The Shawshank Redemption

Date Viewed: 12/6/10 Director: Frank Darabont Cultural Perspective: American Genre: Drama

The movie The Shawshank Redemption is a great classic film with an interesting in-depth storyline. In the beginning of this movie we are confronted with an old-school American type of setting and we are presented with a white man in a court case that gets sentenced to life in jail. This man is Andy Dufrense a normal city banker, Andy had had an argument with his wife and had consumed a large amount of alcohol and apparently murdered his wife and her lover. Andy is charged with 2 life sentences at Shawshank prison. Almost as soon as the film begins we are presented with narration by another prison inmate named Red. The narration continues throughout the film and in my opinion it is a great way to see the story from another inmate’s position and gives the viewer a better perspective of the situation.

When Andy arrives at the prison we are greeted with a normal bunch of prison inmates and guards. Straight from the start Andy is trying to befriend the inmates and even the guards which later on in the film turned out to be a good decision. Andy is moved from his job in the laundry and is moved into an office to do everyone’s accountings and numbers. He even befriends the owner of the prison. This is a good way for the viewer to see what actually goes on because we see all the scams and dodgy deals going on. As the film progresses we start to learn everyone’s background stories and meet many new interesting people throughout the film. As the owner of the prison gets into more scams and dodgy deals Andy starts taking advantage of this and later on the film we see a big twist involving this part of the film.

If I was the director of this film I wouldn’t have changed much because it is such a well made movie with a great story line. I may of given a bit more of a background story for all the other inmates so we see a better understanding of what they have been through, but all in all the director has done a brilliant job.

In my opinion this is a great classic film that is defiantly worth a watch. This is a great film if you are looking for a meaningful movie and a brilliant storyline. I recommend this film for a more mature audience because there is quite a strong message and deep storyline being presented.