The Shawshank Redemption

   

Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman) and Andy Dufresne(Tim Robbins).

This movie tells the story of banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murders of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. Over the following two decades, he befriends a fellow prisoner, contraband smuggler Ellis "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), and becomes instrumental in a money-laundering operation led by the prison warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton).

Keep in mind this blog is called "ISpoilMovies" So if you haven't watched the movie yet, you WILL come across spoilers.

The movie is narrated by Red. It begins with Andy sitting in a car, and pulling out a gun from the glove compartment, contemplating his next move. In the next scene, Andy is convicted of the murder of Linda Dufresne and Glenn Quintin, his wife, and her lover, respectively. Andy is adamant in defending his innocence, but the evidence is overwhelming. And so, he is sentenced to two life sentences in Shawshank prison. Red is an inmate who has been in Shawshank for 20 years. He is known as a man who gets anything from the outside world for the right price. He describes himself ad "Sears and Roebuck" of the prison. On the day when new prisoners are brought in, red and his inmate friends bet on the prisoners on who'd cry that night. Red admits that he didn't think much of him and first and bets on Andy. Andy and the rest of the prisoners are inside, where Norton, the warden who says he believes in god, gives a chilling welcome to The Shawshank prison.

The first night's the toughest

The first night all the prisoners fish for the weakest. They don't stop until they reel someone in, says Red, It's as a good thing to bet on as any.  That night the prisoners make noises and try to scare the newcomers and the first one to fall for this was a chubby guy. But Andy never made a sound and it cost Red two packs of cigarettes. Andy kept to himself most of the time and Red thinks that it was because he had a lot in his mind to think. His first words spoken after a month was to Red, he wanted Red to smuggle him a rock hammer .red on hearing the name hammer first hesitates but when Andy describes it's size and says that it's used for picking rocked, red agrees. He also warns him about a group of homosexuals, who call themselves Sisters.

I liked Andy from the start.

The next 2 years were the worst for Andy. He was constantly assaulted by the Sisters. Red says if the things had continued this way, the place would have gotten the best of him. But then in the spring, Red bribed the guards and selected a few of his friends for volunteering, to resurface the roof of the license plate, needless to say, Andy was one of them.

While working he overheard one of the guards talking about How the government would take his money in the name of the tax, the money left to him by his brother. Andy walked up to him and asked "Do you trust your wife?" And obviously, in a second he was standing on the edge of the roof with his collar held by the guard. At this point, Andy tells him how he can have all the money, every penny of it, and even offered to help with the papers but in return only asked for 3 pieces of beers per head for his co-workers. Andy doesn't drink a drop of it but sits in the sun with a little grin on his face. Andy believes that he did it just to feel normal again, even if it's just for a little while.

Rita Hayworth

Andy decides to carve his name on the wall seeing so many names of those who were there before him. The next day Andy asks Red to bring him Rita Hayworth and Red says it might take weeks. On his way back he is attacked again by the Sisters. This time he was beaten badly and was sent into the infirmary. Before his time was up, Bogs-the leader of the Sisters was beaten up by the guards and is transferred to a minimum-security prison upstate. Red says that Bogs will probably drink food using straws for the rest of his life and also never walk again.

Andy was welcomed with a poster of Rita Hayworth and a box of rocks to carve chess players with.

Their Pet

Andy is assigned to the library from the laundry. Brooks, the librarian, shows him around. he knows from Brooks that he never had an assistant in all of 50 years he's been a librarian. Andy begins to think why and at the same time he's called to do taxes for one of the guards. So now he knows why. He did taxes for all of them for the coming years, even including the wardens.

Institutionalized

Brooks almost kills Heywood and says that it's the only way they'll let him stay. Andy calms him down. Then they get to know that Brooks parole came through and he did so to stay in in prison. Red says Brooks has spent enough time here that he is institutionalized. He's an important man here and a nobody on the outside.

When Brooks is out, he struggles to live on the outside. In his words, he says "The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry". A few days out, he says he's tired of being afraid all the time, he carves his name on the wooden board in the roof and hangs himself. it is all written in a letter that Andy reads to his friends. 

Hope is a dangerous thing

Andy wrote letters to the state every week from when he was assigned to the library, asking for funds to build a library. After years the state writes back giving him a check of 200$ and some old books in the state library. Andy comes across a record among the boxes and plays it in the warden's office and plays it to the whole prison using the mic. For this, he is sent to the hole for two weeks. After coming out Andy says that it was the easiest time he ever did as he had the music in him. He says that that was the beauty of music. They can't get that from you. He says we all have something they can't touch, it's yours, it's hope. Red replies Hope is a dangerous thing, especially in here.

I had to come to prison to be a crook.

Norton announces a new program Inside Out where inmates are put to work out the walls for the bare minimum of expense. Andy tells Red that he makes tons of money with this and that he channels the money out and into the real world. Red expresses his concern that all the papers are gonna leave a trail and might come back to Andy. Andy then says that he made up a person out of thin air, Randall Stevens, who only exists on paper. If anything, all the paper trails would lead to Randall, a figment of Andy's imagination. He says, on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow, I had to come to prison to be a crook.

A new project.

Tommy a young convict is bought in for Breaking and Entering. He gets close to Red and his friends due to his cocky-ness and easy-going attitude. Red says we liked him immediately. Tommy boasts that he has been to all of the prisons in England. Andy asks him to change his career seeing that he's not a good thief if he's caught so many times in his short life. 

Tommy later goes to Andy asking him to help him in getting a High school diploma. Andy agrees and as Red says takes him under his wings. He says prison time is a slow time and people do whatever they can to keep the time going. Andy built a library. Now he needed a new project. Tommy was it.

I was in the path of a tornado. Just didn't expect it to last as long as it has.

Tommy gives the exam but not satisfied with it he throws away the paper and storms out. When he's talking to Red he finds out that the person who killed Andy's wife was his one of his old cellmates, Elmo. After hearing this Andy runs to the warden hoping for at least a trail. But the warden dismisses it saying Tommy is too young and is doing this just to cheer him up. Andy then says that if he's worried about him telling about money laundering, he need not be worried as he would keep his mouth shut. Andy bringing up this matter enrages the warden and throws him in the hole for a month. 

Outside Tommy finds out that Andy sent his exam papers and is happy that he passed with a C+ score. Later that day warden calls him to talk about Andy's case. He asks Tommy if he's sure and would be willing to say it under the oath. Tommy says yes enthusiastically. But warden has him killed.

When Andy comes out of the hole, he tells Red that he loved his wife but showed it. He killed her, just didn't pull the trigger that's all he says. Red comforts him saying he's not a murderer, but a bad husband maybe. Andy says it just bad luck and that he was in the path of a tornado. Just didn't expect the storm to last as long as it has

I guess it comes down to a simple choice really. get busy living or get busy dying.

Andy and Red talk about where they want to go after they get out. Andy says he wants to go to Zihuatanejo, a place in Mexico, a little place near the pacific ocean. He says wants to open up a hotel and buy an old boat and fix it up. He tells Red he could be someone who knows how to get things. Red says he's institutionalized and doesn't think he can make it out there. Red suddenly, like snapping out of a dream, asks Andy not to do that to himself and these are only shitty pipe dreams. Then Andy says that is how it is, I guess it comes down one simple choice really, Get busy living or, get busy dying. Andy asks Red, if he ever gets out of here, to go to a place when he says has buried something under an oak tree in Buxton.

Red is worried due to Andy's recent behavior and is worried. He then learns that earlier that day Andy had asked for a rope. This worries everyone and they think he might do what Brooks did. One of them says Andy would never do that, but Red says that every man has his breaking point.

Crawled to freedom through 500 yards of shit-smelling foulness.

Red says that it was the longest night of his life. The next morning, Andy didn't show up for the routine line up. Andy had escaped. He had dug a hole in the wall and used a big poster to cover that up. Red remembers telling him it would take 600 years to dig a hole in using a rock hammer, but Andy had done it in just under 20. Red recalls Andy recalls Geology, a study of pressure and time, and in prison, a man would do anything to keep his mind occupied. 

That night Andy had replaced wardens Ledger with a look-alike, wore his new shoes, and went into his cell. After lights out, he went through the hole he had dug in the wall. He crawled to freedom through 500 yards of shit-smelling foulness I can't even imagine, Red says.

The next morning, Randall Stevens who only existed on paper until that moment, went to a dozen of banks in Portland and blew town with around 370000$ of Norton's money. Andy had sent Wardens Ledger to the newspaper and the next morning police arrived at Shawshank and arrested Hadley. But when they went into Norton's chamber he had shot himself.

Some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright.

Soon Red received a postcard. The postcard said Fort Hancock, Texas, right on the border. Red says those who knew him best talk about him often. Sometimes it makes me sad, Andy being gone, but I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged, their feathers are just too bright remembers Red. 

When Red is released he is sent to stay in a place where Brooks did. He repeats he can't make it on the outside and says all he does is find a way to break his parole. When he starts considering suicide himself, he says only one thing stops him, the promise he made to Andy.

 Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies.

Red goes to the place Andy had told him to go. There he finds a box under an oak tree and in it a letter and a stack of cash. It was a letter from Andy. In it, Andy asked Red to come to a place he had mentioned, a place near the pacific. He continues to say Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies.

Red takes a ticket to Fort Hancock, says it's the second time he's guilty of committing a crime, this time a parole violation. He says he could barely sit still or hold a thought, it's the excitement only a free man could feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. He hopes he could make it across the border, hopes to see Andy and Shake his hand, and hopes the pacific is as blue as it has been in his dreams, he hopes..

The movie ends with Andy and Red reuniting with a hug.