Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, The Shawshank Redemption amazingly failed to win a single Oscar. It’s amazing because it’s probably one of the top 10 best films ever produced. Based on Stephen King’s short story ‘Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption,’ the film transcends the typical intellectually and spiritually bankrupt Hollywood entertainment of the modern era with an onscreen artistry that is the closest we’ll probably ever see to poetry in moving pictures. With masterful performances by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, audience members will find themselves engrossed in a tragic story wrought with suspense at every turn.
The Shawshank Redemption focuses on the life of Andy Dufresne (Robbins), a prominent banker convicted of murdering his wife and her lover. Sent to Shawshank prison in the summer of 1947, the inmates bet on which of the new arrivals will be the first to crack. Ellis “Red” Redding (Freeman), an institutional fixture, and the man who can provide anything for a price, puts his money on Andy. But much to his surprise, Andy doesn’t make a sound.
Over time, Andy and Red develop a close friendship, and Red procures a small rock hammer for Andy, who expressed an interest in carving figures out of rocks found in the prison yard. As the years go by, he procures other items as well, the most interesting being a poster of screen siren Rita Hayworth for Andy, and business continues as usual in Shawshank. Along the way, Andy ingratiates himself with the notorious prison guard Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) and Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). Putting his outside skills to good use, Andy provides tax advice and tax preparation services to guards not just at Shawshank, but other prisons as well.
Eventually, in exchange for a comprehensive prison library, he ends up running a massive money-laundering operation for Norton, leveraging prison labor in exchange for lucrative kickbacks. But all goes awry when Shawshank’s newest prisoner, a young punk named Tommy (Gil Bellows) comes forward with shocking information. Andy, who’s spent 20 years in Shawshank prison, might be innocent after all. The revelation ruins lives and destroys Andy’s prison sanctuary, but it’s Warden Norton and his associates who are ruined when the beautiful pin-up Raquel Welch, the latest in Andy's large posters, reveals her hidden secret.
Article comments
1 - Cass
It's a wonderful movie that just gets better with time. I never tire of watching it (well, except for the male rape scene). Andy always intended to get out. All he had was time.
2 - Pip
An awesome film, so realistic, with tension filled scenes and heart-breaking moments of suspense