Frank Darabont has managed to make an adaptation of the book The Shawshank Redemption (1982) by the infamous Steven Kings into a film (1994). It is a successful film, about the struggle of the character, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), charged with murdering his wife and her affair. I feel as though the use of characters in the narrative builds a relationship between the audience and the main characters, as well as providing enigmas to the audience.
The narrative of The Shawshank Redemption starts with a scene of Andy, drunk and loading a gun holster with anger in his eyes. Then switches to a court room in present day, where Andy is trying to prove his innocence but the evidence against seems to be presented clearly on the table. From then on, we see him trying to survive the prison, Shawshank. He makes friends and essentially redeems himself in jail. We get the impression that anyone who is new in prison, immediately becomes a target, unfortunately the bets that Red (Morgan Freeman) and other prisoners put on the “fish” present an insecure feeling for the audience. I had mixed feelings with the atmosphere in the film, unsure of whether to sympathise with Andy, or agree that he is getting what he ‘deserves,’ the film does make me wonder whether this started the ‘tradition’ of prison films/series like Prison Break. The audience immediately gets ‘hooked’ as soon as the mystery is set, producing the questions to the audience like, ‘what actually happened on the night of the murder?
My first issue with this film was how certain groups of characters were presented. The presentation of the law-enforcers to be religious seems more like the saying ‘do as I say, not do as I do,’ another way of presenting how religion is corrupted, like The Duchess of Malfi. The second issue is the way that time is supposed to pass by, without the characters saying how many years have gone by since Andy first came in. I could be wrong, as this might be a use of ‘you cannot tell how much time passes when behind walls,’ but in this case, I don’t think it is presented as well as it could of been.
Looking at the characters on the other hand, I found myself getting caught up with them to the point where I physically reacted to whatever happened to the characters. Whenever Andy was threatened by a prisoner, I felt scared, whenever there was a happy atmosphere, I felt myself warming up to the film. I found myself cry and scream in the cinema when I watched what happened, this film goes in depth by creating a relationship between the audience and characters. As the film progresses, I almost forget that the film is set in a prison and they’re all prisoners, as Andy makes the place more welcome and friendly as though it is a community. Andy is more unpredictable than I assumed he would be, which deceived not just Red at the beginning, but also me as an audience. I keep thinking that I would be able to predict what will come next, but every time that I did, it goes in a completely unexpected direction. You could say that these are ‘redeeming’ features to the film.
Tim Robbins acting for Andy at first felt a bit too monotone for me, however, as the film carried on, I felt as though he acted just right for Andy, as though he completely fitted the part, presenting the kind acts and the mystery behind the character. While Morgan Freeman as his character Red, the narration was right to explain what was going on and from his point of view in the first person. In my opinion, the acting was perfect for his character, being a smuggler and explaining how his thought process continues throughout the film. Although, the narration changes to the character, Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore) for one scene, when reading the letter to the inmates. His acting was incredibly moving, after the letter had finished being read in Brook’s voice. I cried due to the emotions that this character had gone through. Throughout this film, the acting is that impressive that I forgot where I was and got ‘into’ the film.
The cinematography was perfect for capturing the expressions, I could see the objects in focus for the right amount of time and the right speed for panning over objects. We get to see the expressions on the characters, how they react to the alien presence of Andy, as he doesn’t seem to fit as the criminal ‘type,’ which is even indicated by Red in a voice over on the long shot of Andy walking in the courtyard. The voice overs on the shots link up to what the narrator is saying, we get into the thought process of the characters, see what they see and link what the narrator is saying about the scenes.
I found the props to be more welcoming, as the plain prison walls and the bars are completely different to the rocks that are chiselled and polished to impressively crafted ornaments. In fact, I felt more at home in Andy’s cell as he developed and gave it more of a workshop/homey atmosphere as he decorated it. The books for the library just made the prison look more of a study area for the prisoners, which brought them together as though it was a community. These props created more of a personality to not just Andy, but also others like Brooks with his crow, presenting the characters to be people and not dangerous criminals to society. You could say that they managed to ‘redeem’ themselves.
Overall, I found myself enjoying The Shawshank Redemption to the point where I felt present in the film. I am seriously impressed with Frank Darabont for the adaptation of the book by Steven Kings, to what I would consider to be a masterpiece. The choice of actors to create the characters was very well picked, as I felt as though these characters were real, I recommend watching it or go to prison and ‘redeem’ yourself.
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