Movie Analysis: “The Shawshank Redemption” — Themes
Another in our bi-weekly series in which we analyze movies currently in release. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of watching movies:
To be a good screenwriter, you need to have a broad exposure to the world of film. Every movie you see is a potential reference point for your writing, everything from story concepts you generate to characters you develop to scenes you construct. Moreover people who work in the movie business constantly reference existing movies when discussing stories you write; it’s a shorthand way of getting across what they mean or envision.
But most importantly, you need to watch movies in order to ‘get’ how movie stories work. If you immerse yourself in the world of film, it’s like a Gestalt experience where you begin to grasp intuitively scene composition, story structure, character functions, dialogue and subtext, transitions and pacing, and so on.
Let me add this: It’s important to see movies as they get released so that you stay on top of the business. Decisions get made in Hollywood in large part depending upon how movies perform, so watching movies as they come out puts you in the same head space as reps, producers, execs, and buyers.
For this week’s movie, we go back in time to 1994: The Shawshank Redemption, screenplay by Frank Darabont, novella by Stephen King.
Our schedule for discussion this week:
Monday: General Comments
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Dialogue
Saturday: Takeaways
For those of you who have not seen the movie, do not click MORE as we will be trafficking in major spoilers. But seriously, if you haven’t seen The Shawshank Redemption, stop whatever you’re doing and watch it! If you have seen The Shawshank Redemption, I invite you to join me in breaking down and analyzing the movie.
There’s Redemption right there in the movie’s title. Institutionalization as described by Red and the effects of which are lived out in the free world by he and Brooks. Justice and Injustice as inhabited by Andy and Red in contrast to Norton and Hadley. But the story’s central theme has to be: Hope.
Andy embraces it to survive.
Red warns against it: “What are you talking about? Hope? Let me tell you something, my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It’s got no use on the inside. You’d better get used to that idea.”
Andy lays down a call to adventure to Red when he digs up the box under that tree: “Remember, Red… …hope is a good thing… …maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you… …and finds you well. Your friend… …Andy.”
And in the end, Red claims hope: “I find I’m so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at the start of a long journey… …whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”
I hope. The last two words of the movie.
Beautiful.
The famous side of dialogue — Get busy living or get busy dying — speaks to hope, the former forsaking it, the latter clinging close to it.
Andy holds tight to it to make it through his incarceration. Meanwhile he fans the flickering embers of hope within Red, barely keeping it alive. In the end, hope prevails as he and Andy are reunited.
What about you? Your thoughts on the themes in The Shawshank Redemption?
Comment Archive
