The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
We watched this classic movie (and it’s funny to even say that when it’s only 27 years old) last night. It comes from a short story by Stephen King called “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption: Hope Springs Eternal”. I remember enjoying it the first time I saw it when it came out, and then not ever watching it again (‘been there, done that’) until now. Now the beauty of the story has inspired me to write this post.
Symbolic though they may be, the posters in the film help us gauge the passage of time.
I don’t recall a Linda Ronstadt poster from 1977 in the film, so I guess they stopped at Raquel. To all the men behind bars, images of these beautiful women would have been enough to allow them to dream of life outside of the prison walls, if not give them hope.
Little did anyone know that Andy was slowly digging an escape hole behind these posters. (Small plot hole: where was he hiding the debris? “The Great Escape” had a similar problem, but the prisoners spread the dirt throughout the prison camp.)
The film also touched on the problem of prisoners becoming institutionalized. A ‘lifer’ was paroled into the world after 50 years only to take his own life on the outside. He had expected to die in prison. This ‘modern’ world was too much for him to bear.
“The Marriage of Figaro” Interlude
This vignette is a reminder of how powerful music is: it can transport us to some ‘other’ place even in the midst of our worst nightmares. Music may be the Mind of God.
One day, we will all go through a dark tunnel to another space, without time.
We call it Death.
