The Shawshank Redemption - Essay Example

?The Shawshank Redemption Immediately this movie starts with the back-story of Andy Dufrain being accused of murdering his wife and her lover. Although Andy maintains his innocence, he is found guilty of the two murders, and sentenced to two life sentences to be served back to back. In his sentencing, the judge looks at him and says, “You strike me as a particularly icy and remorseless man, Mr. Dufrain. It chills my blood just to look at you.” thereafter, he hands down his sentence. Andy Dufrain’s personality seems to be defined by the judge, as he does not appear outwardly to show any emotion. He simply maintains his innocence, albeit rather monotone. It certainly does seem that Andy Dufrain is guilty, as he shows no emotion, no remorse and there is little inflection in his words when he speaks. Once he is sentenced, he is sent to Shawshank State Prison to serve the terms of his sentence. The prisoners of Shawshank ‘greet’ newcomers by betting on which of them will be the first to break down and cry out of the feeling of desperation that their situation has wrought. This is also the introduction of Red. The opening of a door and Red enters into a parole hearing. After a small, memorized speech, he is denied his parole. Red leaves, and there are two men waiting for him. One man says to him, “yeah, I’m up for rejection next week, “leaving the impression of nothing new, nothing changes. The men gather round Red, as he is the ‘man’ to whom people go when they are in need of something, which they cannot get inside the prison walls. “I’m the guy that can get it for ya… yeah, I’m a regular Sears & Roebuck. “ Upon the new arrival, they gather, and Red speaks up, “smokes or coin, bettors choice.” the men resoundingly approve of cigarettes, as betting on which man will break down first “is as good a thing to bet on as any.” The new arrivals meet Warden Norton and Officer Byron Hadley for the first time. Hadley is a vicious man, with no regard or respect for anyone other than the warden. The warden informs the men that they should “put your trust in the Lord. Your ass belongs to me.” after delousing, the men are marched to their cells naked, embarrassed and burning from the delousing powder. The bets that were previously placed by the men now come into play. The men chant, “Fresh fish. Fresh fish,” until someone breaks down crying. It is an overweight man that finally breaks down, the man that Haywood “bet” on. As soon as this is heard, the men start cheering. Hadley comes in, and threatens the man to be quiet, or else. The man chooses not to, likely because he is so distraught that thoughts aside from despair do not enter his mind. Hadley pulls him out of his cell and promptly beats him unmercifully. The next morning, Haywood tells the men to give him the cigarettes that he won from the “bet”, and after they do, haywood asks a man that worked in the infirmary how his “horse is doing”. The other man said simply, “dead… Ol’ Hadley busted his head up pretty good, poor bastard laid there til this morning’’. Hell, by then there wasn’t nothin’ we could do.” Andy asked what his name was. “What the hell do you care, new fish?” said Haywood. “I was just wondering if someone knew his name.” the men move forward, with the approach of Andy to Red. Andy approached Red on the purchase of a rock hammer. Red supposed he wanted to “sink your toy into somebody’s skull. Escape, tunnel under the wall, maybe.” they eventually make a deal, after Andy explains to Red’s satisfaction what the rock hammer is, and how it is used. Andy asked his name, and Red simply said, “Red. My name is Red.” andy asked, “why do they call you that?” “Maybe it’s because I’m Irish.” nod of the head, and Andy walks away. Red begins to see for the first time who he is dealing with in Andy. He thinks to himself, “I could see why the boys took him as snobby. He had a quiet way about him; a walk and a talk that just wasn’t normal. Like he had on an invisible coat to shield him from this place. Yeah, I think it’s safe to say I liked Andy from the start.” Andy received his rock hammer, through an intricate network of prison workers, guards, men on the outside and the exchange of several packs of cigarettes in order to achieve delivery. Soon after, the warden announced that, “the plate factory roof needs resurfacin’’.” red then thinks, “outdoor detail… and wouldn’t you know me and some of the fellas I know got the job. Only cost us a pack of smokes per man.” this is where Andy unceremoniously introduces himself to Byron Hadley. Hadley and some of the other guards are talking about Hadley’s brother leaving him an inheritance of $35,000. Andy is listening intently to the conversation, and boldly steps up to Hadley and asks him, “Mr. Hadley, do you trust your wife?” Hadley about blows a gasket. Andy continues, “I mean, do you think she’d go behind your back, try to hamstring you?” Hadley loses it. “That’s it. Look out fellas this motherfucker is about to have himself an accident!” he promptly drags Andy to the edge of the factory roof, going to throw him over, when andy quickly says, “if you trust your wife there’s no reason you can’t keep that $35,000!” Hadley stops, and says “all of it?” Andy concurs, then Hadley wants to know “why I should trust a wife killin’ banker like you? So I can end up in here with ya?” Andy explains that the IRS allows for a one-time gift to a spouse of up to $60,000, tax-free, but requires certain forms to be filled out. He offers Hadley to fill out those forms for him, as “all I ask is that you get three beers for each of my coworkers. I think a man workin’ outside feels more like a man if he can have a bottle of suds.” Hadley allows him to return to his work, and the next day the men enjoy their beer, “courtesy of the toughest screw that ever walked a turn at Shawshank.” Soon after, Warden Norton uses the excuse of “tossing cells” to size Andy up. Norton wanted to learn more of what kind of man Andy was, and if he was able to work on certain money making schemes for him. Andy started by doing the tax returns of the officers at the prison, then the officers of the neighboring prison. This prompts Norton to invite Andy to do some dirty work for him. After the introduction of Norton’s “inside out” program, which allows for the inmates to work outside the prison walls, Red finally learns what andy has been doing all this time for the warden. They’re casually talking about the warden and the “river of dirty money runnin’ through this place.” andy quietly says, “by the time the warden retires, I’ll have made him a millionaire.” red is curious as to how this is all possible, because if “he gets caught, he’ll wind up in here wearing a number himself.” andy chuckles and reassures him that if anyone ever investigates, everything will lead to “Randall Stevens. The silent silent partner. He’s the guilty one, Your Honor.” red still is unbelieving. Andy continues, “he’s a phantom, an apparition, second cousin to Harvey the Rabbit. I conjured him, out of thin air.” red is amazed at Andy’s ability to launder money through the prison, because of Andy’s history as a banker. Shortly after, Tommy Williams arrives, young, high energy, and the boys liked him right away. In keeping with Andy’s always having a project on the go, tommy became his new project, helping him with his high school equivalency. Although tommy throws a fit and throws his final test into the garbage, Andy picks it out and sends it in anyway. Shortly afterwards, Red and tommy are talking in the wood shop, when tommy asks what Andy is in for. Red says, “in for murder. Wouldn’t think it to look at the guy. Caught his wife in bed with some golf pro… greased ‘em both.” tommy goes white, like he’s ill. Red asks him what the problem is, and he then retells the problem to Andy. Tommy says, “I was up in Thomaston, on a two to three stretch.” he was put into a cell with another inmate named Elmo Blatch. He explained how Elmo was a creepy guy, twitchy, and bragged about the people he had killed. Tommy continues, “As a joke I say, yeah, Elmo, who’d you kill?” Elmo replies that while working at the golf resort, he picked “out this guy, go in and do his place. He gave me shit… him and his tasty bitch he was with! [laughing] that’s the best part! She’s fuckin’ this prick, see, golf pro, but she’s married to some other guy. And he’s the one they pinned it on!” Andy immediately walks away, horrified. Andy approaches Norton about this, and the warden is unmoved. He tells Andy that it is not unusual for tommy to make up a story like this to make Andy feel better and there’s nothing that can be done. Andy tries desperately to convince the warden to look into it, but the warden adamantly refuses. Andy tries to reassure him that he “would never mention what goes on in here. I would be just as indictable as you for laundering that money.” that sends the warden over the edge, and he sentences Andy to a month in the hole. While Andy is in the hole, Warden Norton wants to know if there is any truth to what tommy was saying. Oddly, he meets tommy outside the prison walls, and asks him if he would be willing to testify to what he said to Andy. Tommy simply says, “Just give me that chance.” Warden nods his head, looks up at Hadley hiding in the shadows of a tower, and tommy is shot and killed. Following Tommy’s murder, Norton goes down to the hole to tell andy that tommy had tried to escape, and “it tore at Hadley’s heart to shoot him, truly it did.” andy threatened that he would no longer be Norton’s puppet, but the warden says to him, “nothing stops, or you will do the hardest time there is… I’ll take you out of that one-bunk Hilton and cast you down with the Sodomites.” Andy is then sentenced to another month in the hole. When Andy gets out, he is starkly different from before. He is talking to Red about a town in Mexico called Zihuatanejo. That is where he dreams of being. Rebuilding an old boat, taking guests out on charter trips. He tells Red about a maiden hay field up in Buxton, with a rock wall and that at the north end of this hay field there is a rock. “Black volcanic glass. There’s something under it I want you to have. You’ll have to pry it up.” red is confused and worried. That evening, Andy escapes. No one knows it, and Red fears that he is dead. After searching his cell, Norton proclaims, “Lord, it’s a miracle! Man up and vanished like a fart in the wind.” he claims it’s a big conspiracy, and demands that Red be questioned, and that Andy be found. After an exhaustive search, Andy is never found, but that same morning Mr. Randall Stevens became a real human being, visited nearly 12 banks that morning, and left town with nearly $370,000. At one of the banks, Andy asks the teller to send a package to the local newspaper, which contains the legers of the money laundering of Shawshank. The front page of the paper the next day read, “Corruption Murder at Shawshank.” the police arrived and arrested several officers that were involved in the scheme, but Norton refused to be arrested and shot himself. Soon after, Red received a post card from Andy, with nothing more than a postmark from Ft. Hancock Texas. The men spend most of their days remembering Andy, until one day Red comes up for parole once again. Amazingly, he is released. Red finds himself breaking his parole as he purchases a compass from the local pawnshop. He hitchhikes to Buxton to the hay field that Andy told him about. He finds the black volcanic glass and unearths a tin full of money. Along with the money is a letter, offering Red to come to Zihuatanejo. Red makes the decision to buy a bus ticket and go, because “I doubt they’ll throw up any roadblocks, not for an old crook like me.” he soon meets andy on the sandy beach of Zihuatanejo, finally free. Read More