This review first appeared in The St Austin Review
The Shawshank Redemption
Classic Film Review
By Dwight Longenecker
Film is the most exciting
and influential popular art form of the modern age.
This most powerful of dramatic
mediums has the power to affect us deeply. It does so
through the power of emotion. However, stirring the emotions
is not the only motivation of the film-maker. The heart
provides easy access to the head. Or as one screenwriter
has said, ‘I want to move the audience so much that they
leave the cinema thinking.’
This emotional and intellectual transaction affects
us through the mystery of storytelling. In film, as in
all storytelling and drama, we identify with the hero
and go on an adventure with him. As we go on his adventure
we actually bond with the hero in a mysterious way. We
adopt his values and see the world from his point of
view. Most importantly, we begin to feel his emotions
and think his thoughts. It is this mysterious vicarious
chemistry between the film hero and the person in the
audience which is so powerful, and which draws millions
to the experience of cinematic drama over and over again.
This identification with
the hero works at various levels depending on the seriousness
of the film and the skill
of the film-makers. Therefore, in an inferior film our
identification with the hero remains on a shallow level.
We are therefore left with nothing but exciting action
and titillating encounters. This sort of film-going is
never really satisfying. That’s why the stunts and explosions
in James Bond movies have to be bigger each time. In
a silly comedy our identification with the hero may be
simply an opportunity to laugh and enjoy the ridiculous
aspect of life. In a bad film our identification with
the hero is exploited in order to take us on an emotional
and spiritual journey which is immoral.
A film is not immoral simply
because it features nudity or violence. If the nudity
and violence are not gratuitous,
the film may be essentially quite moral. Likewise a very
immoral film may feature no nudity or violence at all.
For example, some time ago on British television there
was a drama in which nice middle class people in a cathedral
close were committing adultery. There was no nudity and
certainly no violence. At the end of the film however,
the adulterers went off happily into the sunset while
the child of the broken marriage was seen playing happily
with grandpa. The clear message was that adultery doesn’t
harm anyone and if a marriage breaks up everyone will
still live happily ever after. A film like this is far
more powerful in its subtly immoral effect than a film
which may show some sex or violence, but which is essentially
moral in its underlying values and message.
A film which makes my point is the modern classic The
Shawshank Redemption. This 1995 film, written and
directed by Frank Darabont, tells the story of Andy
Dufresne, a cool banker who is wrongly accused of murdering
his wife and her lover. He is sentenced to life in
the terrible Shawshank Penitentiary. The opening scenes
of the film include a view of the torrid affair his
wife is enjoying. Furthermore, in the first half hour
of the film we witness a brutal beating by a prison
guard, scenes of homosexual rape and the daily violence
of life inside. None of these awful scenes are filmed
explicitly however, and the emotional undercurrent
of the filming determines that we are rightly repulsed
by the twisted sex and brutal violence.
After setting up the brutality
of the prison regime Andy Dufresne makes friends with
an insider called Red.
This friendship is the core of the story, and as the
film takes us on a roller coaster ride of hope and despair
we see the friendship between Andy and Red mature and
develop into a powerful expression of abiding love and
mutual respect. Running along the theme of friendship
is a theme of hope. Andy Dufresne is a dignified and
intelligent hero. Despite his incarceration he never
gives up hope. As G.K.Chesterton said, ‘Hope is not a
virtue unless it is hoping for the hopeless.’ As Andy’s
hopes are dashed time and again we are drawn to the edge
of our seat wondering how the film will end. We know
it is called the Shawshank Redemption and we can’t
help wondering how anything will be redeemed. Suddenly
there is a twist in the tail and we see how Andy’s undying
hope is fulfilled and how his hopefulness has actually
spread to change the lives of all his friends and transform
the prison from a place of dread and despair to a place
of hope and trust.
In a recent film survey in the USA The Shawshank
Redemption was the top of the list of ordinary
viewers favourite films. Shawshank Redemption is
not an explicitly Christian film, but it is built on
a foundation of deeply Christian themes. Not least
of these themes is the condemnation of the one explicitly
Christian character—the outwardly upright prison warden
who is in fact a sadistic and corrupt murderer. The
script, the direction, and the acting are all superb.
While they are excellent in their own right, all the
elements of the film work together perfectly to entrance
the viewer and draw him up into the drama of Andy Dufresne’s
life.
The Shawshank Redemption is
also an excellent example of how Christian themes properly
permeate a work
of art. Art should never be didactic or preachy. The
themes can never be ‘up front’. The theme comes across
far more powerfully when it is deeply embedded in the
characters, the plot and the conflict of the story. In
this way the truth is embodied or incarnated within the
story. For example, there is only one scene where Andy
Dufresne speaks openly about hope. But on a second or
third viewing it becomes clear that the whole film is
about hope—from the first scene where the hero contemplates
suicide through to the last scene where all his hopes
have been fulfilled. When the truth is embedded in the
story it is communicated secretly and is all the more
powerful for that because that way the truth goes straight
to the heart. Art, in this sense, is a more powerful
tool of evangelisation than intellectual treatises. Finally,
when truth is embedded in the drama that dynamic combination
reflects the mystery of the incarnation, where the eternal
Word was himself embedded in human history, and where
eternal truth was made flesh and dwelt among us.
Dwight Longenecker is a freelance writer and
broadcaster. He has studied screenwriting at the National
Film and Television School, written several screenplays
and published a number of religious books.
