In 1994, Frank Darabont’s film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ received a poor reception when released; it only made a $0.3m profit. More recently the film has become known as one of the greatest movies of all time, it has inspired hope in many people, helping them to lose weight, leave abusive marriages and such like. The film is based mainly upon two convicts, and the idea of hope. Andy Dufresne is a ‘Hot Shot Banker’ imprisoned with two life sentences, for the suspected murder of his wife and her lover and ‘Red’ (Morgan Freeman) whom Andy redeems hope in, along with the other convicts, saving them from institutionalisation.
One of the ways in which Andy saves himself is by making projects for himself. The first thing that Andy does is to
Camera angles are used effectively by Darabont in this scene; it shows how much the music affects the men of Shawshank, the shot emphasises the mass number of people the music influences. In this clip Red narrates ‘Every last man in Shawshank felt free’; this really portrays the emotion shown in the scene, however this scene is shortly followed by Andy having to endure two months in the hole.
Endurance is one of Andy’s strongest characteristics, and it is one of the key features Darabont picks up on to enhance the ideology of hope, he uses the way Andy takes tasks under his belt and works at them. He perseveres through everything that is thrown his way, because he has hope in himself. When he plays the music to the prison, he is determined to keep playing it, even though the guards are shouting at him to stop. Even after this, when he is in the hole, he endures it and when he is eventually released he comments that it was the best time he ever did, and he says ‘I had Mr Mozart to keep me company’. This positive attitude that he is showing to his friends is inspiring hope in themselves not just him, he is leading them away from institutionalisation through perseverance and determination, through showing them his hope and through his leadership role.
His leadership shows symbolism towards the leadership of Jesus, it is possibly the main way in which he is shown as a hope icon in the prison. Andy is mostly shot in lit areas,