Straight from the Heart

 Hope is a good thing may be the best of things and no good thing ever dies.

I went to my hometown for some important work; there I got a chance to watch this marvellous celluloid work by Frank Darabont- The Shawshank Redemption. I should admit that I am absolutely spellbound by the great script, impeccable performance of actors and apposite art direction of this movie. Above line in bold is one of the many unforgettable dialogs of this movie.

The film moves around an investment banker Andrew, acted by Tim Robbins, who is convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary. As movie moves forward, Andrew gets friendly with Ellis Boyd played by Morgan Freeman, who is known for providing contrabands to jail inmates. In one of the scene, where jail inmates were performing the roof tarring task, Andrew uses his finance and legal acumen and helps the captain of the jail guards on his tax planning, and that becomes turning point of the movie; as later Andrew becomes the caretaker of prisoner’s library and also serves as a financial advisor to jail guards and most importantly to jail Warden Samuel Norton for running his money laundering scams. All these small scenes of the movie are well intentioned as these sequences provide a meaningful base to the script especially the climax when Andrew successfully manages to escape from the jail.

The director has sketched quite fruitfully the milieu of mid 20th century American jail, especially the intrinsic minutiae like the characters lingo, trading inside the prison in the form of cigarettes, corruption inside the jail and presence of red tapism in outside world. The character of Andrew’s inmate Elis Boyd (Red) is quite strong and portrays the ups and downs, the mental state of a prisoner who spent most of his life inside the prison. His body language is terrific and reflects the inexplicable anguish beats of his existence. The character of an elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen should be mentioned as it was small yet an important role and reveals the unsaid ghastly truth of prisoners’ rehabilitation.

The background score of the movie is impressive and composed by Thomas Newman; the score was also nominated for Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1994. Overall the movie is great and emphasized on the philosophy of hope and optimism. If you haven’t seen it yet, then got for it; a must watch.

** pic is taken from the net. for origianl source please refer this link-http://www2.bc.edu/~yanno/Shawshank%20Redemption.jpg