Title: The Shawshank Redemption
Writer’s: Stephen King, Frank Darabont
Director: Frank Darabont
Year: 1994
Cast: Tim Robbins ( Andy Dufresne ), Morgan Freeman ( Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding ), Bob Gunton ( Warden Norton ), William Sadler ( Heywood ), Clancy Brown ( Captain Hadley ), James Whitmore ( Brooks Hatlen)
Lighting used: The Shawshank Redemption uses high-key lighting during periods of positive times within the prison. Some examples would be when Andy has turned on the record player and played the record of the opera women singing over the loud speakers. When the scene cuts out you can see all of the prisoners standing outside standing still listening to the music and almost sensing the feeling of freedom for the few moments they get to listen to the music.
Low-key lighting is shown when the darker parts of the movie are about to happen. Each time Andy gets attacked by the “Sisters” the lighting is darker to show that there is a negative action taking place. When Andy gets put in to solitary confinement it almost has no light at all to show how his actions have displeased the Warden.
The lighting technique fits will as it is used to show when the viewer of the movie show feel happier about a situation or feel bad about the circumstance that is taking place.
Cast: Tim Robbins ( Andy Dufresne ), Morgan Freeman ( Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding ), Bob Gunton ( Warden Norton ), William Sadler ( Heywood ), Clancy Brown ( Captain Hadley ), James Whitmore ( Brooks Hatlen )
Story: Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.
Plot: The movie is set in the 1940’s where a young banker by the name of Andy Dufresne is convicted and sentenced to two life sentences for killing his wife and her lover the golf pro. Through out the years he gains respect from his fellow inmates, and befriends ” the man that is able to get things”. After a couple of year working on the laundry crew Dufresne volunteers to tar the roof of a building where he over hears Captain Hadley discussing a inheritance he would be receiving after his estranged brother died. Andy explained a way that Captain Hadley could receive the 35,000 dollar inheritance without any tax deduction and offered to file the paperwork for him for a very small fee ” 3 beers for his coworkers”. Word got around to the Warden of Dufresne gift with money, the Warden then reassigned Dufresne to the library and was in charge of filing prison guard taxes then moved on to laundering money for a number of prison wardens. Dufresne was determined to upgrade the library and wrote letters to the Senate for funds, after 6 years of writing the letters he received 200$ and donations from libraries in the state of Maine. Andy is not satisfied with the 200 dollars and continues to write to the senate.
After Dufresne served 19 years of his sentence a new inmate named Tommy Williams arrives and is befriended by Dufresne and “Red”. After hearing why Dufresne was in Shawshank, He begins to tell them the story of his previous incarcerations at different prisons. Tommy tells them the story of a cellmate he had named Elwood Blatch. Blatch admitted to Tommy that he had killed a golf pro and his lover one night and that the women’s husband who was a banker ended up being convicted of the murders. Dufresne took this information to the Warden in hopes that he is able to get him another trial and help him clear his name and be a free man. The Warden however did not have the reaction Dufresne had hoped and instead had him put into solitary for a month. While he was in solitary the Warden Questioned Tommy asking if he was willing to testify on behalf of Dufresne, after admitting he would the Warden had Tommy killed. The Warden then covered up Tommy’s murder by saying he was killed in an attempt to escape. When Andy Dufresne was finally released from solitary he was no longer the man he used to be.
In 1966 Andy Dufresne escaped from the prison from a tunnel he had dug into the prison wall behind the poster he had of Rita Hayworth, He then crawled 500 yards threw a sewage pipe to freedom. While doing all of his work for the Warden Andy had managed to acquire a new outfit of the Wardens nicely pressed shirt and slacks. He then used the new identity he created while laundering money for the Warden and withdrew a large sum of money, and ratted out the prison guards and the warden at Shawshank. He later sent a post card to “Red” with just a post address of Fort Hancock, Texas and takes that as a sign that Andy made it to Mexico. Red comes up for parole in 1967 and is finally released after serving 40 years.
Chronology: The film was was told in chronological order. Going through all the events leading up to them being free men.
John's Blog 