"Fear can hold you prisoner, Hope can set you free."

15 years! I watched the movie, often referred to as - one among the best in English Cinema, after 15 years of its release!!! Well, 15 years is not a surprising period considering that I watched BenHur 43 years after it was made. The surprising point is that I missed out on this movie, though I have been watching many English movies during the time of this one's release. You would have guessed the title of the movie if you had a chance to watch it. I am writing about 'The Shawshank Redemption' (TSR).

The film illustrate the liberating, redemptive power of hope and the religious themes of freedom and resurrection, with the words: "Fear can hold you prisoner, Hope can set you free." It's a movie that is patiently-told, an allegorical tale (unfolding like a long-played, sometimes painstaking, persistent game of chess) of friendship, patience, hope, survival, emancipation, and ultimate redemption and salvation by the time of the film's finale.

Sometimes many movies are ignored in the glory of others made at the same time. TSR was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Morgan Freeman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound - but it failed to win a single Oscar. And the film's director failed to receive a nomination for himself! In the same year as Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, and Speed, they received all of the attention. Fact remains that only through positive word-of-mouth did the film do well - although its original reception at the box-office was lukewarm. The film was the precursor for another inspirational and popular film (and a similar adaptation of a Stephen King story by writer/director Frank Darabont) - The Green Mile (1999) - again one of my all time favourites.

TSR is based on the Stephen King novel, 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption'. The film stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding. It is mostly portrayed as a narration. In 1947, a young banker named Andy Dufresne is wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and her lover based on strong circumstantial evidence and is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine. At the prison, inmate Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (the narrator) is rejected for parole after having served twenty years of his life sentence shortly before Andy's arrival. Andy gradually becomes acquainted with Red's circle of friends, and Red himself, who is known for cleverly smuggling in contraband. After a month of adjusting to his new life, Andy approaches Red and asks him to get a rock hammer, originally intending to pursue a hobby of rock collecting. Andy later asks Red to get him a poster of Rita Hayworth, which over the years is replaced with a poster of Marilyn Monroe, then Raquel Welch.

One day, while tarring the roof of Shawshank's license plate factory, Andy overhears one of the prison guards, Captain Hadley, discussing the taxes he will have to pay on an inheritance he will soon receive. Although he nearly gets thrown off the roof for butting in to the conversation, Andy convinces Hadley that, with his knowledge of financial matters, he can help Hadley keep the entire inheritance. As other guards begin to come to him for financial help, Andy is given a makeshift office in the prison library to provide tax and financial services. His "clientele" grows to include the entire prison staff, guards from other prisons, and even Warden Norton himself. Andy’s presence enriches and uplifts Shawshank, but we rarely get much reason to think that he’ll be getting out soon. The warden capitalizes on Andy's skills and devises a program to put prison inmates to work for local construction projects, exploiting the prisoners' free labour for his own personal profit, with Andy acting behind the scenes as a money launderer. To keep Andy happy, the Warden lets Andy keep an inordinate amount of contraband in his cell, and expand the prison library through repeated requests to the state. Prior to being discovered for his skills, Andy had frequently been beaten and sexually assaulted by a gang called "The Sisters" led by Bogs and Rooster. After Andy begins to prove important, an attack by Bogs that lands him in the infirmary is avenged by Captain Hadley, disabling Bogs for life. Bogs is sent to a secure hospital and Andy is never bothered again.

We get a good-sized dose of prison brutality, largely the work of the menacing head guard. Although Andy is protected from most of that, the warden doesn’t hesitate to send him to solitary confinement for extended periods when he wanders from the straight and narrow. He matter-of-factly carries on, with the attitude that he must either have hope or die.

In 1965, a young prisoner named Tommy Williams enters Shawshank on a breaking and entering charge, and quickly becomes part of Red's and Andy's group of friends, with Andy helping him to pass the GED test. He learns of Andy's supposed crime and makes a shocking revelation: Elmo Blatch, one of his old cellmates, had gleefully described murdering two people who fit the description of Andy's wife and her lover, and how her "hotshot banker" husband got blamed for it. Andy hopes that he will be able to get a new trial with Tommy's help, and he approaches Warden Norton for advice and assistance. Fearing exposure of his illegal activities at Shawshank should Andy be set free, Norton sends him to solitary confinement and orders Hadley to kill Tommy.

Later, when Andy is back in the prison yard, he tells Red that if he ever gets out of prison he should go to a specific hayfield near Buxton, Maine to find something that has been buried there. Finally, something remarkable happens at Shawshank. The following morning, Andy is missing from his cell. In a fury over Andy's disappearance, the warden throws one of Andy's rocks at the poster of Raquel Welch, and it rips through it, revealing a large hole that Andy had used to escape. It’s surprising and inspiring to watch, but it’s not implausible. We come away from the experience blindsided by Andy’s inspirational example. Sure, he’s just another prisoner, but he’s also more than that.

In a flashback sequence, it is revealed that Andy spent years chipping away at the wall of his cell with his rock hammer, using the posters of Hayworth, Monroe and Welch to conceal it. After his escape, Andy assumes the fake identity of Randall Stevens, which he created earlier for the purpose of concealing the warden's embezzlement. Andy withdraws the funds that he had deposited over the years for Norton, and sends evidence of the scams to a local newspaper. The morning the story runs, Byron Hadley is arrested and Norton commits suicide in his office.

Soon after, in 1967, Red is finally released on parole after serving 40 years at Shawshank, despite not wishing to be free, worried that he would end up committing suicide once outside of the prison's strict regime, as happened to his fellow prisoner Brooks Hatlen. He recalls his promise to Andy shortly before Andy's escape, and heads to the field in Buxton that Andy told him about. He finds a small metal box containing money and instructions from Andy. He violates his parole and travels to Mexico, eventually reuniting with Andy in Zihuatanejo on the Pacific coast.

For most of its 142 minutes, you watch unpleasant things happen to a man who clearly doesn’t deserve it. Every time you’re about to throw in the towel and conclude that this is all just too depressing, this fellow does something remarkable – something that convinces you that he’s going to find a way to survive. When the film’s conclusion starts to unfold, you suddenly realize that this is one of the more inspiring films you’ve seen in a long time – yet you don’t feel the least bit manipulated.

There are aspects of The Shawshank Redemption that don’t work well. The bad guys are just a bit too monotone bad, and prisoners’ apparent complete lack of contact without the outside world is hard to believe. But many more aspects of the film work extremely well. Andy’s convict friends are interesting and likeable, if crude. They give the film great depth. The acting performances are also very good. Tim Robbins’ low-key approach to playing Andy is perfect – a much better performance than it at first seems. Morgan Freeman is wonderful as the wise but sad Redding.

I am being carried away remembering the movie. Have I written too much? I only have to say one thing. I am convinced that its among the best ones ever. If you believe me, go for it and let me know how it went.