, but who isn’t?
