The Shawshank Redemption - King's Corner Review
Welcome to King's Corner. A recurring series of reviews based on the film and TV adaptations of Stephen King's novels and collections, reviewed and released in order of the original source material publishing date.
Director: Frank Darabont
Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Clancy Brown, Bob Gunton, William Sadler
Written by: Frank Darabont
Produced by: Niki Marvin
Cinematography by: Roger Deakins
Original Score by: Thomas Newman
Synopsis:
A banker convicted of uxoricide forms a friendship over a quarter century with a hardened convict, while maintaining his innocence and trying to remain hopeful through simple compassion.
Thoughts:
"Remember that hope is a good thing, Red, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." This line from the closing pages of 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption' is arguably one of the most powerful lines from any story written by Stephen King both in and out of context. Hope is a powerful theme that runs through the majority of his work and it comes in different forms. In 'It', the Losers Club reunites in the hope of defeating Pennywise to bring closure to a dark chapter of their lives. In 'Misery' Paul Sheldon hopes to find a way to escape the imprisonment of his psychotic number one fan, Annie Wilkes. Even in 'Pet Semetary' Louis Creed hopes that in bringing his son Gage back from the dead, it will make his family whole again. There are several more examples of this throughout his work but the theme is not as prevalent or powerful as it is in 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption'.
Originally written after his 1979 novel, 'The Dead Zone', the story was one of four that formed the 1982 collection 'Different Seasons'. Falling under the subtitle of 'Hope Springs Eternal' the collection came about in response to King feeling that he was going to be typecast as a horror writer. He also felt that there was no market for novellas like this and 'Apt Pupil' and 'The Body' (which are also part of the collection alongside the story, The Breathing Method). He felt that the story was a throwback to a prison escape story you'd find in an old Warner Bros. film but not much is known about the origin of the story. It was thought to have been based on Leo Tolstoy's 1872 short story, 'God Sees the Truth, But Waits' but this has been denied by King and some forums on the internet have drawn parallels between it and the biblical story of Joseph and his coat of many colours. Again this has never been verified by the author.
The story's journey to the screen began as far back as 1983 when Frank Darabont adapted King's story, 'The Woman in the Room' into a short film after buying the rights to it as part of the dollar baby deal King used to run where filmmakers could purchase the rights of adapting one of his short stories for only $1. After developing his reputation as a screenwriter with his works on the likes of 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors' and 'The Fly II', he returned to King with a $5,000 cheque to purchase the rights of 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption' which King accepted. In a 2014 interview with the Wall Street Journal King revealed that he never cashed the cheque. He framed it and returned it to Darabont accompanied by a note which read: "In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve."
Five years later after establishing himself more as a screenwriter Darabont wrote the script over an eight week period and despite loving the script, King felt it couldn't be adapted as it was too novelistic. Eventually it found its way to producer Liz Glotzer who was working at Castle Rock Entertainment at the time. A fan of prison dramas, she threatened to quit the company if they didn't produce the script. The Co-founder of the company, Rob Reiner was also a big fan of the script and offered Darabont up to $3 million to make it himself as director with Tom Cruise in the role of Andy and Harrison Ford as Red, but Darabont relented despite the temptation. Under Reiner's mentorship and a $25 million budget, Darabont was set to make his film.
There are multitudes of reasons why 'The Shawshank Redemption' is considered to be a modern classic of American cinema and Darabont believes that it all comes from the source material. Although he maintains the spirit of the story, his stamp on it is what makes it a truly cinematic piece of work. Darabont has made it clear on multiple occasions that the film is heavily influenced by Frank Capra and when you watch the film that is abundantly clear. It is imbued with a classic style of Hollywood filmmaking where dialogue takes precedence but this approach allows the themes to flow naturally through it. Capra's films are full of optimism and a struggle for reaching for the light in the darkness in spite of great adversity. This struggle can only be achieved through perseverance and optimism with humanity and a degree of dignity which 'The Shawshank Redemption' has in abundance.
One of the first things that strikes you about the film is the prison. Shot at Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio which was officially closed in 1990 it is a perfectly brooding setting for the film. In the documentary, 'Hope Springs Eternal: A Look Back at The Shawshank Redemption' Clancy Brown (who plays Captain Hadley in the film) described it as being "...a bad monument to man's inhumanity to man" and his co-star William Sadler (who plays Heywood in the film) spoke of the location saying, "There are ghosts there. This place resonates with the ruined lives of thousands and thousands of people. The prisoners and the victims and the guards who spent their entire lives watching these people." You feel that sentiment in every frame of the film. It may be a cliched phrase to use but I feel it is warranted here as the prison really feels as it's own character. Its goal is to suck the life and soul out of any prisoner who dwells within its walls and from the opening helicopter shot where you get a full view of the building you can tell that straight away from its colourless and archaic design. Cold and unforgiving it offers no solace, which is compounded by the brilliant score from Thomas Newman in this scene as Andy enters Shawshank. It sounds like a funeral procession where the lives of those entering Shawshank's walls are never going to be the same again.
Like the novella, the film is told from the perspective of Red (played by Morgan Freeman). In the source material Red is a white man of Irish descent and had actors like Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Paul Newman circling the role but it is hard to think of anyone else in the role now other than Morgan Freeman. It is almost a tired joke now at how much fun people have poked at his narration but listening to it in context, there is so much integrity to his vocal performance that it elevates what we see on screen. As for Freeman's on screen performance it is clear to see that it is one of the greatest he has ever delivered. The subtle way in which it changes in tandem with how his friendship grows with Andy is a marvel to watch. That friendship is almost like a love story between the two men and this is clearly seen in their conversation by the prison wall with the famous "get busy living or get busy dying" line where you can see how much Red's heart aches for Andy despite not saying anything. When we meet him, he is a bit of a fixer and hustler who can get you anything you need but by the time he is finishing his sentence at Shawshank there is more of a solemnity to him which you can see through the way he speaks and how patient Freeman is in the way he carries himself on screen. The best way you can see this passage of time is through the three different parole hearings he goes through. The final meeting is a highlight as his exasperated candour, free from any sense of feeling the need to give a performance is what sets him free.
Opposite him as the man falsely imprisoned for killing his wife and her lover is Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins). When we first meet him during his court case we don't know what to make of him due to the enigmatic nature of Robbin's performance. Behind his soulful eyes there is a mind full of secrets as Andy is adapting to life in his new found hell. Throughout the film we see the meticulous nature of his character and a lot of this can be seen in Robbins performance where he is trying to keep his escape a secret. You need look no further than the scene of his cell inspection where he tries to maintain his cool around the Warden even though there is a tunnel behind his poster and a rock hammer in his bible. The manner in which he maintains his calmness and soft spoken manner throughout is emblematic of his determination to not let Shawshank break him. You notice the layers in Robbins performance from scenes like these on repeated viewings. The scene in which he plays Mozart's "Duettino" Sull'Aria from The Marriage of Figaro over the loudspeaker of the prison is iconic in how the beauty of music is so powerful that it gives the prisoners of Shawshank reprieve from the drudgery of it all as they ascend above the prison walls for the briefest of moments making them feel human once more.
The person who is at odds with this sentiment is Warden Norton (played by Bob Gunton) whose cruelty is encapsulated in his first scene when he greets the new prisoners of Shawshank telling them, "I believe in two things, discipline and the bible, here you'll receive both. Your ass belongs to me." Gunton exudes a smug sense of self righteousness throughout acting in a cold and calculated manner to anyone who opposes him. Gunton also conveys a sense of cowardice in the face of his hypocrisy as in his right hand he would moralise about the teachings of God whilst in the left hand he would hide his corruption clutching his secret money laundering tight. With the aid of the brutal Captain Hadley (played by Clancy Brown) who seems to relish the barbaric punishments he inflicts Norton's tyranny reigns over Shawshank. They are the personification of the prison with their medieval approach to punitive measures which may feel like they lack dimension as characters but if you keep in mind that the film is told from Red's perspective, his limited interactions with these characters would paint this view of them.
Another aspect of the film that adds texture are the portrayal of the other convicts of Shawshank. In the novella they feel somewhat brushed over but here each of the characters (in roles big and small) feel genuine and like they have lived a long and storied life. You don't judge them for the crimes they have committed, you see them as people. The most obvious example of this is Brooks (played by James Whitmore). The film comes to a halt when Darabont explores his life outside Shawshank as a free man. The narration shifts from Freeman to Whitmore who is writing a letter to his friends on the inside, explaining how he is coping with life on the outside. It feels like its own short film but it is also one of the most heartbreaking scenes in any King adaptation. As the gentle piano of Newman's score plays alongside his story, the struggles and the loneliness of a man who has known nothing but life in prison is utterly tragic. It reaches a point where he is too frightened to live anymore in a world that moves too fast for him. His only sense of life and community resided in the walls of Shawshank. It is a potent piece of commentary from Darabont about the nature of institutionalisation that comes to the fore again once Red faces a similar predicament when he is released from prison.
That section of the film is one of many changes from the novel but these changes alongside the fate of Tommy, the making of Norton the only warden in Shawshank and the ending, work better in the medium of cinema as Darabont himself said in the documentary 'Hope Springs Eternal: A Look Back at The Shawshank Redemption' his intention was in "...taking what King has done and turning up the heat dramatically whenever possible." In doing so it has helped make the film become the universally loved classic it is today. This comes in the crescendo of the third act that sees Andy finally escape from Shawshank. Based on the previous scene and how downtrodden he is we think that he is going to kill himself but in hindsight he was deciding to gamble on making his escape. It is a real crowd pleasing moment when a furious Norton throws one of Andy's rock sculptures through his poster of Raquel Welch before pulling it off the wall to reveal a tunnel (which King has criticised for being too round). We then hear of how Andy crawled 500 yards through a sewage pipe to his freedom culminating in him raising his hands to the heavens having secured his salvation from Shawshank. It is a pure piece of cinematic catharsis needed after such a long and horrific journey.
It is arguable that audiences have perhaps been overexposed to 'The Shawshank Redemption' over the years. The difference between this film and countless other lesser films that run on repeat is that no matter what point in the film you tune in, you tend to watch it right through the end. Why is that? For me, I think it is down to the central message of hope in the face of the most impossible odds. As an audience we invest in watching the strength of Andy's, spirit who despite being constantly pushed down he doesn't just pick himself back up again but others around him. He refuses to become institutionalised which is a very relatable thing. We all carry the cross of own different forms of this hardship in life but the key is enduring it and trying to find a way to reach our own Zihuatanejo.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
-Joseph McElroy
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