| The Shawshank Redemption | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Frank Darabont |
| Produced by | Niki Marvin |
| Screenplay by | Frank Darabont |
| Based on | Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King |
| Narrated by | Morgan Freeman James Whitmore |
| Starring | Tim Robbins Morgan Freeman |
| Music by | Thomas Newman |
| Cinematography | Roger Deakins |
| Editing by | Richard Francis-Bruce |
| Studio | Castle Rock Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures (Theatrical) Warner Bros. (Home Media) |
| Release date(s) | September 23, 1994 |
| Running time | 142 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million[1] |
| Box office | $28,341,469[1] |
The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.
Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who spends nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover despite his claims of innocence. During his time at the prison, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis "Red" Redding, and finds himself protected by the guards after the warden begins using him in his money laundering operation.
Despite a lukewarm box office reception that was barely enough to cover its budget, the film received favorable reviews from critics, multiple award nominations, and has since enjoyed a remarkable life on cable television, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. It was included in the American Film Institute's 100 Years…100 Movies 10th Anniversary Edition.[2]
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In 1947, banker Andrew "Andy" Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, based on circumstantial evidence. He is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine, run by Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). During the first night the chief guard, Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), savagely beats a newly arrived inmate who later dies in the infirmary. Andy befriends Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), an inmate serving a life sentence whose parole application was recently rejected. Red is known for obtaining contraband and is able to procure a rock hammer for Andy, allowing him to create small stone chess pieces. Red jokes that Andy might use it to break out until he sees how small the hammer is. Andy later obtains a large poster of Rita Hayworth from Red, followed in later years by Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch.
During the first two years of his incarceration, Andy works in the prison laundry. He attracts attention from "the Sisters", a group of prisoners who sexually assault other prisoners, and their leader Bogs (Mark Rolston). Though he persistently resists, Andy is beaten and raped on a regular basis. Later, he overhears Hadley complain about having to pay taxes on a forthcoming inheritance. After explaining a legal loophole to Hadley, Andy is reassigned to assist the prison librarian, elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore), a pretext to allow Andy to work on financial requests full time. Andy's financial advice is soon sought by other guards at Shawshank and by visiting guards from nearby prisons. Hadley delivers a crippling beating to Bogs, after his gang's brutal assault puts Andy in the infirmary. Andy is left alone by the gang from then on.
Using his goodwill with the warden, Andy helps to expand the prison library by writing weekly letters to the state government for funds. When one donation to the library provides him with a recording of The Marriage of Figaro, he plays an excerpt over the public address system, well aware he will receive solitary confinement for doing so. Warden Norton develops a scheme that uses prison labor for public works, undercutting the cost of skilled labor and receiving kickbacks. Norton has Andy launder the money under the false identity of "Randall Stevens", in exchange for allowing Andy to keep his private cell and to continue maintaining the library. Brooks is freed on parole and moves into a halfway house. Unable to adjust to the outside world, he hangs himself. Andy dedicates the expanded library to him.
In 1965, Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) is incarcerated on robbery charges. He joins Andy and Red's circle of friends, and Andy assists him in getting his GED. When he hears the details of Andy's case, Tommy reveals that an inmate at another prison, Elmo Blatch (Bill Bolender), claimed to have committed a nearly identical murder, suggesting Andy's innocence. Norton, fearing Andy might tell of his corruption if released, refuses to cooperate. After they argue, he throws Andy into solitary confinement for two months. Norton has Hadley kill Tommy, making it look like a failed escape attempt. Andy returns to his regular cell block and tells Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican Pacific coastal town, and setting up a hotel with boat rides for his customers. While Red shrugs it off as unrealistic, Andy instructs him, should he ever be freed, to visit a specific hayfield near Buxton to retrieve a package.
The next day at roll call, Andy's cell is empty. When Norton, angry at Andy's disappearance, throws one of Andy's rocks at the poster of Raquel Welch, the rock tears through the poster, revealing a tunnel that Andy has dug with the rock hammer over the last two decades. The night before, Andy switches Norton's ledger with his prison-issue Bible. Taking the ledger, his chess set, and one of the warden's suits, he escapes through the tunnel and a narrow sewage drain during a thunderstorm. After escaping, Andy poses as Randall Stevens to withdraw most of the corruption money from several banks, then sends evidence of Norton's corruption and murder of Tommy to a local newspaper. The police arrive at the prison, and Hadley is arrested, but Norton commits suicide to evade arrest.
Red receives parole after serving 40 years and is allocated the apartment where Brooks committed suicide, and works at the same grocery store. Red begins to feel fear of the outside world, just like Brooks. Red remembers Andy's advice and visits Buxton. There, he finds a cache of money and a note left by Andy, telling him to get to Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole and travels to Fort Hancock, Texas to skip the border to Mexico. The two are happily reunited on the beach to begin a new life.
Chicago Sun-Times film reviewer Roger Ebert suggests that The Shawshank Redemption is an allegory for maintaining one's feeling of self-worth when placed in a hopeless position. The integrity of Andy Dufresne is an important theme in the story line, especially in prison, where integrity is lacking.[5]
Angus C. Larcombe suggests that the film provides a great illustration of how characters can be free, even in prison, or unfree, even in freedom, based on one's outlook on life.[6]
Darabont secured the film adaptation rights from author Stephen King after impressing the author with his short film adaptation of The Woman in the Room in 1983. Although the two had become friends and maintained a pen-pal relationship, Darabont did not work with him until four years later in 1987, when he optioned to adapt Shawshank. This is one of the more famous Dollar Deals made by King with aspiring filmmakers. Darabont later directed The Green Mile (1999), which was based on another work about a prison by Stephen King, and then followed that up with an adaptation of King's novella The Mist.
Rob Reiner, who had previously adapted another King novella, The Body, into the movie Stand by Me (1986), offered $2.5 million in an attempt to write and direct Shawshank. He planned to cast Tom Cruise in the part of Andy and Harrison Ford as Red. Darabont seriously considered and liked Reiner's vision, but he ultimately decided it was his "chance to do something really great" by directing the film himself.[3]
Though the story is set in Maine, the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio was used as a stand-in for the fictional Shawshank Prison. Though a large portion of the prison was torn down after filming, the main administration building and two cell blocks remained; the site would be revisited later for filming parts of the film Air Force One.[7] Several of the interior shots of the specialized prison facilities, such as the admittance rooms and the warden's office, were shot in the reformatory.[7] The interior of the boarding room used by Brooks and Red was located in the administration building, though exterior shots were made elsewhere.[7] The prison site remains a tourist attraction to date.[7] Internal scenes in the prison cellblocks were actually filmed on a soundstage built inside the nearby shuttered Westinghouse factory.[7] Downtown scenes were also filmed in Mansfield, as well as neighboring Ashland, Ohio. The oak tree under which Andy buries his letter to Red is located at , near Malabar Farm State Park, in Lucas, Ohio. The tree was heavily damaged by straight-line winds in a thunderstorm on July 29, 2011; officials are unsure if the tree will survive.[8]
The Shawshank Redemption received a limited release on September 23, 1994, and made over $727,000 on 33 screens in its first weekend. It received a wide release on October 7, 1994.
It was re-released in 1995 during the Oscar season, and made an additional $8 million. Overall, it has made $28.3 million in theatres domestically.[9]
The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1994 (Best Picture, Best Actor—Morgan Freeman, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound Mixing-Robert J. Litt, Elliot Tyson, Michael Herbick and Willie D. Burton) but, in the shadow of 1994's big winner Forrest Gump, did not win any awards.[10] The film's Academy Award nominations enabled it to fare well in the video sales and cable TV viewings. In June 1997, TNT, an American cable network, showed the film for the first time. The film was the first feature in TNT's Saturday Night New Classics. Since 1997, TNT has shown the film about once every two months.[2]
Entertainment Weekly reviewer Owen Gleiberman praised the choice of scenery, writing that the "moss-dark, saturated images have a redolent sensuality" that makes the film very realistic.[11] While praising Morgan Freeman's acting and oratory skills as making Red feel real, Gleiberman opined that with the "laconic-good-guy, neo-Gary Cooper role, Tim Robbins is unable to make Andy connect with the audience."[11]
In 1998, Shawshank was not listed in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies, but nine years later (2007), it was #72 on the revised list, outranking both Forrest Gump (#76) and Pulp Fiction (#94), the two most critically acclaimed movies from the year of Shawshank's release. In 1999, film critic Roger Ebert listed Shawshank on his "Great Movies" list.[12]
The film has a rating of 80 out of 100 on film-review collating website Metacritic,[13] and an approval "Certified Fresh" rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes by film critics.[14]
In March 2011, the film was voted by BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra listeners as their favorite film of all time, beating others including Fight Club, Pulp Fiction and Back to the Future. [15]
It is currently number 1 on IMDb's Top 250, with a rating of 9.2.
American Film Institute Recognition:
The score was composed by Thomas Newman and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1994, which was his first Oscar nomination. The majority of the score consists of dark piano music, which plays along the main character's role at Shawshank. The main theme ("End Titles" on the soundtrack album) is perhaps best known to modern audiences as the inspirational sounding music from many movie trailers dealing with inspirational, dramatic, or romantic films in much the same way that James Horner's driving music from the end of Aliens is used in many movie trailers for action films. A central scene in the film features the "Letter Duet" ("Canzonetta sull'aria") from Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
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