The film is about a banker named Andy Dufrain (Robbins) who is convicted for murdering his wife, and the man she was having an affair with. He comes to a prison called Shawshank where he meets Red (Freeman), where the two of them form an incredible friendship. While at prison Andy experience hardships of brutal prison guards, bull queers, and a corrupt religious prison warden. Andy ends up helping the Warden by doing finacial crimes by ripping of the tax system.
Soon we come to find that their is evidence now that Andy has been innocently convicted of murder. The Warden refuses to let him go, becauses Andy leaving will means less of tax return for him. He removes his chances to get another trial. So Andy gets back at him by escaping and by letting information out about what illegal activities the Warden and the prison staff has been doing.
Red alone now without his friend, has been stuck in prison for so long that he has become institutionalized. Soon Red gets a parole approval and has a hard time adjusting to the outside. However, he knows the only way to survive is to find his friend Andy. The film ends with Red and Andy reunited at the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
The Shawshank Redemption is well directed and written for screen by Frank Darabont. The dialogue is good, and the two main characters are well defined. The leading performances are also good, and Morgan Freeman ended up getting an Academy Award nomination for his performance. The look of the film is good too, they capture the time and the feel of a prison over the span from the 40s to the 60s.
One of the main the themes of film is prisonization (institutionalization is what they call it in the film.) The character Brooks is an old man in the film who has been behind bars most of his life. He had become so use to prison life, when finally set free he became depressed because he lost all of his friends. Now he was just a nobody and meant nothing on the outside, so he kills himself. Red dreads this is what is happening to him that when he is finally released that this feeling will overcome him. However Andy has hope about his life like the quote he gives "It is either get busy living or get busy dying."
Prisonization seems to be the current theme of the modern day American prison inmate. The average age of the prison population is increasing. With California's Three Stikes Law this feeling is now becoming on to more criminals. Criminals are now only committing crimes so they can come back. The only answer to this problem is to give the offender once release on the outside something to live for once released.
In my opinion, prisonization is one of the main problems for recidivism. The Shawshank Redemption makes us ask can really rehabilitate a criminal, or is prison just warehouse to put criminals at. The film says that rehabilitation is a made up, "Its a politicians word." The only thing that can change a man is hope that ex-convict can find something worth living for.
Shawshank touches on many others ascpects of prison politics. For example the using of prison labor. The Warden did not care about if this help the prisoners, he only cared about all the new revenue he would be bringing in. Prison labor cuts away work from law biding citizens, it forces people out job because prison labor is so cheap to hire. In the movie there is a scene where one contractor is scene bribing the warden so he would take his contract away.
The idea of educating prisoners was also brought up. When Andy wants to build an library he ask the warden for funding. The warden says the only way to get funding is by state funding, and the only time the state cares about funding prisons is when more guards, more bars, and more walls are needed. Education is one of the key components to preventing higher crime rates. So the film states that the government simply just does not care about helping make criminals better people.
One thing I would of added to this movie is more depth to the prison guards. They all seemed to be stereotypically bad people. It would been nice to show a prison guard that cared about corrections.
The Shawshank Redemption is a great film. Its strongly recommended to a general audience, and to people who have stong feeling toward the correction institutions.
Rating - 90%
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