“The Shawshank Redemption” at 30: Hope is a good thing

In October 1994, several top-class films competed against each other at the box office. Tom Hanks starring Forrest Gump had a charming box office success while Quentin Tarantino directed it pulp Fiction also celebrated its long-awaited debut.

Also on offer for fall moviegoers was Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins' vehicle TheShawshank RedemptionDirector: Frank Darabont. Based on the novella by Stephen King Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (whose plot is followed very faithfully) was touted as an inspirational jailbreak film; As a slogan there was the uplifting letter: “Fear can hold you captive, but hope can set you free.”

However, unlike its companions, this film proved to be a box office bomb. Although nominated for seven Oscars, the Oscar campaign was unsuccessful. But now, 30 years later, it has achieved cult status. Events were planned for this year's anniversary of the film, including a tour of the film's filming locations in August, mostly in Ohio. The phrase “Get busy livin' or get busy dyin” has entered the public consciousness without any reference to its origin. Its longevity is attributed to cable television and home video rentals – it became the most distributed film of 1995. It gradually gained credibility through word of mouth and is now considered a classic. And it has widely made it onto lists of the best films of the 90s and of all time. Today it still ranks first in IMDb's top 250 and top 100 films, indicating great popular appreciation.

In the film's 30th year of release, we saw it with new eyes, as an eager movie hound might on an evening in October 1994. And here's what we took away from it.

Enter Shawshank

The beginning itself sets the tone for the film: it's dark, a little hopeless. Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) parks in front of his wife's lover's house. Because this overlaps with the courtroom scene in which Andy is sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of his wife and her lover, the viewer is left in doubt as to what happened that night.

But whatever. In 1947, Andy arrives at the fictional Shawshank State Penitentiary. And here Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman) is once again denied parole, as he has been for 20 years. As Red muses, Andy doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the prison group. It's not his claim to innocence that sets him apart – “Don't you know, we're all innocent here,” his fellow inmates tease – it's something in his behavior, almost a carelessness. Andy soon befriends Red after approaching him about a rock hammer – a canonical event in the film and the eventual catalyst for his escape.

Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman sit on the benches outside, playing checkers and chatting in a scene from the film | Photo credit: ARCHIVE PHOTOS

The budding friendship that forms the core of the film is intertwined with the disturbing dystopia of prison life. Some of the prison's evils are obvious: a worm in Andy's first meal, the death of a prisoner beaten by guards on his first night, the scourge of repeated sexual assaults by Bogs and his crew. Others are more insidious, suggesting that evil continues without respite – evil through cutscenes, whispered words, and nebulous fear.

But the film is not a prison documentary. It is a dark creation, but still remains a quasi-fantasy of life. If it were a newspaper article, perhaps we wouldn't get a reprieve. But inside Shawshank Redemptionthere are moments of calm. There is a library that is getting bigger and more beautiful. There is a friendship that has continued to grow through cold beer, Rita Hayworth and a slight hope of music.

Andy Dufresne is a beacon of hope, and his Zihuatanejo might as well be a substitute for paradise. It fits; He is, after all, the underdog hero. The clever banker who was taken in for a crime he didn't commit. The inspiring prisoner who doesn't sink into the quicksand of horror, but builds a library, helps people get an education, and gets into the warden's good books. And finally he escapes. In all aspects he fits the hero archetype.

But Red, skillfully played by Morgan Freeman, could be anyone. He is too formidable to claim the friend archetype. He is perhaps the omniscient narrator: the knowing connoisseur of every place, the man who watches from the wall and is too hardened to seek peace or escape. He doesn't want any trouble. He is trusted, but not trusted enough to be accepted back into society. In fact, society allows him to rejoin it when he declares that he is unable to become part of society in any way.

The redemption

As we discover, Andy has nothing to seek redemption for, but the film offers him redemption for his non-sin. It also offers redemption for the viewer and redeems the world for them, just as it redeems men from prison. It seems to study the beginning of humanity after humanity gave up on you. Whether crimes committed or not committed, these people are lost to society, perhaps forever. What can survive in this barren atmosphere? The story follows a story that many soft-bellied products of civilization may not want to follow too closely.

A famous shot from the film

At least in the film, we never find out what Red did. He murdered someone, yes, but who? For what? The film makes it irrelevant. His inhumane act does not completely deprive him of his humanity. This is an advantage not afforded to Tommy, a hardened criminal who is now ready to try a life beyond his crimes. He even brings hope to Andy by proving that he is innocent of the crime for which he was imprisoned. But not all things hopeful are allowed to flourish in Shawshank.

A still from “The Shawshank Redemption”

Another uncomfortable question is this: Who can be declared a fit member of society? And besides, what is acceptable to society – a God-fearing man or a good man, a person who wears an appearance of decency or a soul with integrity? Who can be a person and not just a number in the prison book? The film challenges the idea that crossing the thin social barrier that separates the prisoner from the average citizen on the street is reserved for only a select few. We sense this sense of exclusivity with the prison guards, as if no harm can be done to him or her, and with the warden, whose personal distance from his technique's dirty deeds gives him a sense of security. They are evil and powerful in a cursed dance, creating the writings that ensure no one can touch them – or so they believe.

One of the film's sharpest tragedies is how a man becomes a creature of habit even in a cruel, inhumane place. As inmates spend years isolated from society, some begin to prefer the certain horrors of prison to the uncertain horrors of the outside world. They are now institutionalized men, accustomed to the routine, structure and even hierarchy of prison life. The outside world is random, and they enter it as the dregs of society, not as Man Friday, as Red is in prison, or as a popular prison librarian, as Brooks is before being paroled.

But perhaps the film's most striking message is that all people are allowed to live a life – a flawed, wavering, quivering little life. Time in prison is time wasted, but life is still a shining fact worth preserving. Is this friendlier than real life? After all, in real life there is no certainty about salvation from the sun on your face, the wind in your hair and the feeling of green things around you. But the Creator is nicer. “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing. And nothing good ever dies,” says Andy. And we believe him almost fearfully.

In the revealing light of 30 years later, it is not surprising that the film did not do well in theaters. It really doesn't seem like the kind of movie you watch in an afternoon and then carry on with life as usual. It's also no surprise that it's one of the most rented films of all time. You think about what it has given you and propose it to someone you want to do well, like a nugget of received wisdom. It's been like this for three decades. And every year new viewers will find it, like a hopeful letter under a black rock that has no place under an oak tree in Texas.