I have seen the movie twice. Every time I watched it, I was encouraged by lead actor Andy Dufresne’s thoughts, demeanor, and belief in life. The film is about a banker named Andy Duframe (Tim Robbins) who is wrongly accused of a double homicide that he did not commit. Ultimately, he was sent to Shawshank Prison for life. In prison is a man named Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding (Morgan Freeman) who has the ability to deliver almost any type of contraband (except, by his own principles, hard drugs and weapons) into Shawshank prison.
This makes him a very important man in the social fabric of Shawshank prison. And it’s also the reason he first met Andy. Andy also befriends Red. One day he asked Red for a rock hammer and then asked for a sign. And Andy also befriends the prison guards by giving them financial advice. He does it because he has a great plan in his heart. Little by little, the director (Bob Gunton) took an interest in him. And he let Andy help him pull off shady financial scams. One day, Andy heard about another inmate, Tommy (Gil Bellows), whose former cellmate had bragged about killing a wealthy golfer and a banker’s wife and the banker was jailed for it.
This is clearly the real killer of Andy’s wife. And Andy tells the warden that he’s innocent. But the warden turns him down and tells Andy to ignore the story. The Guardian then has Tommy killed. Andy no longer wants to help the warden with his scam. And one morning Andy is gone. Prison guards search his cell and find out that he dug an escape route in the wall with his hammer and hid the hole with the poster. Andy then takes the accumulated money from the scam (a banker’s salary for 20 years) and leaves town. The police try to arrest the warden who commits suicide. Red passes his parole board and finally reunites with Andy in a Mexican town on the Pacific.
The theme of this film is about hope and the power of friendship. We all need hope and also friends in our lives. Perhaps these two things encourage us to keep going. There the phrases said by Andy impressed me a lot. The first is: you know that some birds are not meant to be caged; His feathers are too bright. The second is: There is something inside that they cannot reach, that they cannot touch. That is yours.
The third is: hope is a good thing and perhaps the best of things. And nothing good dies. I want to say that I really like these phrases. They make me think positively and give me a lot of courage and fill me with hope. I hope you all get to see the movie and I’m sure you will be motivated to positively and hopefully live the way Andy lives.