Shawshank redeems our belief in the power of great movies--even popular ones

1994 is remembered as the year when Pulp Fiction commanded the zeitgeist, Forrest Gump captured the hearts of moviegoers and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (which awarded the film six Oscars, including Best Picture), and The Lion King became the highest grossing picture of the year and animated film of all time to that point.

But the most rewatched and cherished work from 1994 is also the one that has proved to be the most popular of the last 30 years: The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont.

To listen to a recording of our CineVerse group discussion of this film, click here. To hear the latest Cineversary podcast episode honoring The Shawshank Redemption, click here.

So, what makes Shawshank worthy of celebration over the past 30 years? First, it’s the popular champion in the modern era. The Shawshank Redemption has commanded the crown as the crowd favorite over the last three decades, as evidenced by its repeated ranking at the top of the IMDB top 250 films list, where it has reigned supreme among movie watchers for most of the past 27 years. It first topped the IMDB list in 1997, dropped to second place for a few years, and then recaptured its top ranking in 2008.

The Wizard of Oz may likely be the most-watched film in history, Avatar and Gone With the Wind may have sold the most tickets, and Citizen Kane remains the critics’ darling, but when it comes to the picture that most pleases the masses, Shawshank wins. This is a perfect example of a film that didn’t blow the critics away—its Rotten Tomatoes score is 89% and its average critical score is an impressive but far from perfect 8 out of 10—yet it’s hard to find an everyday person who has seen The Shawshank Redemption and not loved it. Consider that its Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter score, representing its fans, is 98% while its IMDB fan rating is 9.3 out of 10.

Many believe these are the best performances in the careers of both Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. This film is superbly cast, and kudos are deserving of the supporting roles by James Whitmore as Brooks, Bob Gunton as the warden, Clancy Brown as Captain Hadley, and others. But Freeman easily steals every scene he’s in while Robbins looks born to play this role with his boyishly innocent yet often expressionless face that helps Andy remain mysterious to the viewer.

This is also the film that cemented Freeman’s status as perhaps the most respected and compelling actor of that era, a versatile thespian who brought gravitas to every role he was cast in from 1989 onward. Additionally, Shawshank is where Freeman proved his considerable mettle as a voiceover powerhouse, and he has consistently been in demand for years following this film for his voice alone in documentaries, commercials, video games, and even the Waze GPS app. His voice drizzles over you like melted butter: It’s that rich, smooth, and savory.

The two lead performances are often cited as Shawshank’s greatest strength, but more credit should probably go to the A+ screenplay and the original story by Stephen King on which it’s based. The narrative is exemplary, gripping us with tension and twists, provoking deeper thought with its philosophical monologues and enriching dialogue between Red and Andy, and thoroughly satisfying in its redemptive conclusion in which the karmic scales are balanced. The Writers Guild of America slots it at #22 on its list of the greatest screenplays.

This is almost universally regarded as the best prison film of all time within a strong subgenre that includes, chronologically, Grand Illusion, Brute Force, Stalag 17, Riot in Cell Block 11, A Man Escaped, Bridge on the River Kwai, Bird Man of Alcatraz, The Great Escape, Cool Hand Luke, Papillon, Midnight Express, Escape From Alcatraz, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and The Green Mile.

Speaking of Mr. King, this could be the finest cinematic translation of one of his works. Rotten Tomatoes places it #3 behind Carrie and Stand by Me as the best movie sourced from a Stephen King story, but many would fight tooth and nail to defend The Shawshank Redemption as tops. King himself said it was his favorite adaption of one of his tales. There are a lot of worthy contenders to choose from, as other acclaimed and popular films based on King stories include, chronologically, Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Christine, Stand by Me, Misery, Dolores Claiborne, The Green Mile, 1408, The Mist, It, Gerald’s Game, and Doctor Sleep.

One of the movie’s secret weapons is the painterly craftsmanship of cinematographer Roger Deakins, who conjures incredible thematic depth with deep shadows, for instance, in scenes involving Brooks, as well as golden-tinged pictorial splendor in outdoor shots such as the rooftop tarring sequence. Deakins has demonstrated mastery of light and darkness in numerous classics, especially Fargo and No Country For Old Men by the Coen Brothers, and more recently in visually spectacular works like Blade Runner 2049 and 1917, but Shawshank stands as a continually underrated triumph in his resume.

Shawshank remains endlessly quotable, too, containing priceless pearls of perfectly written dialogue and monologue that are regularly cited in pop culture and across social media. Cases in point:

• I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
• There are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.
• Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.
• Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.
• I believe in two things: discipline and the Bible. Here you'll receive both. Put your trust in the Lord; your ass belongs to me. Welcome to Shawshank.
• The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.
• The funny thing is - on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.
• They send you here for life, and that's exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyway.
• Salvation lies within.
• How can you be so obtuse?
• Every man has his breaking point.
• 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.

The Shawshank Redemption was nominated for seven Academy Awards, but unfortunately didn’t land a single Oscar. IMDB isn’t the only source that ranks it highly: It was named the greatest film of all time by Empire magazine in 2006; the American Film Institute’s 2007 list of the greatest American movies has it at no. 72, ahead of Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump, two other critically acclaimed works released in the same year (1994); and in 2015 it was named Britain’s favorite movie after polling by YouGov. It was also voted as New Zealand's favorite film in a 2015 poll.

Like It’s a Wonderful Life decades earlier, The Shawshank Redemption is a phoenix of a film, proving that an overlooked masterwork can be resurrected and rediscovered by viewers years later.

After quickly fizzling out at the box office and disappearing from theaters, the movie became a word-of-mouth phenomenon and enjoyed one of the greatest audience comebacks in cinema history. It tapped into an incredible second wind on the small screen, where a loyal following was cultivated. It became one of the most in-demand VHS and DVD titles of the 1990s (the most rented film of 1995, in fact) and was aired more than 100 times on TNT and TBS, becoming a juggernaut on cable.

Sunday Guardian critic Saumya Mehrotra credits Shawshank with helping to seed the growth of what became “prestige TV,” where exclusive television series and programs boast cinema-quality content, as evidenced in shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, and Breaking Bad. Per Mehrotra: “It was The Shawshank Redemption that made Hollywood producers think seriously about tapping into the television industry. After this point in cinema history, films were made for both the big screen and for the small one.”

It’s easy to trace the rise of prison-themed TV shows, docuseries, and films that came in the wake of The Shawshank Redemption, including The Green Mile, The Hurricane, American History X, Oz, Prison Break, The Escapist, Felon, Orange is the New Black, and Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons.

Director Frank Darabont consistently uses clever misdirection, skillful surprises and twists, as well as the withholding of key information to keep us from guessing what will happen next or to upend our expectations for a character or outcome. Brooks’ suicide, Tommy’s revelation of Andy’s innocence, Tommy’s murder, Andy’s secret escape, and Red’s unexpected parole are the major twists and surprises. Meanwhile, examples of red herrings include:

• We don’t learn of Andy’s true innocence until 90 minutes into the film. There are enough false clues to taint him as possibly guilty, including his introductory scene where he holds the revolver and the courtroom sequence when he lacks a believable defense against the circumstantial evidence presented.
• We see a figure approach the parole board and assume it’s Andy but are surprisingly introduced to Red, who establishes his voiceover narration at this point.
• The veteran inmates take bets on the new crop of “fresh fish” inmate arrivals, but what are they wagering on? Is it who will be assaulted first? Eventually, we learn it’s a bet on who will be the first to break down into tears.
• Brooks asks for the wriggling maggot Andy picks out of his food. Is Brooks senile or insane? No, it’s rapidly revealed that he has a hungry pet bird.
• We and Red quickly accept that Andy truly is the “rock hound” he describes himself to be—that the small rock hammer will not be used for escaping but for crafting chess pieces.
• Andy has kept such a steady poker face in the first third of the movie that when he asks Captain Hadley if he trusts his wife, we are taken aback by this imposing question and wonder what Andy’s motivation for the confrontation is. He soon convinces Hadley to entrust him with financial planning.
• After being released, Brooks says he’s “decided not to stay.” We assume he means to relocate to another town or become a paroled fugitive, but he’s actually talking about suicide, which he soon commits.
• Warden Norton asks Tommy if he’s willing to testify about Andy’s innocence in court. We presume Norton is having second thoughts about Andy and may be willing to do the right thing here, but he shockingly opts to have Tommy killed.
• We and Red fear that Andy may follow Brooks’ path and use the rope to hang himself in his cell, a possibility milked for maximum effect via several tense shots in which we see Andy appear to be a forever altered, utterly defeated man. However, it’s eventually revealed that Andy uses the rope to escape, and has timed his breakout to perfectly coincide with Norton’s belief that he’s finally broken Andy’s spirit.
• When the authorities arrive at the prison to arrest Norton, he grabs his pistol and we believe that the warden won’t give up without a fight. Instead, he uses the weapon to kill himself.
• Red appears before the parole board for a third time; we’ve been patterned to believe that, as before, he’ll be rejected—especially after making comments the board would deem disrespectful—but, remarkably, his parole is granted.

The movie also benefits from maintaining a careful tonal balance designed to satisfy more viewers and prevent fewer watchers from abandoning ship. Yes, it is often violent, dark, and depressing, but these harsh qualities are buffered by the recurrent messages of hope, sporadic bits of comic relief, and the poignant and captivating camaraderie between Red and Andy.

Additionally, Darabont uses foreshadowing, inside jokes, and puns to punctuate the narrative and reward repeat viewings. Among the foreshadowing examples are the instances of holes made in walls, as when the warden removes the framed “His judgment cometh and that right soon” cross-stitching from the wall to reveal a safe, or when the crew demolishes a wall to build the prison library; Andy carving his name into the stone wall, followed by Brooks later carving “Brooks was here” into the wooden beam, and then Red repeating the latter; and the warden locking himself in his office while the authorities try to break it, which mirrors an earlier scene involving Andy sequestered in the warden’s office. In-jokes include the warden’s “Inside Out” program and insistence that “salvation lies within” (literally within a bible concealing Andy’s escape tool) along with the poster of Einstein sticking out his tongue in seeming mockery of the warden standing below it.

The Shawshank Redemption is a throwback of sorts to previous prison classics created by Hollywood like The Great Escape, The Birdman of Alcatraz, and Cool Hand Luke—referencing those three pictures and a few others in its look, old-school set design and costumes, escape techniques, and other ways. But it deviates from these predecessors in several respects. First, it features a spoken narration throughout that guides the viewer along, with a likable homespun voice and vernacular, impeccably delivered by Freeman, that helps weave a wholly absorbing tale and creates a more personal, emotional story.

Interestingly, the narrator is arguably not the central character. Red is a third-party witness to the story of Andy, the character whom we most identify and sympathize with. We get the story from Red’s point of view, which makes it increasingly interesting because Red is more credible as a grizzled, jaded, experienced inmate. This is Andy’s story, but it’s told by Red; that’s important because to us the most significant “redemption” of the film, it turns out, is Red’s, not Andy’s.

In his four-star reappraisal of the film, Roger Ebert wrote: “Red is our surrogate. He's the one we identify with, and the redemption, when it comes, is Red's…If Andy had been the heroic center, bravely enduring, the film would have been conventional, and less mysterious. But we wonder about this guy. Did he really kill those two people? Why does he keep so much to himself? Why can he amble through the prison yard like a free man on a stroll, when everyone else plods or sidles?”

Unlike other films about incarceration, which usually concern themselves early on with an elaborate escape plan plot—such as The Great Escape, Papillon, Escape From Alcatraz, and Stalag 17—this picture doesn’t try to tip its hat that the later payoff will be an escape; we see many years elapse during which Andy and his friends are imprisoned, presumably without hope. Therefore, the main meat of this narrative concerns both psychologically and physically coping with an interminable life in prison. There’s enough action and interesting subplots and characters here to make for a fascinating two hours without being focused from the beginning on an inevitable breakout.

Consider that inmates seldom triumph in prison films. Often, the incarcerated main character is killed (as in Brute Force or Cool Hand Luke) or the escaped or rebellious prisoners are captured and re-incarcerated by the authorities (recall The Defiant Ones, Riot in Cell Block 11, and The Great Escape). Shawshank is an exception to these rules and a repudiation of “the system” and the kinds of authority figures that run that system.

Another way Shawshank bucks the prison subgenre formula is in how it’s about the forging of a strong relationship between two friends. Papillon did this, too, but The Shawshank Redemption takes it many steps further. Some have even equated this narrative to a love story, albeit a platonic one. Morgan Freeman said in an interview: “I always think of this as a love story — two men who just totally bonded…At the very end of the movie, when they hook up — it’s complete.”

The deftly employed misdirection keeps you from prematurely guessing that Andy will eventually escape, and the clever details about how he accomplishes the breakout make for an incredibly satisfying third act in which the audience feels Andy’s uplifting sense of release, freedom, and vindication and revels in the execution of his plan. This is one of the best deliverance/revenge films ever made, and you don’t need to be a former inmate or wrongly accused victim to savor the powerful emotional payoff at the conclusion.

Of course, the film may not be very realistic in its depiction of a prison of this era or his escape efforts. It’s highly unlikely that Andy would have been allowed to remain in the same cell for 19 years, not attracted attention with his wall chiseling, or pulled off this breakout so seamlessly.

It’s the themes in The Shawshank Redemption that resonant strongest with viewers, and this film is chock full of them. Three of the most prominent explored are hope versus pessimism, opposites attract, and unlikely friendships. To help illustrate these three corresponding ideas, consider how Andy and Red are perfectly juxtaposed characters based on their differences: Andy is white, Red is African-American. Andy truly is innocent and wrongfully convicted of a crime he didn’t commit, while Red is a guilty criminal, although one who accepts that he has to pay his debt to society. Andy is younger and more sensitive, attuned to cultural sensibilities and the arts, idealistic, book smart, and hopeful; Red is older, hardened and jaded, street smart, and more pessimistically realistic, which makes him skeptical of the power of hope. Red is a man who can get things in from the outside for himself and others; Andy is a man who can get things out from the inside (his intelligence and optimism) for himself and others.

Therein lies the crux of the film’s main message: making Red, a doubting Thomas, see the light of hope, as exemplified in his savior, Andy, who serves as a messianic character (recall the 12 disciples surrounding him during the rooftop beer-drinking scene). Red is redeemed by Andy, not by helping him escape from the prison, but by making him believe in a life worth living outside the prison walls.

In addition to espousing that true, deep friendships last forever, Shawshank teaches us that true freedom has no boundaries and is often more a state of mind than a physical state of being in a free place. As Washington Post journalist Zachary Pincus-Roth put it, “Walls cannot confine you and do not define you.” Freedom, or “salvation” as the warden reminds, comes from within. You have to liberate yourself, first in your thoughts and attitude, to enjoy true independence. Remember that the final scene, featuring Red and Andy, occurs in Mexico. The fact that their reunion occurs outside of the boundaries of the familiar (the United States) and within a paradise-like setting is important: It suggests that they’ve graduated to a metaphorical “heaven,” an afterlife-of-sorts on earth far removed from their familiar place of confinement. It’s also wise to show only the two of them on the beach, as if this is their own private paradise they’ve earned. In the original story, Red is following Andy’s hidden trail and hopeful that he will rendezvous with his friend eventually someday. That ending was changed for the film because viewers responded more enthusiastically to a visible, conclusive reunion between the two.

“Art saves the soul,” as suggested by Unspooled podcast host Amy Nicholson, is a further takeaway. She and critic Mark Kermode believe The Shawshank Redemption is a love letter to the power of movies, as evidenced by how the inmates are mesmerized by Rita Hayworth while watching the film Gilda and how Andy uses a film can to fend off his attackers later in that scene. Ponder, too, how the convicts stand motionlessly and silently enraptured as they listen to the beautiful female operatic duet segment from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. Think back, as well, to when Andy gifts Red a harmonica; music in this narrative is equated with hope and freedom.

A final significant subtext to chew on: One small man can make a big difference in the lives of others. Andy improves the lives of nearly everyone he encounters at Shawshank State Prison, from Red and Tommy to the warden and Captain Hadley. His efforts result in a fantastic prison library as well as high school diplomas for several of the inmates.