Shawshank Redemption, The (1994): Cult Classic, Starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins

Blast from the Past: 30th Anniversary of The Shawshank Redemption

The motivational strategy behind The Shawshank Redemption is similar to that behind other recent movies, revitalizing and updating an old genre, in this case a prison drama.

Grade: B

The Shawshank Redemption
Theatrical release poster

Scripted and helmed by Frank Darabont, who makes an impressive directing debut, the movie is based on Stephen King’s 1982 novella, one of the few non-horror books that he has written.

Some of the movie’s attributes–its old-fashioned morality and message about camaraderie and redemption–are also evident in the original material.

Yet, it’s a handsome (cinematography is by perennial Oscar nominee Roger Deakins), well-acted melodrama, with superlative performances from Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins.

Narrative Structure:

Shawshank Redemption begins in 1946, with the voice-over narration of “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman), a lifer at Maine’s maximum-security Shawshank jail. Though there are other characters in the background, the story focuses on the friendship that evolves between “Red” and Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a young banker who’s serving two life terms for murdering his wife and her lover. As in most prison sagas, we get a representative gallery of types, from the toughest to the most sensitive prisoners. And yes, there’s violence in the scenes in which Andy is savagely raped by a gang of sadistic thugs.

But the resourceful Andy uses his banker’s smarts and knowledge to wangle favor with the brutal chief guard Hadley (Clancy Brown) and Warden Norton (Bob Gunton), for whom he sets up a money-laundering scheme to cover for his various scams.

As a director, Darabont uses a deliberate, slow pacing, which enhances his attention to detail. In today’s landscape some of the scenes would be considered too long and dragging, even if they are occasionally fractured by some action.

We are also required to suspend disbelief, as the prison break is quite implausible. The filmmakers’ intention seems to be in making a moral allegory rather than a realistic story.

The movie contains many “big” scenes, some of which are effective, such as Robbins prison escape and victorious emergence into the rain. (See below)

But others, like the one in which Andy plays an operatic duet on the public system, don’t ring true, and seem to be there for sensationalist effects. Shawshank Redemption works so hard to please the crowd audience that it often neglects issues of plausibility.

Moreover, most of the characters are basically good, misunderstood, men. And there’s one glaring, falsely ringing message: Andy comes to accept his punishment as “redemption,” not for his killing, but for his emotional detachment and insensitivity to his wife, which he believes drove her away from him.

If the film is ultimately satisfying it’s a result of the superb, multi-shaded performances by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, two great actors who add depth and resonance to a trice-told story. It might sound as faint praise, but Jack Warner–and Jimmy Cagney–would have been proud of Shawshank Redemption back in the 1930s.

In its initial release, the movie was a commercial disappointment, but later on, with the help of video, DVD, and TV screening, it began to acquire an increasingly growing audience to the point of becoming a cult item.

Intertextuality

The movie references the iconic sex goddess Rita Hayworth (Gilda), whereas Darabont’s next film, The Green Mile, would reference the Astaire-Rogers musical, Top Hat.

Greatest Scene: Liberating Escape through Shit!

Fir many the film’s greatest scene is the one in which the wrongfully-imprisoned Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) emerges, sodden with excrement, from the Shawshank penitentiary.

The Shawshank Redemption is an (over)long film (142 minutes), during which Andy endures vicious beatings, brutal rape, promise of acquittal that’s then cruelly snatched away from him.

Thus, when he finally emerges, showered in rain and illumined by lightning, it’s a liberating act, an ecstatic rebirth.

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Tim Robbins originally refused to be immersed in the muddy water at the end of the pipe, as a chemist described it as lethal, but in the end, the actor obeyed and dived into the toxic creek.

Casting:

In the novella, Red is an Irishman, so initially, Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood and Paul Newman were considered for the role.

Tom Hanks was originally offered the role of Andy Dufresne, but he turned it down in order to appear in Forrest Gump, a clever decision that led to his winning a second, consecutive Best Actor Oscar (the previous one was in 1993 for Philadelphia, in which he played a lawyer with AIDS.

Impact of Hoe Videos and DVDs

Upon theatrical release, the film was deemed a box office failure but eventually became one of the highest grossing home video releases of all time.

My Oscar Book:

Oscar Nominations: 7

The film was nominated for 7 Oscars in 1995, the most for Stephen King adaptation:

Best Picture (Marvin)

Best Actor (Freeman)

Best Adapted Screenplay (Darabont)

Best Cinematography (Deakins)

Best Film Editing (Richard Francis-Bruce)

Best Sound (Robert J. Litt, Elliot Tyson, Michael Herbick, and Willie D. Burton)

Best Original Score (Newman, his first Oscar nomination).

Oscar Awards: None

It did not win in any category.

Directed by Frank Darabont
Screenplay by Darabont, based on Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King
Produced by Niki Marvin
Cinematography Roger Deakins
Edited by Richard Francis-Bruce
Music by Thomas Newman

Production company: Castle Rock Entertainment

Distributed by Columbia Pictures

Release dates: Sep 10, 1994 (TIFF); Sept 23, 1994 (US)

Running time: 142 minutes
Budget $25 million
Box office $73.3 million

Shawshank Redemption, The (1994): Cult Classic, Starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins

PROFESSOR / CRITIC / AUTHOR