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Reviews:
The
Shawshank Redemption
by Michael
Flanagan
HUGE
Few films have been quite as overlooked in the history of great
cinematic accomplishment as Frank Darabont’s wonderful The
Shawshank Redemption. The
film was nominated for several Academy Awards in 1994, including Best
Actor (Morgan Freeman), Cinematography (Roger Deakins), Music (Thomas
Newman), and Writing (Frank Darabont).
It was up against the formidable Forrest Gump, which ran
away with the show faster than a really well-written and humorous pun.
1994 was a year for movies, though, with Legends of the Fall,
Interview With The Vampire, Bullets Over Broadway, Quiz Show, The
Madness of King George, and Pulp Fiction being headrunners at
the awards. These movies
are all wonderful, yet for some reason, Shawshank is still widely
viewed as a cult following., instead of one of the best films of the
decades, as it should be referred to.
Shawshank is filmed beautifully.
The prison is dank, dense, and withheld tightly behind the walls. Darabont never allows the audience to feel mobile in this
movie. We are watching a
forced stage, the four walls of which are never broken.
We are given very few shots at a distance, and we are showed many
close-ups, mainly because the movie was filmed in a real prison!
Upon the entrance to Shawshank, the camera sweeps over the
prison, showing the many inhabitants from above.
We are then brought inside, where we remain.
Even when Brooks is released, and we follow him in the outside
world, we feel his loss, his pain, in the outside prison that he cannot
have as a life. Only in
moments of freedom are we given a clear, distant view.
When Andy plays a beautiful opera, we see the prison yard from up
high as all its inhabitants have stopped to listen.
Later, when Andy stands in the rain with his arms raised, we see
this also from a rising crane shot.
To film a prison is no easy task, but to accomplish this by
capturing the audience as well is pure genius.
The Shawshank Redemption, though, is not as worthy of
technical discussion as it is of the human condition.
Specifically, the condition of hope.
The story is of overcoming fear in oneself, and the walls of
others, against great strife, in the act of freeing oneself as a whole.
In Andy’s letter to Red, he writes, “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.” In Red’s speech
at the end, delivered magnificently by the always-perfect Morgan
Freeman, he says, “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.” Thus, the point of
Shawshank is made very clear.
Perhaps that clarity is what lost The Shawshank Redemption
to audiences. It did fairly
well at the box-office, and extremely well with popular critics.
What, then, has lost this film to the masses?
It’s one of the best films to be released in decades, with
perfect writing, excellent performances, and beautiful music by Thomas
Newman (American Beauty). Is
it because it’s based on a Stephen King novella?
Is it because no one knows what a Shawshank is?
Or is it simply because the light of Forrest Gump and the
mouth of Quentin Tarantino were too big and they enveloped the majesty
that is The Shawshank Redemption.
I say re-release it, let it win for best picture, and retire it
to the “Best Films” shelf, right next to Casablanca and The
Great Escape.
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Trivia:
The
role of Tommy Williams was intended for Brad Pitt.
The
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals monitored the
filming of scenes involving Brooks' crow. During the scene where he fed
it a maggot, the ASPCA objected on the grounds that it was cruel to the
maggot, and required that they use a maggot that had died from natural
causes. One was found, and the scene was filmed.
The maggot’s family sued, of course.
The
mugshots of a young-looking Morgan Freeman that are attached to his
parole papers are actually pictures of Morgan's younger son, Alfonso
Freeman. Alfonso also had a cameo in the movie as a con shouting
"Fresh fish! Fresh fish today! We're reeling 'em in!"
Gil
Bellows plays Thomas ("Tommy") Williams. In "Ally McBeal"
(1997), he plays William ("Billy") Thomas.
Red's
cell number is 237. The haunted hotel room in The Shining
(another Stephen King story) was also 237.
In
Andy's cell the name "Mother" is carved into the wall. In
Fraternity Vacation (1985), Tim Robbins' character's name is
"Mother."
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