summary and opinion

In 1946, a banker named Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of a double murder, even though he stubbornly proclaims his innocence. He's sentenced to a life term at the Shawshank State Prison in Maine, where another lifer, Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), picks him as the new recruit most likely to crack under the pressure. The ugly realities of prison life are quickly introduced to Andy: a corrupt warden (Bob Gunton), sadistic guards led by Capt. Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), and inmates who are little better than animals, willing to use rape or beatings to insure their dominance. But Andy does not crack: he has the hope of the truly innocent, which (together with his smarts) allow him to prevail behind bars. He uses his banking skills to win favor with the warden and the guards, doing the books for Norton's illegal business schemes and keeping an eye on the investments of most of the prison staff. In exchange, he is able to improve the prison library and bring some dignity and respect back to many of the inmates, including Red.

Adapted from a Stephen King novella, The Shawshank Redemption takes a prison drama and twists it into a fascinating existential treatise on how to approach the business of day-to-day life in the face of a desperately Sisyphian reality. As the film's signature line suggests, "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'." Filmed on location in an Ohio prison, the film occasionally lapses into familiar formulas and well-known stereotypes of the prison-drama genre, but overcomes them due in no small part to a pair of transcendent performances by Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. Director Frank Darabont and cinematographer Roger Deakins (a Coen brothers collaborator) recreate the drudgery and hopelessness of prison life in both the look and the details of dreary rituals of daily life. Spanning twenty years in the lives of its protagonists, Darabont's screenplay and direction allow us the luxury of getting to know these men -- hardened criminals, with little hope for the future -- through a series of quietly captivating scenes that slowly build atmosphere and tension without sacrificing characterization and thematic integrity. A critical success but a box office failure when it was first released, the film was nominated for seven Oscars, but won nary a one.