Taglines: Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.
The Shawshank Redemption movie storyline. In 1947, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a banker in Maine, is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, a golf pro. Since the state of Maine has no death penalty, he is given two consecutive life sentences and sent to the notoriously harsh Shawshank Prison. Andy always claims his innocence, but his cold and measured demeanor led many to doubt his word.
During the first night, the chief guard, Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), savagely beats an overweight and newly arrived inmate because of his crying and hysterics. The inmate later dies in the infirmary because the prison doctor had left for the night. Meanwhile, Andy remained steadfast and composed. Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman), known as Red, bet against others that Andy would be the one to break down first and loses a considerable amount of cash. Red has been in prison for several years having been given three consecutive life sentences for the murder of his wife and two others.
About a month later, Andy approaches Red, who runs contraband inside the walls of Shawshank. He asks Red to find him a rock hammer, an instrument he claims is necessary for his hobby of rock collecting and sculpting. Though other prisoners consider Andy “a really cold fish,” Red sees something in Andy, and likes him from the start. Red believes Andy intends to use the hammer to engineer his escape in the future but when the tool arrives and he sees how small it is, Red puts aside the thought that Andy could ever use it to dig his way out of prison.
During the first two years of his incarceration, Andy works in the prison laundry. He attracts attention from “the Sisters,” a group of prisoners who sexually assault other prisoners. Though he persistently resists and fights them, Andy is beaten and raped on a regular basis. Red pulls some strings and gets Andy and a few of their mutual friends a break by getting them all on a work detail tarring the roof of one of the prison’s buildings.
During the job Andy overhears Hadley complaining about having to pay taxes for an upcoming inheritance. Drawing on his expertise as a banker, Andy lets Hadley know how he can shelter his money from the IRS, turning it into a one-time gift for his wife. He says he’ll assist in exchange for some cold beers for his fellow inmates while on the tarring job.
Though he at first threatens to throw Andy off the roof, Hadley, the most brutal guard in the prison, agrees, providing the men with cold beer before the job is finished. Red remarks that Andy may have engineered the privilege to build favor with the prison guards as much as with his fellow inmates, but Red also thinks Andy did it simply to “feel free.”
While watching a movie, Andy demands “Rita Hayworth” from Red. Soon after, Andy once more encounters the Sisters and is brutally beaten, putting him in the infirmary for a month. Boggs (Mark Rolston), the leader of the Sisters, spends a week in solitary for the beating. When he comes out, he finds Hadley and his men waiting in his cell. They beat him so badly he’s left paralyzed, transferred to a prison hospital upstate, and the Sisters never bother Andy again. When Andy gets out of the infirmary, he finds a bunch of rocks and a poster of Rita Hayworth in his cell: presents from Red and his buddies.
Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton) hears about how Andy helped Hadley and uses a surprise cell inspection to size Andy up. The warden meets with Andy and sends him to work with aging inmate Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore) in the prison library, where he sets up a make-shift desk to provide services to other guards (and the warden himself) with income tax returns and other financial advice.
Andy sees an opportunity to expand the prison library; he starts by asking the Maine state senate for funds. He writes letters every week. His financial support practice is so appreciated that even guards from other prisons, when they visit for inter-prison baseball matches, seek Andy’s financial advice. Andy prepares Norton’s tax returns the next season.
The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who is sentenced to life in Shawshank State Penitentiary for the murder of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. During his time at the prison, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding, and finds himself protected by the guards after the warden begins using him in his money-laundering operation.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Directed by: Frank Darabont
Starring: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, James Whitmore, Larry Brandenburg, Neil Giuntoli, Brian Libby, David Proval
Screenplay by: Frank Darabont
Production Design by: Terence Marsh
Cinematography by: Roger Deakins
Film Editing by: Richard Francis-Bruce
Costume Design by: Elizabeth McBride
Set Decoration by: Michael Seirton
Art Direction by: Peter Landsdown Smith
Music by: Thomas Newman
MPAA Rating: R for language and prison violence.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: September 23, 1994
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