This terrific film is based on a novella by Stephen King; King licensed the film rights for $1 to Frank Darabont, as an extension of a personal project of King’s – to encourage young Directors, he will license the rights to make films of his short stories for this same price. Darabont had made an earlier film from one of King’s short stories that impressed the author, and the two of them had become friends.
Andy Dufresne(Tim Robbins) is a banker wrongfully convicted of killing his wife and her golf pro lover in 1947; he is sent to the Shawshank Correctional Institution somewhere in Maine, where he ends up serving more than 20 years of a life sentence. Andy spends two years trying to keep to himself and to keep out of the clutches of the “Sisters”, a group of anal rapists who prey on the “Fresh Fish” who occasionally arrive at Shawshank on the prison buses, but they treat him as brutally as they do all of the new arrivals.
Andy befriends “Red” (Morgan Freeman), the older man known at the prison for being able to illegally acquire anything for a price. Andy asks Red to get him a poster of Rita Hayworth, and also a small rock hammer, so that he can carve chess pieces.
Red later pays off the corrupt prison guards to pick both himself and Andy for a special detail to re-tar the roof of one of the prison buildings. While on this job, Andy overhears Captain Hadley (Clancy Brown) bemoaning the fact that taxes are going to eat up a large amount of his recent inheritance. Andy, who knows a great deal about tax law from his days as a banker, takes a huge chance by suggesting a solution, but taking this risk ends up paying off for him.
Andy Dufresne: …or come to think of it, I suppose I could set it up for you. That would save you some money. I’ll write down the forms you need, you can pick them up, and I’ll prepare them for your signature… nearly free of charge… I’d only ask three beers apiece for my co-workers, if that seems fair. I think a man working outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a bottle of suds. That’s only my opinion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4oPFXWXaDE
The Roof Scene
Entrepreneurial Andy ends up doing tax returns for all of the guards, and also ends up as the financial brains for a money laundering scheme for Warden Norton (Bob Gunton). In return, he asks the Warden to help fund the purchase of more books for the prison library; he refuses, but does allow Andy to write as many letters as he wants to outside groups appealing for their money and donations for this library project. Andy is very persistent with his requests, and eventually acquires a lot of new books, which in turn creates jobs for both him and Red that are far preferable to having to work in the prison laundry.
A major turning point in the film occurs when Tommy (Gil Bellows) arrives as a prisoner at Shawshank. Andy befriends Tommy and helps him study for his GED, the high school equivalency diploma. When Red and Tommy are talking about Andy and why Andy is in prison, Tommy realizes that Andy’s story of being framed is true, because one of Tommy’s previous cellmates had bragged about killing this golf pro and his girlfriend and the fact that the murder was pinned on the girlfriend’s husband. When Andy hears this story, he thinks he will finally be exonerated, but his dreams are quashed when the Warden throws him into solitary for two months and then has Captain Hadley kill Tommy. The Warden is willing to do whatever he has to do to protect his illegal activities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IrCgt-Bt1I
Andy tells Warden Norton about how he can prove his innocence
Warden Samuel Norton: I have to say that’s the most amazing story I’ve ever heard. What amazes me most is that you were taken in by it.
Andy Dufresne: Sir?
Warden Samuel Norton: It’s obvious this fellow Williams is impressed with you, he hears your tale of woe and naturally wants to cheer you up. He’s young, not terribly bright, it’s not surprising he wouldn’t know what a state he put you in.
Andy Dufresne: Sir, he’s telling the truth.
Warden Samuel Norton: Let’s say for the moment this Blatch does exist. You think he’d just fall to his knees and cry: “Yes, I did it, I confess! Oh, and by the way, add a life term to my sentence.”
Andy Dufresne: You know that wouldn’t matter. With Tommy’s testimony I can get a new trial.
Warden Samuel Norton: That’s assuming Blatch is still there. Chances are excellent he’d be released by now.
Andy Dufresne: Well they’d have his last known address, names of relatives. It’s a *chance*, isn’t it.
[Norton shakes his head]
Andy Dufresne: How can you be so obtuse?
Warden Samuel Norton: What? What did you call me?
Andy Dufresne: Obtuse. Is it deliberate?
Warden Samuel Norton: Son, you’re forgetting yourself.
Andy Dufresne: The Country Club will have his old time cards. Records, W-2s with his name on them. Sir, if I ever get out, I’d never mention what happens here. I’d be just as indictable as you for laundering that money.
Warden Samuel Norton: Don’t you ever mention money to me again, you sorry son of a bitch! Not in this office, not anywhere!
This next conversation happens when Warden Norton visits Andy in solitary, just after he has had Captain Hadley kill Tommy:
Warden Samuel Norton: I’m sure by now you’ve heard. Terrible thing. Man that young, less than a year to go, trying to escape… Broke Captain Hadley’s heart to shoot him, truly it did. We just have to put it behind us… move on.
Andy Dufresne: I’m done. Everything stops. Get someone else to run your scams.
Warden Samuel Norton: [icy] Nothing stops. Nothing… or you will do the hardest time there is. No more protection from the guards. I’ll pull you out of that one-bunk Hilton and cast you down with the Sodomites. You’ll think you’ve been fucked by a train! And the library? Gone… sealed off, brick-by-brick. We’ll have us a little book barbecue in the yard. They’ll see the flames for miles. We’ll dance around it like wild Injuns! You understand me? Catching my drift?… Or am I being obtuse?
Warden Samuel Norton: [to Hadley] Give him another month to think about it.
Andy realizes that Warden Norton will now never help him get released from prison. A clue to his solution is hinted at when he has this conversation with Red:
Andy Dufresne: Red. If you ever get out of here, do me a favor.
Red: Sure, Andy. Anything.
Andy Dufresne: There’s a big hayfield up near Buxton. You know where Buxton is?
Red: Well, there’s… there’s a lot of hayfields up there.
Andy Dufresne: One in particular. It’s got a long rock wall with a big oak tree at the north end. It’s like something out of a Robert Frost poem. It’s where I asked my wife to marry me. We went there for a picnic and made love under that oak and I asked and she said yes. Promise me, Red. If you ever get out… find that spot. At the base of that wall, you’ll find a rock that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield. Piece of black, volcanic glass. There’s something buried under it I want you to have.
Red: What, Andy? What’s buried under there?
Andy Dufresne: [turns to walk away] You’ll have to pry it up… to see.
The next day, Andy makes a surprise prison break through a tunnel he had been carving out for 20 years with the small rock hammer, hidden behind successive posters of Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, and Raquel Welch in his cell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQSmfzfg2MY
Dufresne’s escape
He takes with him the ledger containing all of the transactions with the laundered money, and then visits all of the banks where they had deposited the illegal money,withdraws all of it, and heads to Mexico. He also sends the ledger to a local newspaper, which results in the arrest of Captain Hadley and the suicide of Warden Norton before he can be arrested.
Red finally gets paroled after serving 40 years of his sentence; he remembers the conversation with Andy, and heads off to find the hidden box, which has money and instructions on where to find Andy in Mexico.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWJyI9OybWk
Red finds the hidden box near the old Oak Tree
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRBl0GPBm4o
Ending scene
This film has a lot to say about friendship, persistence, hope, and redemption. Being framed and sent to prison for life for something that you didn’t do seems like the worst kind of cosmic joke. Surviving and keeping hope alive in such a brutal environment seems like an impossible task, but that is part of why this film is so compelling. The friendship between Andy and Red is the kind of relationship that most of us rarely experience, and the opportunity they both have at the end of the film to savor what remains of their lives is the kind of just reward that leaves viewers of this film feeling very satisfied.
Film: History, Culture, and Change 