What makes a movie spectacular, a cut above from the rest? A good story, a clear screenplay, neat performances, technically sound which includes the faculties of music, cinematography, editing, art direction and production. There are a lot of movie which might fit into one of these genres - action thrillers, suspense thrillers, romance, musicals. There are a couple of genres where we don’t have a tight narrative, where the director takes the liberty to move things at his pace, we could call them drama. Drama is a tricky slot to be in because apart from all that the movie has, it has to relate to the human spirit in some way to be special. ’The Shawshank Redemption’ is an excellent movie by that standards. It’s a story about this banker played by Tim Robbins(Andy) who’s imprisoned for the murder of his wife, over the course of the movie we get to know more about the murder.
In the prison the movie introduces us to a variety of characters. Morgan Freeman as Red who plays the role of a convict serving a life sentence fits into the character perfectly and so does Bob Gunton as Warden Norton, the hypocrite Bible-obsessed disciplinarian. The film moves highlighting all aspects of prison life, the not-so good and bad side, like Andy being sexually abused. The film begins to show glimmers of hope when Andy begins to get into the system and tries to work it for the good of the prisoners.
There is also a very interesting insight into the murder of Andy’s wifes’ murder when a new convict comes in and things get a bit worse from then. But the real treat is in the last 15 minutes when all things fall right where they have to be and elicit a very positive reaction from each one of us. This is where the film truly wins and this is where the director has proved his mettle.
Frank Darabont had shown a lot of promise with this movie in the mid nineties, though this film failed to get an Oscar despite being nominated for more than one categories does not in any way diminish it’s sheen, we all know about the Oscar’s and how they can be manipulated. Stephen King’s book was translated into this beautiful movie is another achievement, given the fact that Stephen King always dwells with supernatural concepts. The same writer-director team came up with ’The Green Mile’ years later shows the talent in the director, the writers talent is not a question here since it’s been proved more than once in the past.
Music in this movie can be compared to Tim Robbins performance, one could call it under-stated. Given the concept of the movie Thomas Newman has done a splendid work, either this movie could have provided one big theme that went with the concept or it could have a number of themes that went with the story and the music director has chosen to do the latter which fits into the soundscape perfectly, so finally we have one person to carry on the Alfred Newman legacy. Special mention has to be made about the scene in which Andy plays the duet ’’Sull’aria... Che soave zeffiretto ’’ from opera ’’Le nozze di Figaro’’(The Marriage of Figaro composed by Mozart) , as audiences we can feel the freedom that Andy speaks about and that’s what Opera is all about.
Roger Deakins, the cinematographer has also executed his task very well, we have optimally lit(should I say darkened) prison scenes and a beautiful helicopter aerial shot of the prison which is breath-taking, editing has also been done deftly and a very novel method of transition between scenes heightens the narrative, like the sound of gavel in the court and clanking of doors in the prison.
'Fear can hold you prisoner, Hope can set you free’, says the tag line and I doubt whether we’d have anything to contrast it, this is one movie everyone must see to know what goes into making a good film. If I had to pick the top movies of all time, I’m sure ’The Shawshank Redemption’ would make it to the list without any second thoughts.
Roger Deakins, the cinematographer has also executed his task very well, we have optimally lit(should I say darkened) prison scenes and a beautiful helicopter aerial shot of the prison which is breath-taking, editing has also been done deftly and a very novel method of transition between scenes heightens the narrative, like the sound of gavel in the court and clanking of doors in the prison.
'Fear can hold you prisoner, Hope can set you free’, says the tag line and I doubt whether we’d have anything to contrast it, this is one movie everyone must see to know what goes into making a good film. If I had to pick the top movies of all time, I’m sure ’The Shawshank Redemption’ would make it to the list without any second thoughts.
[Published originally on the 30th of October 2002 on mouthshut.com]
