The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.
It's simple to say The Shawshank Redemption is about hope, but it is also about faith and love. In an age and culture saturated with sex, it allows for a close relationship unburdened by bodily fluids. Enigmatic new inmate Andy (Robbins) and the regretful, older Red (Freeman) could hardly contrast more, yet they connect. They love each other.
Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film portrays the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who spends nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover despite his claims of being innocent. During his time at the prison, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis "Red" Redding, and finds himself protected by the guards after the warden begins using him in his money laundering operation.
In the prologue before the film begins and pre-title credits play, a scratchy car radio (on the soundtrack) plays the romantic song: "If I Didn't Care," performed by the Inkspots:
If I didn't care, more than words can say,
If I didn't care, would I feel this way,
If this isn't love, then why do I thrill
And what makes my head go round and round
While my heart stands still...
To economically compress events during the credits sequence, a scene outside a cabin is intercut with a courtroom trial scene. In 1947, banker Andrew "Andy" Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, based on strong circumstantial evidence.
He is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine, run by Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). Andy is quickly befriended by Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), an inmate serving a life sentence whose parole application was recently rejected. Red is known for obtaining contraband and Andy has him obtain him a rock hammer to maintain his rock collection hobby, allowing him to create small stone chessmen from rock. Andy later obtains a large poster of Rita Hayworth from Red, followed in later years by Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch.
On a manual labor detail, Andy overhears Captain of the Guards Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) complain about having to pay taxes on a forthcoming inheritance. After explaining a legal loophole to Hadley, Andy is reassigned to assist the prison librarian, elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore), a pretext to allow Andy to work on financial requests full time. Andy's financial advice is soon sought by other guards at Shawshank and by visiting guards from nearby prisons.
Hadley delivers a brutal beating to inmate Bogs (Mark Rolston), leader of "The Sisters," after his gang's sexual assault puts Andy in the infirmary. Bogs is paralyzed, and the remaining Sisters leave Andy alone. Andy uses his goodwill with the warden to expand the prison library. When one donation to the library provides him with the opera The Marriage of Figaro, he plays an excerpt over the public address system for all the inmates to hear, well aware of the punishment of solitary confinement he will receive for the brief moment of bliss.
Andy returns to his regular cell block and tells Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican Pacific coastal town. He instructs Red, should he ever be freed, to visit a specific hayfield near Buxton to retrieve a package Andy left there. The next day at roll call, Andy's cell is empty. When Norton, angry at Andy's disappearance, throws one of Andy's rocks at the poster of Raquel Welch, the rock tears through the poster, revealing a tunnel that Andy had dug with the rock hammer over the last two decades.
The night before, Andy switched the ledger book he had kept for Norton with his prison-issue Bible. Taking the ledger, his chess set, and one of the warden's suits, he escaped through the tunnel and a narrow sewage drain during a thunderstorm. After escaping, Andy poses as Randall Stevens to withdraw most of the corruption money from several banks, then sends evidence of Norton's corruption to a local newspaper. The police arrive at the prison, and Hadley is arrested, but Norton commits suicide to evade arrest.
Red receives parole after serving 40 years and is allocated the apartment where Brooks committed suicide, and works at the same grocery store. Red follows Andy's advice and visits Buxton. There, he finds a cache of money and a note left by Andy, reminding him of Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole and travels to Fort Hancock, Texas to skip the border to Mexico. The two are happily reunited on the beach.
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