Monday, September 29, 2008

The Shawshank Redemption- Isaac Richter

Released in 1994

Directed by Frank Darabont

"These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them." I believe these lines spoken by Morgan Freeman in the film describe the concept of setting when it comes to this film. Most of the film takes place in a prison, which is the last place most people want to be in (unless you're a warden or a guard), and yet, we come to feel comfortable in this prison. The slow pace and episodic nature of the narrative help to do that, but that's discussion for other posts. The prison feels like a closed college campus, except for the fact that the dorms are prison cells and the men there have a curfew and have to ask the guards permission to do most simple tasks, but there's a dining hall, there's a lot of space outside and even a library.
The Shawshank Redemption is the story of two prisoners and their 20-year-relationship in Shawshank prison. "Red" Redding (played by Morgan Freeman) had served 20 years of life sentence in Shawshank the day Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) was brought into Shawshank prison for killing his wife and her lover, wrongly accused. Red is known around Shawshank as the guy who can get things, so Andy uses him to make his stay in Shawshank prison a more bearable one. When Andy first walks into his prison cell, it's nothing but black, dusty stone walls and a mattress for him to sleep in. Tight framing is used in this scene to make us feel claustrophobic. As time goes on, and he gets acquainted with his prison cell, he has a poster of Rita Hayworth on the wall, a book and some rocks polished into chess pieces on the window. As soon as all of these pieces are brought into this cell, it becomes a somewhat comfortable place to be, even for us. It's still tight framing, but it feels warm and familiar. Tight framing is used through most of the film, in some parts to create the feeling of being locked up, but in other parts to create a place that feels comfortable to the audience, that as soon as we walk outside this prison, the world is overwhelming.
This is a film that requires that the audience to care for the characters, so in that sense. You can't distance your audience from these two main characters, because if you do, then we won't care every time Andy is put in the Hole, or we won't care that Red keeps getting rejected for parole. We need actors that the audience can relate to. Morgan Freeman is an actor who has been typecast into the role of the wise old man who narrates the story and offers insights into the main characters, which is exactly the type of actor we need for a role such as Red. He's a man who has been in Shawshank long enough to call it a home, long enough to be a legend inside and a nobody outside, so we need an actor who can wear those years on his shoulders with as much ease as Morgan can. For Andy, on the other hand, it was important to get a character actor who had the char of a leading man. In Andy Dufresne, Tim Robbins is able to carry a heavy weight on his shoulders, a mysterious grimace, and he's at his best when he has all the hope in the world staring out on you in his eyes. Robbins never overplays any of his emotions. He knows exactly how much to show, keeping Andy quiet, mysterious, but ultimately a restless soul, and it's that passion on the screen that makes us believe Andy every step of the way.
For a prison movie, the color in this film are very bright. Most of the film is shot out in daylight, where characters talk and work out in the field, or in places with windows, where the sun comes in. When the film turns dark, it usually means that something bad is about to happen, and this happens whenever Andy goes into the hole, or a character is about to be killed or beaten up. These are the scenes where we lose some hope, and we can't see the light beyond the darkness, but whenever there is some light coming in, it means there is some hope. Even in Andy's climactic escape from prison, as soon as he comes out of the sewer in the middle of the night, the moonlight shines right on him and expresses his freedom. In the final scenes when we're out into the real world, the difference between fear and hope are represented by the framing. When we see Red at his new job, the framing is tight and claustrophobic, just like we saw earlier with Brooks before he killed himself, but after Red reads Andy's letter, it turns to a loose framing, where Red finally feels he can go anywhere and finally feels free, much like an earlier scene where a bunch of prisoners are up on a roof drinking beer and staring at the sky, like the world belongs to them.
Prison is the last place anyone wants to be, but if you're in there long enough, you get used to it, even come to depend on it. And the way to do that is to make the environment around us a place we want to stay in, and yet a place we want our characters to get out of. We need to feel comfortable enough in prison to be able to stand it for the duration of the film, just like our characters do, but we need to still hold some desire to get out. We may not feel very comfortable when we are out, but that's only because we've gotten so used to being in prison, we're afraid of the outside, or at least Red is and we fear for him. But we always hope that Andy and Red achieve what they want to achieve, and their love for each other (r should I say affection) is what keeps us hoping.

No comments: