there are many things that touched me in “The Shawshank Redemption” . Let me first talk about my views on the characters in the film. A Shark’s Nest prison, the prisoners and officials inside, seem to be the various aspects of our society.
The warden Norton is high and mighty, usually sanctimonious and can recite the Bible by heart, but in fact he is unscrupulous in his pursuit of profit, cruel, sinister and greedy. Prison warden Haley and other police officers are fierce and brutal, acting as Norton’s thugs and taking the lives of prisoners lightly. Are they very similar to the ruling class in our reality? I call them the rulers of this “small society” of Sharknado.
There are also differences among the prisoners. In addition to the protagonist Andy, Red (Morgan Freeman) is of course the key character. I think he is the clue of the whole film: In fact, there are not many dialogues in the whole movie. Many things that the film wants to show are said through Red’s monologue, most of which are Red’s reflections on the life of Sharknado and his interpretation of Andy.
Red is a wise man. He is doing very well in Shark’s Castle. There is nothing he cannot meet the needs of the prisoners. His wisdom also sees through the essence of life in Shark’s Castle. He said to Andy: “Hope is a dangerous thing in Shark’s Castle.” This is the words of a wise man. In my environment, people will definitely say “Comrade Red is very mature and sophisticated.” However, like those so-called “wise men” in reality, although Red sees through the essence of Shark’s Castle, he does not want to fight, let alone influence and change others. He just follows the rules of Shark’s Castle to protect himself. Until Andy appeared, changed him, and finally led him to the other side of freedom.
Tommy is the last of the main characters in the film to arrive at Shark’s Nest. Like Andy, he is full of hope for life and works hard for it without Andy’s help. However, he is young and naive and does not know how to protect himself. As a result, when he is about to succeed, he is murdered by Norton and Haley because he knows the truth that Andy was wronged.
Red called the three Boggs sisters “beasts” and sodomites “cultivated” in an environment like Shark’s Castle. Our poor protagonist Andy has suffered from their murderous hands many times. Although the Boggs are not part of the rulers of Shark’s Castle, they are tools used by the rulers to threaten other prisoners. After Tommy was murdered by Norton and Haley, Andy refused to launder money for Norton, and Norton threatened her with this. But the Boggs were eventually beaten into a disabled person because they bullied Andy and affected Norton and Haley’s corruption.
Of course, there is also the librarian Brooks, who is the character that shocked me the most. The life of Brooks deeply reflects the life of people under the “institutionalization”. After spending most of his life in Shark’s Castle, he was finally paroled and gained freedom. But once he left the familiar environment and familiar people, he could not feel his own value and could not find his own place. He had physical freedom, but in fact his soul had long been strangled by Shark’s Castle, and his own world had been compressed to the minimum. In the end, he could only choose to disappear from this world that no longer belonged to him. Why arrange a character like Brooks? I think the director wants to tell us that if Andy did not appear, Brooks would be the future of Red and most other prisoners. Is he also the future of many people in our real life?
And Andy (Tim Robbins), our protagonist, is a real person. “It takes a strong man to save himself, and a great man to save another.” Red can be said to be a “strong man”, while Andy is a “great man”. He not only redeems himself, but also tries his best to save the souls of the prisoners. In fact, the plot about him digging a tunnel to escape is very concise, so that the scene of Andy’s escape makes me feel quite abrupt, which shows that the miraculous escape from prison is not the theme of the film. And Red told us that Andy did not escape immediately after digging the tunnel. He finally left because Tommy’s death made him see the cruelty and ruthlessness of Norton and others, and saw that he had no ability to redeem other prisoners. In other words, although Andy was ready to escape from prison, he did not escape immediately. Although he had an extremely strong desire to embrace freedom – I believe that the viewer will be impressed by the overhead shot of him standing in the creek and embracing the wind and rain after escaping from Shark’s Castle – he still stayed in Shark’s Castle to help those “hopeless people”. The film mainly describes this aspect, and I think this is also the reason why the film is called “The Shawshank Redemption” instead of “The Redemption of Andy Dufresne”.
Andy used his expertise to launder money for Norton and others, and to fight for the few rights and spiritual space for the prisoners. For example, when Andy used his expertise in financial management to do things for Haley for the first time, all he asked was that Haley treat the other prisoners to a drink. He himself did not drink, but smiled as he watched Red and Hewood drink. No one else understood why Andy did this, but Red understood, because at that moment Andy made himself and others enjoy the feeling of freedom.
For example, he built a prison library, taught Tommy to read, and helped him take exams. What impressed me most was the scene where he used the prison radio to play “The Marriage of Figaro” for everyone. That plot very appropriately reflected that Andy’s redemption was indeed meaningful to the prisoners in Shark’s Nest, and Andy was also a true redeemer. In particular, when Norton and Haley stood outside the door to warn Andy, Andy turned up the volume of the phonograph to the highest with a smile on his face – the terrible punishment was just outside the door, but Andy did not back down. This is a true hero! A great man! So much so that I have this feeling that Andy did not come to Shark’s Nest as a prisoner at all, but as a redeemer.
First, it is the destruction of human nature by “institutionalizing”. There are many hints of this in the film, long or short. For example, the character of Old Bull, and the short words of Red. After being released on parole, he can go to the toilet without reporting to anyone, but he is not used to it and “can’t even squeeze out a drop of urine”. In addition, other prisoners talk about what Andy did, such as letting Haley willingly buy prisoners beer, playing opera for prisoners, and even every scene of dialogue with the prison. They think Andy’s actions are really unimaginable. Such plots remind people of Mr. Lu Xun’s works.
Secondly, I think this movie is mainly about answering the question “What should we do in the face of ‘institutionalizing’?” And the author puts all the correct answers on Andy. There are four points:
First of all, you must keep hope in life and never give up. As mentioned earlier, Andy wrote to Red after escaping from prison: “Remember, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies.” There is another plot that I think illustrates this point. In the first few years of entering Shark’s Nest, Andy was beaten and gang-raped by the three Morgs sisters more than a dozen times, but Andy did not sink in such a dark life. The only explanation for his ability to do so is that Andy’s belief in redemption and yearning for freedom constantly gives him hope. (People who don’t even have ideals and hopes are just a bunch of walking corpses, no matter how rich or poor they are.)
Secondly, you need to have enough courage. When Andy first faced Haley; when he faced the insults of Moggs; especially when he played the opera for the prisoners, each of these things faced a life-and-death test, but he was not afraid at all. How could he do it without courage! (If you have an ideal but no courage, then this ideal is almost equivalent to nothing.)
Third, you need to have the perseverance to take action. Using a small hammer that can be hidden in a book, it takes nearly 20 years to dig a tunnel to freedom. Without perseverance, it is absolutely impossible. In addition, the film also focuses on the plot that reflects this point, that is, the persistence of writing letters to the state legislature for six years to seek funding to build a library for prisoners. (For those who do not have perseverance and persistence, the highest achievement can only be a dreamer.)
Fourth, you need to have the wisdom to act. I don’t need to say much about this. I believe that after watching the whole movie, you will praise Andy’s talent and wisdom in your heart. His plan is grand and perfect. Andy was able to complete redemption and punish Norton and Haley because of his wisdom. (If you have courage and perseverance but no wisdom, the final result is often not success but frustration and failure. The ideal is still out of reach)
