"Fear can hold you prisoner,Hope can set you free."
I watched this movie yesterday for the first time. Funny thing is - 3 years ago, my friend gave it to me and said its a nice movie, why dont you watch it, I never did. And then, couple of years later I am watching this movie with the same friend. It has become my favourite of all the ones I have seen so far, and let me tell you, I have seen a lot. ;)
I started from the quote which is printed on one version of the DVD cover of the movie and that is the main idea, which goes throughout the whole movie as a thin, slightly visible line.
Action starts with the night settings and the man in the car, with revolver and couple of bullets, and a bottle of whiskey in the other hand. He is clearly lost and is very drunk. Then, there is court and a judge, and this man, whose name is Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), is being made guilty in the murder of his wife and her lover. Because he hasnt got a proper alibi, rather than his word and he said he was in the car, in front of the lovers house, straight after his wife left him for a lover, she said she got tired of hiding. Andy wanted to discuss the matters with the lover, but never did, as was too drunk. So he left home and dropped his gun in the nearest river. That night, the couple was shot with the same gun caliber as Andy had. But since his gun was never found in the river by police...so the attorney tells Mr. Dufresne, that that is very convenient for him:
District Attorney: And that also is very convenient, isn't it, Mr. Dufresne?
Andy Dufresne: Since I am innocent of this crime, sir, I find it decidedly *inconvenient* that the gun was never found.
You notice straight away in the movie, how calmly and wisely Andy responds to the attorney. But, yet, it doesnt save him from the judgment and they put him to prison.
On the very first day, as soon as new prisoners arrive, we get introduced to another character: Red aka Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman).
He and his team are betting cigarettes on who of the newbies will cry on the first night of being in prisons cell.
Red bets on Andy:
Red: That tall drink of water with the silver spoon up his ass.
Then the prison's warden, the main man in Shawshank, Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) tells prison rules to all of the newcomers:
Warden Samuel Norton: I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you'll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.
Here is starts - first night one of the new guys gets killed by prison officers for crying in his cell and begging them to let him out, as he doesnt belong in there...
One month passes and Andy finally decides to speak to Red, as Red was the man who knew how and where to get things. Andy needs Red to get him a stone hammer.
Later on all of them are watching a movie with Rita Hayworth. Andy asks Red to get him her, and couple of weeks later, when Andy comes back from the hole, he finds in his cell a huge poster with Rita.
From his first day in the prison's shower, he was sized up by Boggs, local homosexual.
Boggs: Hey, anybody come at you yet? Anybody get to you yet?
[Andy looks at him in puzzlement]
Boggs: Hey, we all need friends in here. I could be a friend to you.
[Andy walks away]
Boggs: Hey... Hard to get. I like that...
So, after couple of months, Boggs with his team(they were called sisters there), catches Andy in the workers room, for a known matter. Andy fought, as much as he could, but, obviously, he could not do much against 4 men. So, thats how it went - for 2 years, sometimes Andy could fight back, sometimes he couldnt. But he always kept his head up and never told anyone about it. In his head he had something, which kept him going through years in Shawshank and nothing could break him. Thats how Red thought about Andy:
Red: I could see why some of the boys took him for snobby. He had a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn't normal around here. He strolled, like a man in a park without a care or a worry in the world, like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place. Yeah, I think it would be fair to say... I liked Andy from the start.
All the days in prison Andy spends reading the Bible, carving figurines out of stones and playing chess.
Then, thats where matters started to happen and the movie is taking on its pace - in the spring of 1949 the roof of the license-plate factory needs resurfacing and warden Norton needs a dozen volunteers for a week's work. With privileges being of working outside the prison.
After the draw, Andy gets chosen along with Red and his team. They are working on the roof and that when Dufresne hears a talk between officers, that one wants to find a way of getting a huge amount of money, but without enormous tax on that. Andy risks his life, because when he approaches officer in his direct and a bit strange way, officer decides to throw him down from the roof. Andy, being a banker in his life, advices officer to give money to wife, and asks nothing, but couple of cold beers for his inmates.
Thats when both inmates and officers started to - I want to say "like", but not quite there..yet. Thats when they noticed him in a good way.
After he comes back from that week of work, Sisters attack him again and he hardly survives there, but they have beaten Andy so bad, he has to spend a month in hospital. Whereas officers get Boggs and bit his so hard for that, that Boggs has been transfered in a wheelchair to a minimum security prison and for the rest of his life never walked and ate through the straw. And the rest of Sisters never touched him again.
You can see in here how officers stood up on the Andy's side, which would have never happened to anyone in the prison, unless the one has earned a respect.
Upon Andy's return, warden Norton offers his a job in the library, instead of laundry. And Andy joins Brooks Hatlen(James Whitmore). An old man with a kind heart and a bird lover (the flying ones ;) ). From the first day officers started to come and ask Mr. Dufresne for a financial advice. And thats how it goes - every day Andy gets a huge queue of officers for advice, and he is trying to improve the library, Red and his team are helping him. But what Andy wants is to get much more books for the library. So, he writes a letter a week for two years to a local community, till they send him a pile of books and a cheque for $200 and begging not to write anymore :) . After that, he starts writing 2 letters a week, and in a while they grant him a yearly allowance of $5000 for the library and loads of books. Brooks has been released from the prison and unable to cope with the outside life and work, he hangs himself, living a carving on the wall in the room he used to live. Note it here, cos we will come back to this room later on with you, my reader. :)
Meantime, Norton gets Andy to work on prisons budget and Andy is laundering huge amounts of money every day for him.
Dufresne puts this money on the account of some imaginary character, which whoever tries to find, will end up with nothing:
Andy Dufresne: If they ever try to trace any of those accounts, they're gonna end up chasing a figment of my imagination.
Red: Well, I'll be damned. Did I say you were good? Shit, you're a Rembrandt!
Andy Dufresne: Yeah. The funny thing is - on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.
So it goes.
Until one day new guy arrives to prison, named Tommy Williams (Gill Bellows), he is young and is a very simple and outgoing boy. Andy starts teaching him how to read and count and Tommy in his turn tells Red and Andy about the guy he met in prison before, who has admitted he has killed two lovers in their house, at night. So, they turned out to be Andy's wife and her lover.
Andy goes to Norton, asks him to help to move this case forward. Norton gets insanely mad, put Andy in hole for 2 months and by tricking Tommy, he calls him at night for a talk and a cigarette just outside the prison fence and gets him killed by a guard.
Then there is talk between Andy and Red, after Andy gets out of the hole. Andy asks Red, when Red gets out of the prison, to go to the field where Andy proposed his wife, under a certain volcanic stone to get something, which he wants him to have. Red thinks Andy is going mad little by little. Oh, and also Dufresne tells him about a town, which has no memory..
Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
And here, from the conversation between two main characters, you can get the main idea of the movie, the one you need to get and the one which will keep you, the reader of this blog going on in life as well...>>>
Andy Dufresne: That's the beauty of music. They can't get that from you... Haven't you ever felt that way about music?
Red: I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn't make much sense in here.
Andy Dufresne: Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget.
Red: Forget?
Andy Dufresne: Forget that... there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.
Red: What're you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.
Andy escapes from the prison very soon after, he has made a tunnel behind that poster of the girl on the wall with that mini hammer he asked from Red very first month. He goes through the tunnel, then through the sewage pipe 500 yards long. And leaves in the Norton's safe not the real accountancy books, like he did every night, but a Bible and a note for Norton: "Salvation lies within". Just like Norton said one day to him.
Next morning Andy goes around many banks in his suit and gets all the enormous amount of money he has transferred over past years to imaginary person and then takes of to the place where he always wanted to go - the Pacific.
Also, Dufresne sends those accountancy books to police and they go to arrest Norton, which in his turn locks himself in the office and shots himself dead.
Red gets granted rehabilitation and he ends up working in the same shop where Brooks worked a long time ago and living in the same room where Brooks hanged himself. Do you remember I told you we will come back to this room? So we did. Red leaves a carving with his name next to Brook's one, buys the compass and leaves to find the place which he promised Andy to find. Thats the only thing which kept him going and not killing himself, like Brooks. He has this hope which Andy left for him, hope for the better, even though its not his own hope and idea, but Andy's. But it still keeps Red going.
So, Red finds a box under that volcanic rock, with money in there for the ticket and a letter for Red. Andy says: [in letter to Red] Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
Red travels to Pacific coast, and meets Andy there, fixing the boat. Thats how the movie ends.
I will give this movie 10 out of 10. And thats the only time I have ever given this score - because the plot is amazing, Tim and Morgan are great actors and the lesson you learn from the movie - is the main lesson in life. Its priceless!! Whenever you get an opportunity, I HIGHLY recommend watching this. You will get inspired if not for the rest of you life, but for the part of it enough to make you want to change it.
Andy Dufresne: Since I am innocent of this crime, sir, I find it decidedly *inconvenient* that the gun was never found.
You notice straight away in the movie, how calmly and wisely Andy responds to the attorney. But, yet, it doesnt save him from the judgment and they put him to prison.
On the very first day, as soon as new prisoners arrive, we get introduced to another character: Red aka Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman).
He and his team are betting cigarettes on who of the newbies will cry on the first night of being in prisons cell.
Red bets on Andy:
Red: That tall drink of water with the silver spoon up his ass.
Then the prison's warden, the main man in Shawshank, Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) tells prison rules to all of the newcomers:
Warden Samuel Norton: I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you'll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.
Here is starts - first night one of the new guys gets killed by prison officers for crying in his cell and begging them to let him out, as he doesnt belong in there...
One month passes and Andy finally decides to speak to Red, as Red was the man who knew how and where to get things. Andy needs Red to get him a stone hammer.
Later on all of them are watching a movie with Rita Hayworth. Andy asks Red to get him her, and couple of weeks later, when Andy comes back from the hole, he finds in his cell a huge poster with Rita.
From his first day in the prison's shower, he was sized up by Boggs, local homosexual.
Boggs: Hey, anybody come at you yet? Anybody get to you yet?
[Andy looks at him in puzzlement]
Boggs: Hey, we all need friends in here. I could be a friend to you.
[Andy walks away]
Boggs: Hey... Hard to get. I like that...
So, after couple of months, Boggs with his team(they were called sisters there), catches Andy in the workers room, for a known matter. Andy fought, as much as he could, but, obviously, he could not do much against 4 men. So, thats how it went - for 2 years, sometimes Andy could fight back, sometimes he couldnt. But he always kept his head up and never told anyone about it. In his head he had something, which kept him going through years in Shawshank and nothing could break him. Thats how Red thought about Andy:
Red: I could see why some of the boys took him for snobby. He had a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn't normal around here. He strolled, like a man in a park without a care or a worry in the world, like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place. Yeah, I think it would be fair to say... I liked Andy from the start.
All the days in prison Andy spends reading the Bible, carving figurines out of stones and playing chess.
Then, thats where matters started to happen and the movie is taking on its pace - in the spring of 1949 the roof of the license-plate factory needs resurfacing and warden Norton needs a dozen volunteers for a week's work. With privileges being of working outside the prison.
After the draw, Andy gets chosen along with Red and his team. They are working on the roof and that when Dufresne hears a talk between officers, that one wants to find a way of getting a huge amount of money, but without enormous tax on that. Andy risks his life, because when he approaches officer in his direct and a bit strange way, officer decides to throw him down from the roof. Andy, being a banker in his life, advices officer to give money to wife, and asks nothing, but couple of cold beers for his inmates.
Thats when both inmates and officers started to - I want to say "like", but not quite there..yet. Thats when they noticed him in a good way.
After he comes back from that week of work, Sisters attack him again and he hardly survives there, but they have beaten Andy so bad, he has to spend a month in hospital. Whereas officers get Boggs and bit his so hard for that, that Boggs has been transfered in a wheelchair to a minimum security prison and for the rest of his life never walked and ate through the straw. And the rest of Sisters never touched him again.
You can see in here how officers stood up on the Andy's side, which would have never happened to anyone in the prison, unless the one has earned a respect.
Upon Andy's return, warden Norton offers his a job in the library, instead of laundry. And Andy joins Brooks Hatlen(James Whitmore). An old man with a kind heart and a bird lover (the flying ones ;) ). From the first day officers started to come and ask Mr. Dufresne for a financial advice. And thats how it goes - every day Andy gets a huge queue of officers for advice, and he is trying to improve the library, Red and his team are helping him. But what Andy wants is to get much more books for the library. So, he writes a letter a week for two years to a local community, till they send him a pile of books and a cheque for $200 and begging not to write anymore :) . After that, he starts writing 2 letters a week, and in a while they grant him a yearly allowance of $5000 for the library and loads of books. Brooks has been released from the prison and unable to cope with the outside life and work, he hangs himself, living a carving on the wall in the room he used to live. Note it here, cos we will come back to this room later on with you, my reader. :)
Meantime, Norton gets Andy to work on prisons budget and Andy is laundering huge amounts of money every day for him.
Dufresne puts this money on the account of some imaginary character, which whoever tries to find, will end up with nothing:
Andy Dufresne: If they ever try to trace any of those accounts, they're gonna end up chasing a figment of my imagination.
Red: Well, I'll be damned. Did I say you were good? Shit, you're a Rembrandt!
Andy Dufresne: Yeah. The funny thing is - on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.
So it goes.
Until one day new guy arrives to prison, named Tommy Williams (Gill Bellows), he is young and is a very simple and outgoing boy. Andy starts teaching him how to read and count and Tommy in his turn tells Red and Andy about the guy he met in prison before, who has admitted he has killed two lovers in their house, at night. So, they turned out to be Andy's wife and her lover.
Andy goes to Norton, asks him to help to move this case forward. Norton gets insanely mad, put Andy in hole for 2 months and by tricking Tommy, he calls him at night for a talk and a cigarette just outside the prison fence and gets him killed by a guard.
Then there is talk between Andy and Red, after Andy gets out of the hole. Andy asks Red, when Red gets out of the prison, to go to the field where Andy proposed his wife, under a certain volcanic stone to get something, which he wants him to have. Red thinks Andy is going mad little by little. Oh, and also Dufresne tells him about a town, which has no memory..
Andy Dufresne: You know what the Mexicans say about the Pacific?
Red: No.
Andy Dufresne: They say it has no memory. That's where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory.
Andy's dream, which kept him going was to get free and buy a small hotel and a boat and live there peacefully.
Red: No.
Andy Dufresne: They say it has no memory. That's where I want to live the rest of my life. A warm place with no memory.
Andy's dream, which kept him going was to get free and buy a small hotel and a boat and live there peacefully.
And here, from the conversation between two main characters, you can get the main idea of the movie, the one you need to get and the one which will keep you, the reader of this blog going on in life as well...>>>
Andy Dufresne: That's the beauty of music. They can't get that from you... Haven't you ever felt that way about music?
Red: I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn't make much sense in here.
Andy Dufresne: Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget.
Red: Forget?
Andy Dufresne: Forget that... there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.
Red: What're you talking about?
Andy Dufresne: Hope.
Andy escapes from the prison very soon after, he has made a tunnel behind that poster of the girl on the wall with that mini hammer he asked from Red very first month. He goes through the tunnel, then through the sewage pipe 500 yards long. And leaves in the Norton's safe not the real accountancy books, like he did every night, but a Bible and a note for Norton: "Salvation lies within". Just like Norton said one day to him.
Next morning Andy goes around many banks in his suit and gets all the enormous amount of money he has transferred over past years to imaginary person and then takes of to the place where he always wanted to go - the Pacific.
Also, Dufresne sends those accountancy books to police and they go to arrest Norton, which in his turn locks himself in the office and shots himself dead.
Red gets granted rehabilitation and he ends up working in the same shop where Brooks worked a long time ago and living in the same room where Brooks hanged himself. Do you remember I told you we will come back to this room? So we did. Red leaves a carving with his name next to Brook's one, buys the compass and leaves to find the place which he promised Andy to find. Thats the only thing which kept him going and not killing himself, like Brooks. He has this hope which Andy left for him, hope for the better, even though its not his own hope and idea, but Andy's. But it still keeps Red going.
So, Red finds a box under that volcanic rock, with money in there for the ticket and a letter for Red. Andy says: [in letter to Red] Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.Red travels to Pacific coast, and meets Andy there, fixing the boat. Thats how the movie ends.
I will give this movie 10 out of 10. And thats the only time I have ever given this score - because the plot is amazing, Tim and Morgan are great actors and the lesson you learn from the movie - is the main lesson in life. Its priceless!! Whenever you get an opportunity, I HIGHLY recommend watching this. You will get inspired if not for the rest of you life, but for the part of it enough to make you want to change it.
