The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont
and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. It is ranked #1 in IMDb's "Top 250" list and
is considered one of the best movies of all time.
Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film
tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who spends 19 years in Shawshank State Prison
for the murder of his wife and her lover despite his claims of innocence. During his time at
the prison, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, and finds himself
protected by the guards after the warden begins using him in his money laundering operation.
Despite a lukewarm box office reception that barely recouped its budget, the film received
multiple award nominations and outstanding reviews from critics for its powerful acting
and realism. It has since been successful on cable television, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray.
It was included in the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Movies 10th Anniversary Edition.
Plot In 1947, banker Andy Dufresne is convicted
of murdering his wife and her lover and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at the fictional
Shawshank State Penitentiary in the state of Maine. Andy quickly befriends contraband
smuggler Ellis "Red" Redding, an inmate serving a life sentence. Red procures a rock hammer
and later a large poster of Rita Hayworth for Andy. Working in the prison laundry, Andy
is regularly assaulted by the "bull queer" gang "the Sisters" and their leader, Bogs.
In 1949, Andy overhears the brutal captain of the guards Byron Hadley complaining about
being taxed on an inheritance and offers to help him legally shelter the money. After
a vicious assault by the Sisters nearly kills Andy, Hadley beats Bogs severely. Bogs is
sent to another prison and Andy is never attacked again. Warden Samuel Norton meets with Andy
and reassigns him to the prison library to assist elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen. Andy's
new job is a pretext for him to begin managing financial matters for the prison employees.
As time passes, the warden begins using Andy to handle matters for a variety of people
including guards from other prisons and the warden himself. Andy begins writing weekly
letters to the state government for funds to improve the decaying library.
In 1954, Brooks is paroled, but cannot adjust to the outside world after fifty years in
prison and hangs himself. Andy receives a library donation that includes a recording
of The Marriage of Figaro. He plays an excerpt over the public address system, resulting
in his receiving solitary confinement. After his release from solitary Andy explains that
hope is what gets him through his time, a concept that Red dismisses. In 1963, Norton
begins exploiting prison labor for public works, profiting by undercutting skilled labor
costs and receiving kickbacks. He has Andy launder the money using the alias Randall
Stephens. In 1965, Tommy Williams is incarcerated for
burglary. He joins Andy's and Red's circle of friends, and Andy helps him pass his G.E.D.
exam. In 1966, Tommy reveals to Red and Andy that an inmate at another prison claimed responsibility
for the murders Andy was convicted of, implying Andy's innocence. Andy approaches Warden Norton
with this information, but the warden refuses to listen and sends Andy back to solitary
when he mentions the money laundering. Norton then has Captain Hadley murder Tommy under
the guise of an escape attempt. Andy refuses to continue the money laundering, but relents
after Norton threatens to burn the library, remove Andy's protection from the guards,
and move him out of his cell into worse conditions. Andy is released from solitary confinement
and tells Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican coastal town. Red feels Andy is
being unrealistic, but promises Andy that if he is ever released he will visit a specific
hayfield near Buxton, Maine and retrieve a package Andy buried there. Red becomes worried
about Andy's state of mind, especially when he learns Andy asked another inmate to supply
him with six feet of rope. The next day at roll call the guards find
Andy's cell empty. An irate Warden Norton throws a rock at the poster of Raquel Welch
hanging on the wall, and the rock tears through the poster. Removing the poster, the warden
discovers a tunnel that Andy dug with his rock hammer over the previous two decades.
The previous night, Andy escaped through the tunnel and used the prison's sewage pipe to
reach freedom. Andy escapes with Norton's suit, shoes, and the ledger containing details
of the money laundering. While guards search for him the following morning, Andy poses
as Randall Stephens and visits several banks to withdraw the laundered money. Finally,
he mails the ledger and evidence of the corruption and murders at Shawshank to a local newspaper.
The police arrive at Shawshank and take Hadley into custody, while Norton commits suicide
to avoid arrest. After serving 40 years, Red is finally paroled.
He struggles to adapt to life outside prison and fears he never will. Remembering his promise
to Andy, he visits Buxton and finds a cache containing money and a letter asking him to
come to Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole and travels to Fort Hancock, Texas to cross
the border to Mexico, admitting he finally feels hope. On a beach in Zihuatanejo he finds
Andy, and the two friends are happily reunited. Cast
Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding,
Andy's best friend and the film's narrator; convicted of murder in 1927. Before Freeman
was cast, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford were each considered
for the role. Although written as a middle-aged Irishman with greying red hair, Darabont cast
Freeman for his authoritative presence and demeanor; he could not see anyone else as
Red. The short dialogue with Andy is a jest towards this casting decision, as when asked
about the origin of his nickname, Red answers, "Maybe it's because I'm Irish."
Bob Gunton as Warden Samuel Norton. He is well versed in the Bible and presents himself
as a pious, devout Christian and reform-minded administrator, while his actions reveal him
to be corrupt, ruthless, and remorseless. William Sadler as Heywood, a member of Red's
gang of long-serving convicts. Clancy Brown as Capt. Byron Hadley, chief
of the guards. Hadley is a sadistic guard who thinks nothing of delivering beatings
to the inmates to keep them in line. When cast for the role, Brown declined the offer
to study real-life prison guards as preparation for his role, because he did not want to base
it on any one person. Gil Bellows as Tommy Williams, a young convict
whose experiences in a previous prison hold the truth about Andy's innocence.
Mark Rolston as Bogs Diamond, the head of "The Sisters" gang and a prison rapist.
James Whitmore as Brooks Hatlen, prison librarian/trustee and one of the oldest convicts at Shawshank,
having been in prison since 1905. Darabont cast Whitmore because he was one of his favorite
character actors. Jeffrey DeMunn as the prosecuting attorney
in Andy Dufresne's trial. Themes
Chicago Sun-Times film reviewer Roger Ebert suggested that The Shawshank Redemption is
an allegory for maintaining one's feeling of self-worth when placed in a hopeless position.
Andy Dufresne's integrity is an important theme in the story line, especially in prison,
where integrity is lacking. Isaac M. Morehouse suggests that the film
provides a great illustration of how characters can be free, even in prison, or unfree, even
in freedom, based on one's outlook on life. Production
Frank Darabont secured the film adaptation rights from author Stephen King after impressing
the author with his short film adaptation of The Woman in the Room in 1983. Although
the two had become friends and maintained a pen-pal relationship, Darabont did not work
with him until four years later in 1987, when he optioned to adapt Shawshank. This is one
of the more famous Dollar Deals made by King with aspiring filmmakers. Darabont later directed
The Green Mile, which was based on another work about a prison by Stephen King, and then
followed that up with an adaptation of King's novella The Mist.
Rob Reiner, who had previously adapted another King novella, The Body, into the film Stand
by Me, offered $2.5 million in an attempt to write and direct Shawshank. He planned
to cast Tom Cruise in the part of Andy and Harrison Ford as Red. Darabont seriously considered
and liked Reiner's vision, but he ultimately decided it was his "chance to do something
really great" by directing the film himself. Though the film is set in Maine, the Ohio
State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio, served as the fictional Shawshank Prison. Though
a large portion of the prison was torn down after filming, the main administration building
and two cell blocks remained; the site was revisited later for filming parts of the film
Air Force One. Several of the interior shots of the specialized prison facilities, such
as the admittance rooms and the warden's office, were shot in the reformatory. The interior
of the boarding room used by Brooks and Red was located in the administration building,
though exterior shots were made elsewhere. The prison site is a tourist attraction. Internal
scenes in the prison cellblocks were actually filmed on a soundstage built inside the nearby
shuttered Westinghouse factory. Downtown scenes were also filmed in Mansfield, as well as
neighboring Ashland, Ohio. The oak tree under which Andy buries his letter to Red is located
at 40°39′14″N 82°23′31″W, near Malabar Farm State Park, in Lucas, Ohio. The tree
was heavily damaged by straight-line winds in a thunderstorm on July 29, 2011; officials
were unsure if the tree would survive. However, thanks to rally groups and inspections by
forestry organizations, the tree was found to be alive and well and still stands to this
day. The beach at Zihuatanejo made famous by the
film has recently been closed to the public due to a health warning as a result of high
levels of pollution in the water. The film was dedicated to Allen Greene, an
agent and a close personal friend of the film's director, Frank Darabont. Greene died shortly
before the film was released due to complications of HIV/AIDS.
Release The Shawshank Redemption received a limited
release on September 23, 1994 in North America. During its opening weekend, the film earned
$727,000 from 33 theaters—an average of $22,040 per theater. It received a wide release
on October 14, 1994, expanding to a total of 944 theaters to earn $2.4 million—an
average of $2,545 per theater—finishing as the number 9 film of the weekend. The film
left theaters in late November 1994, after 10 weeks with an approximate total gross of
$16 million. It was later re-released in February 1995,
during the Oscar season, and made an additional $9 million. In total the film made approximately
$28.3 million in North American theaters, making it the number 51 highest grossing film
of 1994 and the number 21 highest grossing R-rated film of 1994.
Critical response The Shawshank Redemption garnered widespread
critical acclaim from critics. Entertainment Weekly reviewer Owen Gleiberman praised the
choice of scenery, writing that the "moss-dark, saturated images have a redolent sensuality"
that makes the film very realistic. While praising Morgan Freeman's acting and oratory
skills as making Red appear real, Gleiberman felt that with the "laconic-good-guy, neo-Gary
Cooper role, Tim Robbins is unable to make Andy connect with the audience."
The film garnered a 91% approval rating from 64 critics—an average rating of 8.2 out
of 10—on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic provides a score of 80
out of 100 from 19 critics, which indicates "generally favorable" reviews. The film has
been critically acclaimed for depicting Jean-Paul Satre's ideas about existentialism more fully
than any other contemporary movie. Accolades
The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1994 without winning any: Best Picture,
Best Actor for Freeman, Best Adapted Screenplay for Frank Darabont, Best Cinematography for
Roger Deakins, Best Editing for Richard Francis-Bruce, Best Original Score for Thomas Newman, and
Best Sound Mixing for Robert J. Litt, Elliot Tyson, Michael Herbick and Willie D. Burton.
It received two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion
Picture for Freeman, and Best Screenplay for Darabont. Robbins and Freeman were both nominated
for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the inaugural Screen
Actors Guild Awards in 1995. Darabont was nominated for a Directors Guild of America
award in 1994 for Best Director for a feature film, while cinematographer Roger Deakins
won the American Society of Cinematographers award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography.
Home media Despite its disappointing box office return,
Warner Bros. shipped 320,000 rental video copies throughout the United States, and it
became one of the top rented films of 1995. The film's home viewing success was considered
to be based on positive recommendations and repeat customers. The film's Academy Award
nominations enabled it to fare well in the video sales and cable TV viewings. In June
1997, TNT, an American cable network, showed the film for the first time. The film was
the first feature in TNT's Saturday Night New Classics. A 2004 Sunday Times article
suggested that TNT aired the film frequently from then on, about once every two months.
TV airings of the film accrued record breaking numbers.
Music
The score was composed by Thomas Newman and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best
Original Score in 1994, which was his first Oscar nomination. Much of the score consists
of faint piano music, and pizzicato strings during the more active or humorous moments.
The scores two main themes only occur two or three times. The prison theme, first heard
in the beginning is a four note ascending line in the bass, which is developed and reaches
its climax when Andy is standing in the river in the rain. The second theme represents freedom,
and is first heard when the inmates are sharing beer, feeling like 'free men.' This theme
doesn't reoccur until the final credits, this time grander, with more filled out orchestration.
Like Zimmer's score to the "Thin Red Line" the track is often played in trailers during
their most dramatic moments. Zimmer himself has credited the score as the one "that has
influenced everything the most" and that Newman opened up the harmonic palette of film scores.
A central scene in the film features the "Letter Duet" from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
Legacy In 1998, Shawshank was not listed in AFI's
100 Years...100 Movies, but nine years later, it was #72 on the revised list, outranking
both Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction, the two most critically acclaimed movies from the
year of Shawshank's release. In 1999, film critic Roger Ebert listed Shawshank on his
"Great Movies" list. It has been #1 on IMDb's user-generated Top 250 since 2008, when it
surpassed The Godfather. Readers of Empire magazine voted the film
as the best film of the 1990s, and it placed number 4 on Empire's list of "The 500 Greatest
Movies of All Time" in 2008. In March 2011, the film was voted by BBC Radio 1 and BBC
Radio 1Xtra listeners as their favorite film of all time. Additionally, the Writers Guild
of America included Frank Darabont's screenplay on its 101 Greatest Screenplays list, at number
twenty-two. See also
List of films considered the best List of number-one DVDs of 2002
List of number-one DVDs of 2006 References
Further reading Mark Kermode. The Shawshank Redemption. London:
British Film Institute. ISBN 978-0-85170-968-0. Oliver, Simon; Watts, Pete. "Shawshank Redemption
and The Bible". Bibledex Verses. Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham. A discussion
of Bible verses in the movie. Turner, Cory. "On Location: Mansfield, Ohio's
'Shawshank' Industry". All Things Considered. National Public Radio.
External links The Shawshank Redemption at the American Film
Institute Catalog The Shawshank Redemption at AllMovie
The Shawshank Redemption at the TCM Movie Database
The Shawshank Redemption at Box Office Mojo The Shawshank Redemption at the Internet Movie
Database The Shawshank Redemption at Rotten Tomatoes