Premium Essay

Analyzing the Shawshank Redemption

In:

Submitted By crystalfrapp
Words 3132
Pages 13
Analyzing Shawshank Redemption
Crystal Gayle Frapp
January 31, 2014

Analyzing Shawshank Redemption
The film that will be analyzed and discussed is the Shawshank Redemption, which was Director by Frank Darabont and is a Story by Stephen King. It is based in 1946, a man named Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of killing his wife and her lover, and him going to prison and dealing with the struggles of prison life as a truly innocent man. . “He's sentenced to a life term at the Shawshank State Prison in Maine, where another lifer, Ellis Red Redding (Morgan Freeman), picks him as the new recruit most likely to crack under the pressure. The ugly realities of prison life are quickly introduced to Andy: a corrupt warden (Bob Gunton), sadistic guards led by Capt. Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown), and inmates who are little better than animals, willing to use rape or beatings to insure their dominance. But Andy does not crack: he has the hope of the truly innocent, which (together with his smarts) allow him to prevail behind bars. He uses his banking skills to win favor with the warden and the guards, doing the books for Norton's illegal business schemes and keeping an eye on the investments of most of the prison staff. In exchange, he is able to improve the prison library and bring some dignity and respect back to many of the inmates, including Red.” After many years and a pick axe Andy manages to escape from prison threw slowly chipping away at the hole in his cell wall where he had a poster hung.” (google.com, 1999).
In this paper we will be discussing many key points about the Shawshank Redemption; we will be going over storytelling, acting, editing, and cinematography, editing, sound, the different styles and directing, the impact of society on the film, genre and the overall analysis of the film. Within the storytelling of the Shawshank Redemption we will go

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Shawshank Redemption

...In the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ by Frank Darabont, it informs us about the hardships in the prison of Shawshank and hopes to achieve freedom. The characters in Shawshank Redemption present a variety of social issues. Throughout Andy and Red’s sentence in prison, issues of identity, motivation, and anxiety are brought about within the film. Darabont shows us the affects of prison life during and after a prisoner’s sentence in prison. Shawshank Redemption portrays these social issues through the movies’s theme of finding freedom. The idea freedom is presented in the scene earlier in the film, when one of the prisoners ask Andy at the cafeteria ‘are you gonna eat that?’Andy didn’t want the food and handed it over which was fed to the tiny bird in the other mans pocket. The bird symbolizes freedom because when it had fully grown and was able to fly, it was set free by the man who took care of it. Freedom is shown by the production technique, lighting. The event that takes place in a dark jail cell, light shines through the bars of a little window where the bird is set free. We understand the idea freedom when the bird flies out towards the light and freedom and is no longer confined inside the pocket of the man also kept in jail. During the 1940’s, a young banker named Andy Dufresne arrives at Shawshank prison in Portland after being falsely accused of murdering his wife and her lover. In this high security prison Andy experiences isolation and harsh treatment by both inmates...

Words: 1175 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Kellyn

...Kellyn Lamore Professor Yates Film Appreciation 14 October 2015 Shawshank Redemption The Shawshank redemption is an American drama film that starred Tim Robbins and the amazing Morgan Freeman. The banker Andy was convicted for murdering his wife and her secret lover and was sentenced two consecutive life-sentences. When I watched this movie, I was speechless because I couldn’t believe how the prison guards treated these inmates. Yes, they did something bad, but the way those inmates were treated was so incredibly awful to see. The two major visual components of mise-en-scene are design and composition. Design is the process by which the look of the settings, props, lighting, and actors is determined (Looking at Movies). While composition is the organization, distribution, balance, and general relationships of actors and objects within the space of each shot (Looking at Movies). At first, there was a lot of design in The Shawshank Redemption. For example, the outside world from the prison seems nice lots of freedom. It seems as if at the beginning Andy was a pretty wealthy man by the way he dressed and his job title, a banker. Once he commits his crime, he has to take a scary looking bus into the prison, Shawshank Redemption. Shawshank redemption is a dark, unsafe prison that Andy ended up being placed in. The actors who acted as the prisoners did a good job “greeting” these new inmates by cheering and letting them know that this not the best place to live in. The actors...

Words: 836 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Will Do Next Time

...Instructor’s Manual and Test Bank to accompany A First Look at Communication Theory Sixth Edition Em Griffin Wheaton College prepared by Glen McClish San Diego State University and Emily J. Langan Wheaton College Published by McGraw­Hill, an imprint of The McGraw­Hill Companies, Inc., 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. Copyright Ó 2006,  2003, 2000, 1997, 1994, 1991 by The McGraw­Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may be reproduced in print form  solely for classroom use with A First Look At Communication Theory provided such reproductions bear copyright notice, but may not be reproduced in  any other form or for any other purpose without the prior written consent of The McGraw­Hill Companies, Inc., including, but not limited to, in any  network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. PREFACE Rationale We agreed to produce the instructor’s manual for the sixth edition of A First Look at Communication Theory because it’s a first-rate book and because we enjoy talking and writing about pedagogy. Yet when we recall the discussions we’ve had with colleagues about instructor’s manuals over the years, two unnerving comments stick with us: “I don’t find them much help”; and (even worse) “I never look at them.” And, if the truth be told, we were often the people making such points! With these statements in mind, we have done some serious soul-searching about the texts that so many teachers—ourselves...

Words: 159106 - Pages: 637