Shawshank Redemption follows the story of a once-successful banker and husband Andy Dufresne as he serves two life sentences for the murder of his wife and her lover. The movie puts a lot of emphasis on hope and the men in prison redeeming their worth. These Ideas of Hope and redemption are ingrained deeply in the film through characters quotes as well as camera, lighting and sound techniques. As well as hope and redemption the movie focuses on institutionalization and how change can be hard when you have become reliant on a system and are afraid to change. Director Frank Darabont leaves us in the dark for most of the movie on whether Andy is truly guilty or not. This is something that really captures the audience and makes them want to keep watching. Thes ideas have connections to our society today and are things that we can learn from which is why the film is so relevant.

The oxford dictionary has the definition for Hope as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen”. In Shawshank Prison the majority of inmates have given up on hope as they are degenerate criminals but unlike everyone else, Andy has hope, and a lot of it. Hope can be very dangerous for a mans mental health in the sense that having hope for something to happen that is very unlikely to happen will break you down, this is brought to light in the movie when Red says “Hope is a dangerous thing, Hope can drive a man insane”. However, for Andy there is a sense of entitlement to being free seeing as he is innocent so he always sustains hope that he will be able to get out, whether it be via parole or escape. Red nonetheless is different in that over the course of his time in Shawshank he loses all hope he ever had and this is shown to us in how he addresses the parole board. The first time he attempts to get free via parole he puts a lot of effort into his speech and tries to seem very rehabilitated, yet he still gets denied, 10 years later when he attempts parole for the second time he puts a lot less effort into his speech and cares a lot less when he is denied. This is why Red believes hope to be very dangerous for a man as he has endured the negative effects of it first hand. Other ways hope is shown in the movie is through lighting and music. In many scenes throughout the film the prison is very grey and dull where in certain scenes Frank Darabont puts a lot of light on Andy to show him as a symbol of hope. In the scene when all the inmates are sitting on the roof drinking beer the camera looks at the inmates and shows the grey prison behind them with not much light but then switches to Andy who is sitting by himself in a different place, and Andy is very lit up by the sun with the beautiful colourful landscape behind him. This scene shows us that Andy is different from the other prisoners as they all lack hope and are happy to just sit there and let the world go by however Andy is away from then and full of hope. Another scene where light portrays hope is when Andy is in the hole where there is very little light, however, the little light that there is is a beam on Andy’s face. This shows us that even though everything happening around Andy is bad and dark he Himself is still light and is a beacon of hope. In a sense Andy is using hope as a tool to survive the loneliness and horror that is Prison.

In the ghastly walls of Shawshank prison there is a lot of structure and coordination in how things are run. You could say this is what eats away at inmates, disregarding any freedom they ever had, and slowly but surely institutionalizes each and every one of them, except Andy. Institutionalized is “the act of establishing something as the normal or custom” this is something that happens in everyday life on the outside, aswell as everyday life on the inside. When an inmate in prison is institutionalized they will become accustomed to the rules and regulations regarding their everyday life and will soon know no difference. “These walls are funny. First you hate ’em. Then you get used to ’em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them” This quote from Red proves that over time and inmates mindset will change and it will get to the point where being inside the prison walls is better than being outside them. An example of this is when both Red and Brooks are paroled. When Brooks was paroled he worked in a supermarket and lived in a small apartment. After spending 50+ years in prison the world was obviously very different when he got out and this soon got the better of him. Without the law and order he was used to Brooks felt very lonely and distraught so he wound up ending his own life. When Red was paroled he followed a similar path to Brooks in that he worked the same job and lived in the same apartment. It was small differences such as not having to ask to go toilet every time you wanted to go toilet that really made the move hard for Red. An example of this is when Red says “For 40 years I had been asking to piss every time I wanted to, now I can’t squeeze a drop without asking”. This shows that it is hard for someone to break out of their normal and what they have done for all that they can remember. Other examples of places that can make someone institutionalized is working a 9-5 job for a long time, or even sometimes school. This is because if you wake up, go to work, come home from work, watch tv and eat dinner every single day for 20+ years whilst you work the same 9-5 desk job you will become institutionalized. This is really common in the real world and is often a reason people are afraid to leave their jobs. School is similar to this in that it has characteristics that could make someone institutionalized however no one is ever really at school for a long enough time to truly become it. Aspects like having to ask to go toilet, eating at the same time every day and having to sit still, be quiet whilst you work all contribute to how it is similar to institutionalization.

To Redeem yourself is the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil. In Shawshank prison, the heavy majority of inmates strive to redeem their sins which can possibly result in them being paroled. Being paroled is an end goal for a lot of inmates so redemption is something some focus on greatly. An example of this is Tommy starting his path to redemption by getting his high school diploma, something that means he will be qualified for a job should he ever to get out of prison. Even though Andy wasn’t guilty of the alleged double murder he had been sentenced for, he still had to redeem himself just as much as every other man in Shawshank. “On the outside, I was a straight and honest man, I had to come to prison to be a crook”, this shows that even though he is innocent of his accusations, he is now a crook and has done illegal stuff in prison. Examples of how he became a crook on the inside are helping the warden do illegal stuff with his money, getting in fights with the sisters, and being involved with smuggling forbidden items into prison grounds. The latter two were not necessarily very bad things but were definitely things he would never have done had he still been living on the outside. In the movie, there are many scenes that show Andy redeeming himself, especially during and after his escape from Shawshank. In the scene where Andy crawls through the sewer to make his last dash for safety, there is a big metaphor for redemption. This metaphor is that he has gone through shit in the past (literally and metaphorically) and then been reborn and come out a clean man on the other side. This is highlighted when Red says “Andy crawled through 500 yards of shit, that’s almost five football fields, and came out clean on the other side”. Another way Andy redeems himself is when he steals the Wardens money book/taxes and brings them with him on his escape, after escaping from prison he hands them into the bank and exposes the Warden resulting in him being arrested. This is massive for Andy’s redemption as it is like he has been a crook and helped the Warden but has then redeemed himself by getting the Warden Caught.

In conclusion, I believe that director Frank Darabont has used Hope, Redemption, and Institutionalisation greatly in order to captivate audiences and make a great movie. Andy is someone who was by no means perfect, but nobody is and that’s why he was such a good, relatable character. I would recommend this movie to anyone as it has a lot of good themes and ideas and the storyline as well as acting is also very good which means it will appeal to a lot of different people. As well as this it has a deeper meaning that I have talked about above so it is a movie that a lot of people will be able to relate to.

Marcus Hetherington x