When Red Meets the Big Blue

Warning: this blog may contain spoilers if you have not yet seen the film.


I have fond memories of watching The Shawshank Redemption for the first time with my Dad and I can clearly remember being captivated by the narrative. The film is based on the Stephen King novel Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal (that I have yet to read), which follows the story of main protagonist Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) and narrated by his friend Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding (played by Morgan Freeman).

As mentioned on the Episode 1 podcast, the film is fondly received by many and is often found topping the IMDB best film list. Whether you like or dislike the movie, it is nonetheless evocative, eliciting a cathartic emotional response; you may call this manipulative, but isn’t it the function of all art to ask the audience to question the reality presented before them? The whole of the Warden’s criminal enterprise could represent this as it is, in Andy’s words ‘a figment of my imagination’. In real life, we expect the justice system to uphold the law, but in Shawshank prison, the organisation is corrupt. This reversal of expectation is echoed when Andy is talking with Red in the library – ‘On the outside I was an honest man, I had to come to prison to become a crook.’

As a novice viewer, fellow scribbler Beckie Lees loved the movie and Sally Porter as an informed spectator examines how the film offers a negative and damaging stereotype in its portrayal of women in the given patriarchal society (obviously taking into consideration the limited chance of the representation of women, given that the movie is set in men’s jail) whereas Nick Saward focuses on the cinematography – the ECUs (extreme close ups) to the sweeping aerial shots. Attitudes to film necessarily change over time, when cultural hegemony is overturned and although shot in the 1990s, the film feels both of its time (set in the 1940s-60s) and yet a timeless quality pervades the chronicle, possibly due to the combination of the unvarying prison setting and the modulated delivery of the text when there is ‘nothing left but all the time in the world’.

As a repeat offender myself (love a good pun), I always see something different in the film – I suppose that this is the nature of watching the medium of film as a format, as your own life experiences change, it irrevocably changes the way you view movies because your perspective has changed. For example, when I was studying drama at university, I found myself in awe of the nuanced performances of the cast (and I still am), especially that of Robbins and Freeman, as you can literally see the subtextual story unfolding through their eyes, movements or the hint of a smile. Then when I started my career as a librarian, I was fascinated by the freedom that could be discovered between the pages of a book, which Andy strives to provide with access and diversity to the inmates at Shawshank. The library is a place of solace and hope, a place where the much loved Brooks’ name was immortalised above the door (a more befitting tribute than the ultimate ‘Brooks was ‘ere’ epitaph) and a place where Tommy Williams could dream of a better tomorrow for his family (achieving his high school equivalency, something that evaded him on the outside).

Having re-watched The Shawshank Redemption again this weekend, I could echo the sentiments of others and talk about the universal themes that are associated with the film and attraction to an audience – truth, innocence, guilt, injustice and brutality but I find that I am distracted by one fact, we are told Andy’s story, but it is never from his point of view; there is always an outside perspective, Red’s voice. And when you examine Andy as a character, you realise that it is all like a
game of chess, the pieces are all moving around him (often under his direction), it is just that no-one has figured out his strategy yet (referring both to the prison escape and the ultimate reckoning of the other characters).

The truth is that Andy is innocent, he does not need to be redeemed; he has suffered numerous brutal injustices (from the justice system, the ‘Sisters’ and the prison hierarchy), yet in his final missive to the Warden, he stated that ‘Salvation lies within’. Now this can be interpreted in a few ways – this sentence is written in a copy of the Holy Bible in which hid the rock hammer that Andy used to escape the walls of his cell – salvation could therefore represent faith in the written word or in the physical instrument of his freedom housed between these pages, or maybe, just maybe, it could reference something entirely different.

Just like in real life, some people find solace in their beliefs (whatever faith, religion or atheism this may be) or others find comfort in the routine and toiling at work but in this context, I believe that ‘Salvation lies within’ alludes that deliverance can only be found within us, in the same place that hope is found – therefore, the only hope of salvation is from within oneself. The book is subtitled Hope Springs Eternal but Andy is innocent and hope never fails him (even when the Warden is being ‘obtuse’), so who then needs to find redemption? It is not the innocent man but the guilty that requires redemption, perhaps then ‘the only guilty man in Shawshank’ - Red, our narrator, is the one that the story is actually about. He is stuck in a self-perpetuating cycle, seen before the parole board annually asserting that he is a rehabilitated and changed man but it is only when he believes that all hope is gone that his freedom is granted – ‘Hope is the last thing to die, they say’.

Red finds himself outside of the prison walls but he still remains a caged man in a world he barely recognises (working a menial job and reporting for parole) until he visits a unique place – a stone wall next to an old oak tree (symbolism abounds here; the stone wall representing the prison and shackles of his old life versus the growth of life and knowledge presented by the tree). In a reversal of fortune, Andy then provides the instrument of Red’s ultimate escape (some money) which is found buried beneath volcanic glass (more imagery; the volcano as a symbol of change and the glass to see clearly by, anyone?). Red then uses his freedom to seek out his friend and to see the endless colour blue of the Pacific Ocean. So in a sense, it is not just Andy’s narrative that drives the tale and brings the audience repeatedly back to watch events unfold, the redemption found at Shawshank is quintessentially Red’s story.


If you liked The Shawshank Redemption, you will love: The Great Escape, The Last Castle or Cool Hand Luke

The Shawashank Redaction

English teacher Sally Porter takes an alternative look at the much loved classic...

The Shawshank Redemption is up there in most people's favourite film list; voted Best Film of the Nineties and fourth in Empire Magazine's 'Best Film of all Times' list, it is loved by cinema goers (and cinema avoiders) of all ages. From the sweeping crane shots of the opening scenes to the goosebumping reunion of the two Best Friends Forever in the final sequence, it draws us all in with its message of hope and salvation. Read any review and somewhere along the line you'll see the phrase 'universal themes', because this film appeals to everyone, to all people.

However, if we work on the premise that 50% of 'all people' are women, we start to see a glitch in this film's universality. There are no female characters in the film. Correction, there are actually 3 fleeting appearances by females, but blink/cough/check Facebook for a minute and you'll miss them. Now this is not to say that every film has to have an equal number of male and female characters. I'm not suggesting that the British Board of Film Classification should be reaching for its spirit level to measure the even line of gender characterisation before allowing each film to go on general release. The film is set in a men's prison, after all, and a token female character is arguably more of an insult than a fully-plot-integrated one. What is more troubling, however, is that the representation of women in the film is actually extremely negative.

Andy Dufresne's wife is probably the most significant female character, and how is she presented? She's unfaithful, cheating on poor Tim Robbins while he's out at work, and ultimately the cause of his downfall. Dufresne is in prison because he has been found guilty of murdering both his wife and her lover. However, there is little sympathy evoked for her death, it is only a presented as significant in relation to our protagonist's tragedy (in other words, she deserved it for being unfaithful). Dufresne protests his innocence from the start, and although he is ultimately vindicated when rookie jailbird Tommy Williams (played by Billy out of Ally McBeal- he obviously loves a bit of criminal melodrama) reveals that a fellow prisoner confessed to the crime, we have warmed to Andy's character long before we know for sure that he isn't really a brutal wife-murderer. After all, despite initially seeming somewhat aloof, he turns out to be a good egg- he reads books, makes pretty chess pieces and secures bottles of beer for his friends after a hard day's prison-roof graft.

The other two women in the film appear momentarily in the section in which Brooks leaves Shawshank and is overwhelmed by the speed and loneliness of life beyond the prison walls. The first, his landlady in the bleak halfway house to which he is sent, doesn't even speak, simply exchanges a brief glance (although I'd like to think it's a kindly glance)) as she shows him into the miserable room which will shortly become the location of his suicide. In other words, she is intrinsically linked with his death. The other is a heartless, impatient customer in the supermarket where Brooks works as a bag-packer. We learn via the poignant voiceover that Brooks struggles with the work because his

"hands hurt most of the time", but the customer shows no compassion; indeed she doesn't even speak directly to him, just tells the supervisor to "Make sure your man double bags, last time he didn't double bag". Whilst there is no suggestion that this comment (which arguably symbolises the dehumanisation of the whole prison and parole system more than any other moment in the film) is the catalyst for his decision to take his own life, it doesn't help. And it's spoken by a woman.

But, I hear you say, the most shocking violence and degradation in the film has nothing to do with women; it is meted out by the villainous Bogs, who subjects Dufresne to regular and vicious sexual assaults. Despite Dufresne's valiant efforts at resistance, he is frequently overcome by Bogs and his gang of thugs. And the gang's name? The Sisters. In other words, the most abhorrent characters in the whole film are named after women.

And then there's Red. Good Old Cuddly-but-World-Weary Red, played by Good Old Cuddly-but-World-Weary Morgan Freeman (rather like Good Old Cuddly-but-World-Weary Eddie Dupris in Million Dollar Baby and Good Old Cuddly-but-World-Weary Detective Somerset in Seven). He's the character whose viewpoint we share throughout the film, he helps Dufresne to adjust to the brutality of the prison (not unlike Ronnie Barker with Richard Beckinsale in Porridge, but without the jokes), and we cannot fail to be moved by his sense of pride tinged with loss after Dufresne escapes: "I have

to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright", proving from his use of metaphor that all those hours spent with Andy in the library did not go to waste. So why is he in the prison in the first place? In his final meeting before the Parole Board he expresses sorrow for "that terrible crime" he committed when he was "a young stupid kid", but that's all we are told. However, in the Stephen King novella on which the film is based, it's revealed that he killed his wife for the insurance money by tampering with the brakes of her car. (He also inadvertently killed a neighbour and her daughter, but that wasn't intentional- he only intended to kill his wife, so he's not that bad really.) Now I realise I am probably pushing this one too far, as the details of the crime are not developed in the film, but you can see where I'm going.

So, to re-cap, in a film with a predominance of male characters, we have two dead wives whose alleged murderers we like anyway, a gang of rapists called The Sisters, and a handful of women who appear only to make the protagonists' lives worse. And yet 50% of the film's audience are potentially female. The rueful truth is that this is not unusual- whilst I struggle to think of any film with a predominantly female cast that would rank highly in a "Top Ten Films of all Times" list, women have become accustomed and worryingly de-sensitised to being under/negatively represented in critically acclaimed films.

However, there is one woman in the film who I have forgotten to mention. Well two really. I've not mentioned Rita Hayworth, the actress on the poster behind which Andy scrapes away at the wall for all of those years, later to be replaced by a picture of Raquel Welch in a shot from the film One Million Years BC. These two arguably serve a positive function in the film as they save Dufresne from discovery and punishment, but before we get too carried away, we have to remember that they are both posing provocatively, neither of them speak, and one of them gets a rock thrown at her by the warden...

Still, perhaps I'm being harsh. After all, one reviewer on an American website described watching this film as a 'religious experience', and who can argue with that? But then again, talking of religion, if you read the Bible, wasn't it all Eve's fault anyway?

The Shawshank Redemption

Film Studies student Beckie Lees gives her take on the 1994 classic...

In film club for our Wednesday afternoon 'experiences' we watched Shawshank Redemption over a period of two weeks.  Just before I begin I'm just gonna put it out there, this is not an analysis of the film- meaning no shot types, nothing about mise en scene etc. Only my thoughts. Now even though Shawshank is known as a classic film I've never watched it, I don't really know why.

Here's a bit of background, when Shawshank was released it wasn't overly popular it was just another film, but suddenly it became widely popular. It's number one on IMDB's 'Top Rated Movies' list with Godfather (which I've also never watched) coming second. It was directed by Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Majestic) and was based on Stephen King's novel 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption', released in 1994.

The narrative is quite simple really, Red (Morgan Freeman) and Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) bond over the years they are imprisoned, finding comfort and even redemption through acts of kindness and I would say friendship too. Throughout the film Red recounts their story as it goes along.

Andy Dufresne was accused of murdering his wife and her lover in a drunken rage, the opening of Shawshank lets the audience know this through a replay of events as Andy stands trial. I won't lie I was convinced that he killed them both, during the trial I found Andy to have no genuine sense of guilt or remorse, which doesn't allow audiences to identify with the character! Thankfully, I was proved wrong later in the film. So long story short- Andy is found guilty and given a two life sentences in Shawshank prison. Throughout he beginning of his sentences he found it incredibly hard to settle,  what I found surprising is that I had a lot of empathy even though a lot I haven't been in Andy's situation; equally I've been in an uncomfortable situation before,like we all have, we feel as though we don't fit in.

What I did find fascinating was the fact that Red and all his friends found the entrance of new prisoners almost like a horse race really, betting on who would break first. Now even though I don't know what goes on within prison walls, you could definitely picture this happening; I mean for prisoners who've been in there for most of their lives and see people come in and out all the time it would be expected.

One element of the film that did shock me was the violence towards the prisoners,  of course it was unnecessary, of course it has gone on (I'd like to say has because I hope it doesn't now) but I just didn't expect such harsh beatings. Also, what is the pit. Why? If you didn't think having a life sentence is enough just behave badly and they'll stick you in a dingy, dark hole for however long you deserve to be in there.

Let's move on to one of my favourite characters Brooks. Oh my goodness, he tugged at my heart strings. I love old people, so for me Brooks was the cutest thing ever. He get's more brownie points as he looks after the books, as a book lover myself I'm all for it. If it had't been for Brooks our Andy would never have escaped laundry (which we'll move onto in a moment). Brooks helping the bird just echoed what happened in Shawshank, I think the board expects the prisoners to be rehabilitated whereas actually they mature and grow. The majority arrived when they were young and stupid, never having the opportunity to have a family or career. Just like Red said, if he could he'd go back, talk to his younger self and not make the mistakes he did. Anyway, Brooks, oh how it broke my heart when he died; on the outside we don't view prison as a home but Brooks death just reinforces the concept that maybe it is. In a dysfunctional sort of way, those who have been there for a long period of time don't know how to cope in the outside world; without friends or the routine.

If I didn't mention this, Andy is a banker. In the scene when Andy and the gang are on the roof, when he hears Heywood talking about his money problems and from that point on Andy basically becomes Shawshank's personal banker, money advisor etc. Eventually things get out of hand as the Warden asks Andy to help with his money laundering scheme, the whole idea is quite bizarre but it works in terms of storyline and plot.

I think one of the stand out features of Shawshank is no doubt Andy's escape. You just don't expect it at all, we all remember that Andy asked Red to get him that mini pick axe thing to do whatever he felt like doing. At the back of my mind, I did have my suspicions about the escape plan but I honestly couldn't figure out where Andy had gotten to. Then of course the posters, oh those pretty posters to keep Andy feel a tad more normal, hid his little secret. That escape route was horrendous, hands down would never be doing that, no way. Then of course the audience just want Red to finally be approved.

My favourite aspect of the film was Andy and Red's growing friendship, to think how far they'd come since Andy arrived. When Red was released it was a bit emotional, being put in the same room where Brooks died and working the same job. The oak tree was incredibly moving, Andy obviously wanted Red to come and create a life with him in sunny Mexico. That friendship is so strong it honestly hurts my heart, a friendship that developed in a time of struggle, need and the search for companionship.

Personally, I loved Shawshank Redemption, I think it's an inspiring story that makes us contemplate the things we have. It contains themes of friendship, hope, injustice, secrets, transformation and many more. Andy sticks to his innocence throughout and then finally we have reason to believe he's not a cold blooded killer, he stands his ground and never wavers. I can now understand why Shawshank is classed as a modern classic, Shawshank is one of the most thematically rich films I've ever seen. It tells us if we try hard enough we can go a long way if we don't let anyone define us. 22 years on the strengths of the film is conveyed through it's popularity to this day. If you've got an 144 minutes to spare, I recommend a watch.