Shawshank Redemption Essay

This sample essay on Shawshank Redemption Essay provides important aspects of the issue and arguments for and against as well as the needed facts. Read on this essay’s introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

The Shawshank Redemption is an uplifting drama about the need for people to break their emotional shackles before they can become truly free. The movie revolves around the two characters Andrew Dufresne and Red. Andy Dufresne, is sent to Shawshank Prison for the murder of his wife and secret lover.

He is very isolated and lonely at first, but realizes there is something deep inside your body, that people can’t touch and get to…. ‘HOPE’. Andy becomes friends with prison ‘fixer’ Red (Morgan Freeman), and Andy epitomizes why it is crucial to have dreams.

His spirit and determination, leads us into a world full of imagination, filled with courage and desire. This is about how he spreads his message of hope through the Shawshank Redemption!!! The main character is Andy played by Tim Robbins who is imprisoned for the murder of his wife.

Later on in the movie, the evidence comes out that he is truly innocent. However The Shawshank Redemption sends a powerful message that it doesn’t matter whether you are innocent or not inside Shawshank penitentiary. This is because the prison is run by a sadistic and corrupt staff.

The Shawshank Redemption Plot Summary

In this facility, you must use all of the intellect you can, both book smarts, and street smarts to not only stay alive, but prevent yourself from going insane within the system.

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Before prison, Andy is the famous Portland Bank vice-president, faced 100 lawyers accused him of hearing, but insisted on his innocence, Andy not reconciled to spend rest of his life in prison so he was struggling to break free like a bird cage Like children aspire to live in freedom outside prison, so quietly spent a month in prison after Andy decided to escape.

What is special about The Shawshank redemption is how the characters, especially Andy and Red, are able to use their inner abilities to rise above the conditions of the prison and the people who run it. There are some disturbing and violent images that show the harsh realities of prison life, such as fighting, and often getting beaten by the staff or punished for very small offenses and a lot of times for no reason at all. The Shawshank Redemption shows the abuse of power by prison authorities and how the nmates have to have the courage to rise above this abuse, because they need to do this, in order to keep living. They learn that failure to get this courage and survival skills from other inmates will destroy them. A great quote in this film is. “you can get busy living, or you can get busy dying. ” Another interesting experience is how Red often wonders how at his advancing age he will be able to survive outside the prison if and when the parole board lets him go.

An underlining message is that whether you “get busy living or dying” you become so accustomed to life in a controlling environment that the outside world, and the struggles, to reach it, to become physically and mentally “free” are an enormous challenge requiring great perseverance and the ultimate in determination. Andy’s aloofness of nature, as he feels he had driven his wife away from their marriage and retained his guilt over this; and Red’s loss of hope due to his institutionalisation over time. This was mostly accompanied by the example of Brookes who failed to break his “emotional shackles” on his release from prison.

Very intuitive candidates also argued that Hadley and the Warden also failed to break their shackles: greed and exploitative power. There was more to freedom than just the physical escape or release: mental freedom was equally significant, and in the case of Brookes. There’s a great sense of inspiration that can be found at the centre of ‘The Shawshank Redemption’, and that’s a story of hope. Hope through all that life throws at you, hope in midst of uttermost despair. We go on a journey with these characters, and their stories remain with us long after we leave them.

Andy’s attempt to maintain hope and Red’s struggle to allow the thought of it into his life is a powerful story to be told, highlighted by the fantastic performances from Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ is a deeply moving picture that has to be experienced, not observed. Felt, not merely seen. It tells a complicated story of extreme magnitude, leaving in its footsteps a touching tale of hope and freedom. Allow yourself to be taken where films rarely go, the tragic beauty of it all is nearly overwhelming. A sweeping work of art to remind us that above all else, when all seems to be lost, never give up hope.

As Andy tells Red, hope is a good thing. And no good thing ever dies. Andy’s best friends “Red,” a fellow inmate, played by Morgan Freeman in another great performance. He teaches Andy street smarts of survival within Shawshank’s hell-hole. Andy, an experienced banker with a master ability for finance and book learning, manipulates the prison officials to get funds to set up a “basic skills” learning facility within the prison’s library. Red helps him organize this, and HOW Andy sets up the funding is really an amazing part of the movie.

Another inmate is the head librarian, known as “Brooks,” who delivers many amazing scenes in the movie. The film techniques used in the film portray power very well by using low angled shots as if the in-mates are nothing and over powered. The guards like to use their authority to their disadvantage in the end. The guards like to exercise their authority by beating the in-mates and treating them like objects not people who make mistakes and have feelings. The dark lighting on the people in authority’s faces make them have a more effective dominating presence.

With the warden and guards looking down making the inmates small and insignificant. Made red hopeful and determined Andy never under minded Red. One camera shot used for when Andy escape out of jail into the river. Justice being served in not only the life of Andy but as well as the people left behind in the jail. If you please him or if you don’t you can really never win with the warden. The camera shot is taken from above and then spirals down towards Andy enlarging him the water is washing away his old life and a new life is being created.

Overall the film shows the brutality of prison confinement that went on in America’s prison systems the determination and the patience and the willingness to except things. Andy is overcome by a whole other world that all strive for power in their own way. The warden is seemingly the most powerful of them all he has the power to override the guard’s opinion or judgments and to keep in jail who he wants for as long as he wants. Shawshank Redemption is a film that follows the story of a prison escape. It passes through a journey of a young man Andy Dufresne being sentenced 2 life sentences, for the murder of his wife and her other Lover.

Andy was convicted guilty in till proven innocent one of many issues is the corruption within the penitentiaries by a select number of guards and the warden, the rehabilitation process which the inmates had to encounter serious consequences, the raw brutality of the prison system, and the true mark of loyalty in friendships which are formed within the prison. One friend is marked the issue of loyalty which is Red a cynical prisoner who ends up with a soft genuine heart Darabont tends to take the story at a distance allowing the characters to establish their traits to the audience instead of pushing a barrage of angle sat the audience.

The screenplay written for The Shawshank Redemption is exact and precise; everything in the movie complements the development of characters and presents underlying motifs such as prisoner’s dependence from long term detention, and feelings of hope in hopeless situations. The blues of the uniforms are all the more dramatic compared to the drab brown buildings surrounding the prisoners. The use of narration also brings out a sense of fate. A formalistic style of direction under Frank Darabont. He interweaves scenes with nice fluid shots. The movie is a perfect example of classical cinema.

The colours also produce dramatic irony in the last scene of Red and Andy on the beach. The plot has a smart climax that is not fully understandable until the last few scenes. By having Red narrate, the audience quickly identifies with the prisoners, there are certain common traits that the characters and audience share that produce sympathy for the incarcerated criminals. The whole movie is shot primarily in high contrast with the exception of the guards who are mostly in the shadows. With this filter the movie tends to bring out the two different colours of blue and brown.

The lighting of these scenes gives a sense of violence without actually showing item the film. The filters give a special beauty to the scenes, which in turn causes more dramatic feelings for the audience. The Shawshank Redemption examines a series of oppositions: guilt and innocence, brutality and charity, freedom and imprisonment to finally show how Andy is able to save not only himself but Red too. Discuss. The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont, is a film in which conflicts and oppositions of many kinds play a major role.

The film’s main character, Andy Dufresne, was wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, and thrust into a harsh maximum security prison, whose shocking brutality and harsh conditions are more than enough to see any man broken a dozen times. However, even in such dire circumstances, he is able to maintain his pride, humanity and hope, in order to survive. He is not only able to keep them going within himself, but he also helps others to do the same, inspiring people like Tommy to do their High School Equivalency exams, and generally do things to improve themselves for when they get ‘out’.

He probable inspires one person the most, Ellis ‘Red’ Redding, who is greatest friend on the ‘inside’, and they both break free of their physical, and psychological imprisonment, and find true freedom. Andy, although being innocent when he gets sent to Shawshank, is soon corrupted as well, with the warden having him do all the accounts for his dodgy deals and scams. Andy’s friendship with Red and the others, Tommy, Brooks, Heywood, etc. The brutality of the prison is displayed from the start of the film, when one of the new inmates asks when they eat and he is cruelly beaten up by guards, and when ‘Fat-ass’ is beaten to death by Byron Hadley.

Andy’s escape helps to show that the difference between true guilt and true innocence are not always clear. “and Andy certainly doesn’t seem to let things get the better of him. The friendships between the felons brings out the best in each of them, and gives each man hope, but unfortunately, Tommy and Brooks do not survive. This highlights the culture of dishonesty that exists in Shawshank and the apparent failure of ‘rehabilitation’ – how can a prisoner be rehabilitated if they don’t even acknowledge their crime?

Andy is not only surrounded by convicted murderers and rapists, but also by the staff of Shawshank, who are probably more criminal than the inmates. Or in Red, who gives Andy the friend that he needs, although their relationship starts purely because of business. This is another example of the hypocrisy of the flawed prison system. Once again, Andy is forced to break the law, however, in doing so he is simply doing what he should have been able to do all those years ago, proclaim his freedom.

For example when the Warden allows Andy to expand the Prison Library, or the way that Brooks cares for the baby crow, Jake. Red, however, had never denied that he was guilty, and had been prepared to do his time, however, when that time ends up being most of a lifetime, he changes his strategy for the parole board, and instead of saying “Yes, I’m rehabilitated, and I know that I’ve changed for the better,”, he simply tells them the truth, that he couldn’t give a stuff whether they let him go or not, so they let him go.

When Andy is put away for two life sentences, it seems that he has no hope of ever being a free man again, apart from the small part of him that knows he is innocent, but he refuses to accept the situation. However, not all of Andy’s friends were so lucky. The majority of the score consists of dark piano music, which plays along the main character’s role at Shawshank. The main theme (“End Titles” on the soundtrack album) is perhaps best known to modern audiences as the inspirational sounding music from many movie trailers dealing with inspirational, dramatic, or romantic films.