CINEMA: Stanley Peskin
IN Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption, the penetentiary of that name is used metaphorically to claim that imprisonment can be a state of mind. Charged with a double murder of which he is innocent, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) spends 19 years in prison. There, reduced to the number 37297, he comes to recognise that in the world outside too he was little more than a cipher, a banker who meticulously toted up figures.
Friendless and unable at first to explore the array of fears and feelings he has kept hidden, Dufresne discovers a need for human contact and companionship. The early stages of the film document his recoil from emotional intimacy and a tendency to isolated brooding. Robbins, in his integration of the emotional and psychological factors of Dufresne’s character, is most moving as he painfully acknowledges that in the past he was unable to support the responsibilities of friendship and love.
His movement towards both self-redemption and the recognition that salvation lies within are accomplished through his selfless relationships with three of the prison inmates (a prison fixer, a librarian, an illiterate young man) and in a confrontational relationship with the Bible-thumping warden Norton (Bob Gunton in a chilling performance).
In trading biblical quotations with the warden, the “Master of the House” who believes in the joint value of the Bible and discipline, Dufresne learns to value the spirit, the “Light of the World”, rather than the letter of the law. Not unexpectedly, the penal system, exemplified in the warden, is shown to be hopelessly corrupt and brutal.
To the black man amusingly called Red (an Irishman in King’s story and played in the film with engaging irony by Morgan Freeman), Dufresne acknowledges his responsibility for his wife’s infidelity. His understanding manifests itself in action: he raises funds for a library project and forms a friendship with the librarian (superbly played by the veteran actor James Whitmore); he instills hope in the disillusioned Red; and plays the letter duet from The Marriage of Figaro over the prison loudspeakers. Music which in Dufresne’s words “makes the heart ache” becomes a stirring affirmation of mutual need and love.
The film is adapted from Stephen King’s story Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, an intriguing juxtaposition which has been lost in the film’s title. But a poster of Hayworth, as well as posters of Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch, are indeed instrumental in Dufresne’s finding freedom.
Throughout the film, the dominant use of sombre colours and closed frames emphasises the claustrophobic world of the prison. In the last 10 minutes, a 360-degree camera turn around Red in an open field and shots of Dufresne with the Pacific behind him become eloquent expressions of the liberty the two men have won.