Shawshank Redemption

“Shawshank Redemption” is a movie filled with adventure and many underlying messages. This was one of my favorite films because of all the symbolism and hope that fills this movie. This movie was about a guy named Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) who was convicted for murdering his wife and her so called lover, but he was always pleading his innocence. Unfortunately, no one listened or believed him. He is then sentenced to a life term at the Shawshank State Prison.

Another main character in this film is Red (Morgan Freeman), who also has to serve a life term in prison. Red acts as someone to look up to in the film. It seems as though everything looks at him for advice and he seems very knowledgeable. Red and Andy become exceptionally great friends and Andy seeks for advice in him and vice versa.

As Andy discovers the horrible life at prison he realizes that he is going to need to stand up for himself and not just be a pushover. It also seems that prisoners at that time really had look and listen for ways to impress the guards. Andy finally got his chance. He had the opportunity to tell the guard that he knew a lot about banking and documents and everything so he would be able to help him out. After that the guards treated Andy a little better. As time went on, Andy seemed to become more of a slave than a prisoner. The Warden always made him do the records for the prison and even clean his shoes. Finally, Andy had enough of that.

Throughout this film, there is a variety of symbolism that takes place. For example, the rain in this movie was a big symbol of cleansing and freedom. Also there is was an underlying message of hope. This movie was kind of like an allegory because this movie wasn’t really about just prison and what happens within those walls, it’s much more than that. I think that the underlying message was based on hope, and that if you lose hope in yourself, you are basically giving up on yourself and everything in life. You always need to keep hope because without hope, you have nothing. Throughout this film, Andy and Red always show hope and seem to never give up no matter what. Even though they are in prison, they have so much determination to someday get out of that awful place.  

I would rate this movie a 4.5 out of 5.