ショーシャンクの空に（The Shawshank Redemption）

 

Released in 1994 / 143min.
 
The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama movie written and directed by Frank Darabont. Tim Robbins plays a banker, Andy Dufresne, who spends 19 years in Shawshank State Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover despite of the fact that he was innocent, and Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding acted by Morgan Freeman is a fellow inmate of Andy. This story tells us how the banker survives at the prison in hope.

PLOT DEVELOPMENT
In 1947, Andy, who was a successful business person even though he was a young man, is accused of a crime that he shoots his wife and her adulterous lover dead. There are no conclusive evidences, but he is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary. In the prison, an administrator, Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton), who fanatically believes in the Bible, and a chief of the guards (Clancy Brown), who restrains prisoners by violence, reign. Red finds Andy among nwe prisoners who are brought there, and they become fellow inmates. After two years of entering the prison, Andy gets famous in the prison as a first person who helped the brutal chief as a prisoner by applying his experience as a banker in the past. This is an opportunity to change his situation there. After that, Norton lets him manage the finances of the prison because of his talent for finance. Actually, Norton asks him to conceal the corruption of receiving illicit money through prisons’ labor. At first, he has been accepting his request, but in order to uncover dirty tricks and to fulfill his dream of running his own hotel in Zihuatanejo in Mexico, he decides to flee jail by himself. No one finds that Andy is opening an escape route with small rock hammer smuggled by Red. Finally, he escapes from the prison, and gets his money by closing an account he has made when asked to conceal Norton’s corruption. After that, Andy and Red meet again on the beach in Zihuatanejo where Andy talked to Red before, and two are happily reunited out of the prison.

CONFLICT
We can primarily see conflict between prisoners and society. For example, Andy was a successful businessman before entering the prison. However, by an error of justice, people consider him as a murderer. A new and chubby man is one of them. He begins to sob because of new circumstance. The brutal chief of the guards comes to him and shouts abusive language to him, and he is killed at the end. Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) is also killed by Norton because he knows truth about Andy’s innocence. He is a young convict, and in a previous prison, he met a man having killed Andy’s wife and her lover. After knowing the truth, Andy maintains his innocence based on the story of Tommy. However, he is placed in solitary confinement for a certain period of time. If the truth spread out, Andy will go flee and must reveal dishonesty of Norton. Not only in society but also even in the prison’s society, such a delinquent behavior of prisoners is criticized and subject to punishment. Moreover, if they can be released, it is really difficult to work in society as a citizen. This is because they spend so much of their life in the prison and cannot adapt socially.

SUSPENSE
The reason why we would like to keep watching this story is because what Andy is in: jail. We would never experience (and experienced) such a situation of spending about twenty years in a prison in the future (in the past). Basically, we viewers tend to be interested in unknown world such as space and fantasy, I think. We can see how popular such a world is through works like Star Wars and Inception. Prison is one of the places where only prisoners can live in. Moreover, we are willing to know how Andy will escape from there while watching it. Andy seems to have no mind to go out of the prison by himself even though actually he is making a break for it. How to direct Andy in the film will drive to tempt. Therefore, the most important scene is that Norton finally finds Andy has fled jail when he perforates a poster which was procured by Red and has hidden the escape route.

CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Andy is the protagonist of the story. He is a tall man (although in a novel, the author discribes him as a short man.). In the movie, he was emphasized, “That tall drink of water with a silver spoon up his ass.” Moreover, according to this line (actually though the line should be “That tall drink of water with a silver spoon in his mouth), he is wealthy and seems to be incongruous with the prison comparing to other prisoners who use rude slang. He is established as an American icon in the story. Even though being a prisoner, he never gives up his dream. Some characters might change their character comparing the first to the end. However, in coming to him, he does not change his mind regardless of circumstances.
Another important character in the story is Ellis Boyd Redding, who is a best Andy’s fellow inmate. He is called Red because he is Irishman the color of whose hair is mainly red and his family name is Redding. He is well-liked by other prisoners since he procures (smuggles) various things they would like to want even in the prison. If there was not Red, Andy could not escape from the prison because he could not get a rock hammer and a poster. He is more a realist than Andy is. However, by spending his time with Andy in the prison, he holds a hope. After being released, he tries to work as a store clerk. For him, it is a big change of his mind.

THEMES
One major theme of the story is possibility and benefit of change. For example, Andy does not give up his hope to leave prison even under the difficulty, as I mentioned previously. Not only he but also we sometimes get tied up. Most people tend to live in a time-compressed world, and blame our persisting situation for not being able to keep our dream or hope alive. However, unlike them, he brings about changes. In the prison, he makes a library for all prisoners in order to allow them to read books and study. He spins a classic music while having to accept some risk in order to change their unhappy life to lovely one. His willingness to change makes the story positive.
Another significant theme in the movie is the difficulty of adapting to new situations. Andy has an unbending determination to change his existing situation, so he can take action. However, there is an old man who commits suicide after being released, probably because he does not find a steady reason why he needs to live in society. In this story, many prisoners have such a conflict. Though their talk, we can realize how difficult we have a happier life in the future no one cannot know.

EVALUATION / RECOMMENCATION
All in all, The Shawshank Redemption is one of the world-famous movies. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1994, and also received two Golden Globe Award. I like works made by Frank Darabont, who is a Hungarian-American film director, screenwriter, actor and producer. Another work I like is The Green Mile, a 1999 American drama film. If you are interested in American culture value, this movie is very helpful to understand what American dream is like.