The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

My Rating 8/10

[Work of Art 4/5, Sense of Life 4/5]

“. . . There are places in the world that aren't made out of stone. There’s something inside that they can’t get to . . . that they can’t touch. That’s yours,” claims Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), an inmate at the Shawshank prison, serving two back-to-back life sentences for allegedly murdering his wife. He didn’t. Yet he never loses hope. He dreams of the Pacific, of a coastal town – ‘warm’ and ‘without memory’ – of starting a hotel there, and taking his guests out in a boat – ‘charter fishing’. The huge, drab walls of the prison, it seems, prove not to be a blockade enough for his soaring hopes. In fact, he makes friends, carves out pieces for a chessboard and erects a library – much to the delight of the fellows around, especially Red (Morgan Freeman), with whom he shares a profound bond. That bond is portrayed best when Andy sets out (and how!) to fulfil his dreams, and Red acknowledges that “some birds aren't meant to be caged; their feathers are just too bright”. He misses him; he gets a reason to get through his parole. He hopes that the Pacific is as blue as it has been in his dreams; he hopes to find his friend. He concedes that “hope is a good thing; may be best of things – and no good thing ever dies.”

A masterful tale of the spirit of man – a man who, in spite of crawling through a “river of shit, came out clean on the other side”; a saga of two friends redeeming their lives – from a place like Shawshank!