Topping the IMDb’s Chart since 1994-‘The Shawshank Redemption’

“Hope is a Good Thing may be The Best of all Other Things and Good Things Never Die.”

I never thought this dialogue is going to leave such a long-lasting impact on my mind. The very essence of hope is so beautifully portrayed in this epic movie of 1994—The Shawshank Redemption. Starring Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins, the movie eventually bagged seven Oscar nominations. Set amidst the backdrop of a torturous and melancholic prison ‘Shawshank’ where life is not given a chance, Andy Dufresne (Robbins) emerges out victorious. Shawshank is a life-changing saga of love, hatred, ambition, betrayal, hardships, friendship, and freedom that leaves an imprint on your mind. I personally have not seen a better movie than this and maybe this is the reason; the movie is topping the IMDB charts to date.

From the very first scene, Andy did portray an innocent character audience would sympathise with. Already traumatized by adultery, Andy is sentenced to a life imprisonment for his wife and her lover’s murder—a crime he never did. The story evolves from here when Andy enters the prison and starts to face immense hardships. He picks himself up every other day and stays calm and composed in the lows. The ruthless inmates have an eye for him, and they try to demean him in every possible way. Andy is a gentleman, and he remains so even in the toughest of the situations. Time passes, and one fine day Andy vanishes. He breaks open the highly secured ‘Shawshank’ and escapes to live his dream. For the past 20 years, he has been digging a tunnel inside his cell that becomes his route to freedom.

I just love the climax line after the Warden Nortan shoots himself and Reed narrates-

“I’d like to think that the last thing that went through his head, other than the bullet was to wonder, how the hell Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him.”

This movie teaches more life lessons that any book. It encourages us to dream, it teaches us how to be a fighter. It speaks the values of friendship, and how Andy manages to win over the inmates after the long struggle. How the walls of the prison keep them intact as a family, how to develop that care for each other, and how to utilize your time effectively even when everything seems impossible.

We people can hardly adjust to our hostel environment, and look at this guy, his passion, his patience, his willpower, Learning to live in a prison full of people who torture him to hell (The sisters) and still managing to dig a tunnel to freedom, to spend The rest of his life in the Pacific,

“A Warm Place with No Memory,” as Andy says.

This movie has been widely studied by arts and cinema students to learn the minutes of film-making. This is a perfect blockbuster to write your thesis giving you a complete landscape of ideas. If you are a filmmaking student and are looking forward to make documentaries, write your cinema thesis, or talk about entertainment and marketing, the Shawshank Redemption is the perfect blockbuster. Less publicity was one reason the movie didn’t have a great pick initially. The changing audience trends for this movie can also be studied for the purpose of entertainment and cinema marketing.  You can take marketing dissertation help from the various online sources even to understand the plot better but before that go watch the movie yourself.

Red and Andy become the best of friends, the very guy who lost a wager because Andy didn’t make a single sound on his first night. Even when the truth of Andy not being a murderer gets buried by Warden Norton, he does not give up. Red finally realizes that no man is rich enough to buy back his past, but unlike Brooks (another inmate), one has the power to decide one’s future.

The simple yet priceless bliss of chilled beer on a sunny roof, the tyranny of Warden Norton, and yet a guy not giving up hope. Because…

“The Beauty of Hope is That Every Time You Lose It, It Comes Back.’’

… And finally, the taste of freedom, the rain Andy feels on himself after crawling through the drain pipe. The whole story melts down to this scene. This is a story of a man struggling through shit to open his gates to freedom.
That is how life is, “Get busy living or get busy dying.”

The movie lives with you as you grow in life. Upon its release in 1994, it wasn’t a great success but over the years it has set an unmatched standard. Tim Robbins played his lifetime role and Morgan Freeman was an absolute treat to watch. Sometimes, a movie is not about the cast, the story, and the characters, it is more than that. It is about the human emotions that touch the right chord with your hearts. We look for twists and turns in the plot but miss out on the powerful yet subtle emotions that speak volumes.

Everything about this movie was brilliant, the direction, the narration, the story, or the acting. The movie has given us a couple of incredible dialogues/philosophies which you can imbibe in your real life and keep your ‘hope’ alive.

1. Ellis Boy “Red” Redding: “I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I? Don’t wanna know. I would like to think they were singing about something was so beautiful it can’t be expressed in words and make your heart ache because of it. I tell you this voice soared higher and farther than anybody in a Gray place dare to dream it is like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away. For the briefest moment, every last man in Shawshank felt free.”
2. “Get busy living, get busy dying.”—Indeed so true. The movie revolves around this one quote like literally.

And here goes my favourite-

1. Andy Dufresne: [in the letter to Red] “Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

If you have watched this movie, you know how special it is, and if you haven’t, take out a few hours from your day, and feel the difference yourself.

Guest article written by: Rruchi Shrimalli is a Content Marketing Manager for transtutors.com, Godissertationhelp.co.uk, Goassignmenthelp.com.au and several other websites. She is a writer and a journalist at heart, and has been writing articles on various aspects of the Education domain since 2010. Her articles have been published at Shiksha.com, India.com, and Employment News among others.