In 1947, Andy - a banker - is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in Shawshank Penitentiary for killing his wife and her lover. He maintains his innocence. He quickly befriends Ellis - a smuggler who brings him in pictures of Hollywood screen Goddesses such as Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Monroe. He is however, given wide spread trouble by Bogs and the Sisters, a bull queer gang. After Andy gives the chief prison officer some useful financial information, Bogs is severely beaten and is no longer a threat. The governor sends Andy to the library where he cooks the prison's books and launders the prison's money. He is placed in solitary after Tommy, a new prisoner tells him of an identical murder to that of Andy's alleged crimes. Andy goes to the warden with this information but is held in confinement and Tommy is killed. After he is released, he tells his good friend Red about a Mexican resort he wants to go to and he tells Red that if anything happens to him that there is a package in a field in Buxton waiting for Red. Andy disappears. The governor is irate because all of these years, Andy has been burrowing away, making a tunnel for his escape. He goes to the various banks and retrieves the prison's ill gotten gains. He gives the newspaper details of prison corruption and the governor kills himself when he is exposed. Red receives parole after 40 years and finds it difficult to adjust to the outside world. He remembers Andy's instructions about a package in a Buxton field. He retrieves it and finds loads of money and directions to Mexico, where is is reunited with his old pal Andy. A true contender for the Greatest Film of All Time contest, The Shawshank Redemption was not a box office hit but become a home video/DVD sensation through word of mouth recommendation. There is not much action in the film - mainly prisoners talking to each other - but it is richly packed with humour, drama and the message to never give up hope in the face of adversity. Andy is such a wily character, he takes on streaks of genius - tunnelling through his prison cell wall and throwing all of the prison's financial corruption - that they enforced him to take part in - back in their face. We endure the vicissitudes of prison life in which prisoners are treated like meat and must comply with a rotten regime only for Andy to make a successful bid for freedom. Undoubtedly, some of the prisoners must have been bad boys to end up there but despite their crimes, they are portrayed fairly as human beings who form friendships and care about each other. Extremely highly rated for a film - 9.3/10 in the IMDB and receiving virtual universal acclaim, The Shawshank Redemption proves that Hollywood can really pull its head from its ass and produce perfect films.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
