April is here at last and that means that I’m looking at another director to spotlight. The prior years I’ve looked at Robert Rodriguez and Denis Villeneuve’s best films. Now, I’m shining that light on Frank Darabont. He’s not among the most talked about directors, but what he’s known for is his adaptations of three Stephen King stories. It’s odd that he’s the only director to adapt three of King’s work, but they are held in such a high regard that they even outshine King’s other works of horror. So with that, we’ll kick off the month with The Shawshank Redemption.
1. Andy Dufresne
Consider this as a first impression since I just saw this movie this instant. This wasn’t the first time that I was exposed to the story. Of course like many things, it was a combination of Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken show and a rerun of Family Guy. Both had segments where it parodied the film by using Batman characters and Peter Griffin as Andy Dufresne. As years gone, I’ve only seen snippets of the film and it’s until now that I viewed it.
The story is simple as a prison drama. We follow Dufresne as he’s wrongly accused of murdering his wife and new lover. As punishment, he’s sentenced to consecutive life sentences and imprisoned at Shawshank. Morgan Freeman’s Red narrates the whole story of his encounter with Andy and his adjustment to incarceration. Both Red and Andy are the main highlights since they develop a close bond among each other.
Just the fact that Andy didn’t squeal when the fellow inmates were daring the new arrivals, showed that he can’t let his guard down. What makes Andy interesting as a character is just how he maintains his innocence and never really stoops down to the other convicts level. He never bends or cracks when he gets jumped by the other inmates. To me, he takes the brutal punishment since there’s no other way to get any sense of justice with where he is.
With the run time of the movie, it really shows just how Andy and Red start to influence themselves. So much so that we see Andy start to make deals where he isn’t abused within the prison walls. It’s almost like he makes compromises since he sees every prisoner as a human and to at least have any sense of empathy. Right down to have a library established within Shawshank.
I think the interpretation that the film has going for itself is that we can interpret Andy as being a Jesus-esque character. A man that doesn’t belong in an area where he’s abused and questioned just by his own thinking. And then shows empathy among his peers and tutors one of them. While he doesn’t die in the end like being a martyr, but his perseverance to endure the hardship makes him endearing.
2. Shawshank Prison
The scene where the inmates are introduced to the prison immediately sets the tone to how Hell-ish the place is. Both Warden Norton and Captain Hadley each display the level of cruelty and malice that infects the prison. The moment that perfectly illustrates Hadley as a person is when the obese inmate cries out that he doesn’t belong in the prison. Hadley drags him out and beats him to a pulp, which killed him. It’s the level of brutal threats that has the prisoners know where they are.
The warden is a special kind of evil since he’s a believer of Christianity. He gives the prisoners the book, but he’s one to not follow the guidance that wants to help the prisoners. To put it simply, he’s corrupted to an extent that he uses Andy to falsify financial documents. It’s a recurring motif with Stephen King and religion where he shows the hypocrites, and this movie is no different.
One could interpret the prison as Hell and Andy being a sort of savior to help improve the prisoner’s morale. More so that within the breaks of the movie, we see Red have a meeting with the parole board on three separate occasions. On the first two moments, he gets denied since he states that he’s no threat to anyone. With the final meeting, he gives the answer that the new board wants to hear. The last scene is one of the many highlights of the film.
For one, he’s not acting humble and putting on an act that he’s finally cured with innocence. Red tells the board that there’s nothing that can be done to fix his problem and that days go by where he wished he could change what happened. I believe with that scene, without having the Warden or Hadley, is supposed to show why prisons exist. To be an actual punishment by finally recognizing what you did and own up to it when the time comes to be let out.
We see just how much influence the prison has when we see both Red and the old prisoner Brooks are let out. Just the shot selection between the two show just how much the incarcerated life has affected them. When Brooks is let out, we see the prison behind him. Right down to when he rides the bus, he clings on to the seat rail. The opposite is set on Red’s character since he is facing the window side of the bus. It shows just how much the whole experience changed them that they can’t adapt and be a regular civilian. With Brook’s death being tragic to really cement the whole idea.
3. Legacy
This is the rare moment for a film where the appreciation came just after the release. While it got glowing praise when it came out, the movie didn’t do well box office wise. Making matters worse, the film was competing with Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. While Pulp Fiction made an impact among the audience, people gravitated towards that film. Reading more, it was move by a Warner Bros. exec to print more copies of the film’s VHS release.
The move paid off since the film gained more of an audience following with its rentals and ownership. I think to show a movie’s longevity is a combination of time and it’s obligatory reruns that’s available on TV. I believe that with the newfound success of this one, it made the studio give Darabont another shot with making another adaption. Don’t you worry though, we’ll look at that one next week.
4. Overall
The Shawshank Redemption is one of the best films of the 90s. More so that it’s the best non-horror Stephen King adaptations that I’ve seen.
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