B142: "Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying"

I was browsing through Prime Video looking for a film to watch this holiday weekend when I saw that The Shawshank Redemption is coming again soon.  This film comes from 1994 but is always worth a re-watch.  In some ways it’s hard to believe it’s 30 years old!!

If for some mad reason you’ve never seen it, it’s based on the 1982 Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film tells the story of banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), who is sentenced to life in 1947 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). Red procures a rock

hammer and a large poster of Rita Hayworth for Andy. Assigned to work in the prison laundry, Andy is frequently raped by "the Sisters" prison gang and their leader, Bogs Diamond.
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In 1949, Andy overhears the captain of the guards, Byron Hadley, complaining about being taxed on an inheritance and offers to help him shelter the money legally. After the Sisters beat Andy to near-death, Hadley beats and cripples Bogs, who is subsequently transferred to a minimum security hospital; Andy is not attacked again. Warden Samuel Norton meets Andy and reassigns him to the decrepit prison library to assist elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen, a front to use Andy's financial expertise to manage financial matters for other prison staff and the warden himself. Andy begins writing weekly letters to the state legislature requesting funds to improve the library.

​Brooks is paroled in 1954 after serving 50 years, but cannot adjust to the outside world and eventually hangs himself. The legislature sends a library donation that includes a recording of The Marriage of Figaro; Andy plays an excerpt over the public address system and is punished with solitary confinement. After his release from solitary, Andy explains to a dismissive Red that hope is what gets him through his sentence. In 1963, Norton begins exploiting prison labour for public works, profiting by undercutting skilled labour costs and receiving bribes. Andy launders the money using the alias "Randall Stephens."

Andy and Red in the prison yard

​In 1965, Andy and Red befriend Tommy Williams, a young prisoner incarcerated for burglary. A year later, Andy helps him pass his General Educational Development (GED) exam. Tommy reveals to Red and Andy that his cellmate at another prison had claimed responsibility for the murders for which Andy was convicted. Andy brings the information to Norton, who does not want to know. When Andy mentions the money laundering, Norton sends him to solitary confinement and has Hadley fatally shoot Tommy under the guise of an escape attempt. After Andy refuses to continue the money laundering, Norton threatens to destroy the library, remove Andy's protection by the guards, and move him to worse conditions.

Andy is released from solitary confinement after two months and tells a sceptical Red that he dreams of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican town on the Pacific coast. He asks Red to promise, once he is released, to travel to a specific hayfield near Buxton and recover a package that Andy buried there. Red worries about Andy's mental well-being, especially when he learns he had asked a fellow inmate for a rope. At the next day's roll call, the guards find Andy's cell empty. An irate Norton throws a rock at the poster hanging on the cell wall, and finds behind it a tunnel that Andy had dug with his rock hammer over nearly two decades.

​The previous night, he had used the rope to escape through the tunnel and prison sewage pipe, taking Norton's suit, shoes, and ledger, containing evidence of the money laundering and corruption at Shawshank. While guards search for him, Andy poses as Randall Stephens and withdraws over $370,000 of the laundered money from several banks, and mails the ledger to a local newspaper. State police arrive at Shawshank and take Hadley into custody, while Norton commits suicide to avoid arrest.

Andy's Raquel Welch poster used to hide his escape tunnel

​The following year, Red is paroled after serving 40 years but struggles to adapt to life outside prison and fears that he never will. Remembering his promise to Andy, he visits Buxton and finds a cache containing money and a letter inviting him to come to Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole by traveling to Fort Hancock, Texas and crossing the border into Mexico, admitting that he finally feels hope. He finds Andy on a Zihuatanejo beach, and the reunited friends happily embrace.

​While The Shawshank Redemption received critical acclaim upon its release—particularly for its story, the performances of Robbins and Freeman, Thomas Newman's music score, Darabont's direction and screenplay and Roger Deakins' cinematography—the film was a box-office disappointment, earning only $16 million during its initial theatrical run. Many reasons were cited for its failure at the time, including competition from the films Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump, the general unpopularity of prison films, its lack of female characters, and even the title, which was considered confusing for audiences. It went on to receive multiple award nominations, including seven Academy Award nominations, and a theatrical re-release that, combined with international takings, increased the film's box-office gross to $73.3 million.

Decades after its release, the film is still broadcast regularly, and is popular in several countries, with audience members and celebrities citing it as a source of inspiration or naming it a favourite in various surveys, leading to its recognition as one of the most "beloved" films ever made. In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
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Although nearly three hours long, this film gets you thinking, feeling, following stories, finding yourself taking sides, questioning people and motives. The story, the characters, the simple fact that life goes by so fast and the world moves on without you... It's not about prison, it's about everything else.  ❤️

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Bucket List Items Ticked Off in the above Blog post 142
​Number 74(a) - Experiences - Pick 8 Favourite Films

• The Shawshank Redemption

​Other Blog Posts
Blog 11 - Sydney, Australia
Blog 12 - Hong Kong, China
Blog 17 - Beijing, Xi'an & Shanghai, China
Blog 19 - California, USA
Blog 27 - Scotland
Blog 28 - Barbados
Blog 29 - Canada


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