The Shawshank Redemption肖申克的救赎

The Shawshank Redemption (肖恩克的救赎) is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (a novella by Stephen King). The film stars Tim Robbins as Andrew "Andy" Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding. Despite a lukewarm box office reception that was barely enough to cover its budget, the film received favorable reviews from critics.

Directed by: Frank Darabont

Produced by: Niki Marvin

Written by: Frank Darabont

Narrated by: Morgan Freeman, James Whitmore

Music by: Thomas Newman

Cinematography: Roger Deakins

Editing by: Richard Francis-Bruce

Studio: Castle Rock Entertainment

Distributed by: Columbia Pictures

Release date: September 23, 1994

Running time: 142 minutes

Country: United States

Language: English

Genre: Crime Drama

Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne.

Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding and the film's narrator.

Bob Gunton as Warden Samuel Norton, the head of Shawshank State Prison and the primary antagonist. Norton has an obsession with the Holy Bible and appears to be a devout Christian and reform-minded administrator. Norton's liking towards the protagonist and love of the Bible makes him appear to be a "light in the darkness" type of character initially. Behind his religious side, however, he holds a darker and more sinister personality.

William Sadler as Heywood, one of Red's gang of long-sentence convicts.

Clancy Brown as Capt. Byron Hadley, the chief of the guards at Shawshank and the other main antagonist. Hadley is a vicious and intemperate guard who thinks nothing of delivering horrible beatings to the inmates to keep them in line — or just for the fun of it, including beating a new prisoner to death on Andy's first night.

Gil Bellows as Tommy Williams, a young convict whose past experiences in prison hold the truth about Andy's innocence. This potential for Andy's freedom leads Norton to have a talk with Tommy outside the prison gates, where Hadley shoots him dead. Norton and Hadley cover their tracks by making it appear that Tommy was trying to escape.

Mark Rolston as Bogs Diamond, the head of "The Sisters" prison gang and a prison rapist. He assaults Andy a number of times, but Hadley puts a stop to it by beating Bogs seriously enough to permanently paralyze him.

James Whitmore as Brooks Hatlen, the prison librarian and one of the oldest convicts at Shawshank. Upon his release, he finds himself unable to cope with life on the outside, and soon commits suicide.

In 1947, a banker named Andrew "Andy" Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, based on strong circumstantial evidence. He is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine, run by Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). Andy is quickly befriended by Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), a fellow inmate serving a life sentence who has recently failed to gain parole. Andy finds Red has connections on the outside who can acquire contraband for the inmates, and first asks Red for a rock hammer in order to maintain his rock collection hobby, which he uses to fashion a home-made chess set. He later asks Red for a full-size poster of Rita Hayworth for his wall, replacing them over the years with ones of Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch.

During manual labor, Andy overhears Captain of the Guards Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) complain about having to pay taxes on a forthcoming inheritance. Andy risks punishment by explaining to Hadley how to circumvent the taxes legally. Hadley accepts Andy's advice and rewards his friends with a brief respite and beer. Andy's financial advice is soon sought by other guards at Shawshank and nearby prisons, and Andy is given a space to work on their financial matters under the pretense of maintaining the prison library alongside elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore). Hadley delivers a brutal beating to inmate Bogs (Mark Rolston), leader of "The Sisters", after his gang's attempt to sexually assault Andy puts Andy in the infirmary. Bogs is paralyzed while the remaining Sisters leave Andy alone. Andy is able to use his good will with the guards to help expand the library. When one donation to the library provides him with the opera The Marriage of Figaro, he plays it over the public address system for all the inmates to hear, well-aware of the punishment of solitary confinement he will receive for the brief moment of bliss.

Warden Norton creates a scheme to use prison labor for public works, undercutting the cost of skilled labor and discreetly receiving personal kickbacks for it. Norton has Andy launder the money under a false identity, in exchange for allowing Andy to keep his private cell and to continue maintaining the library. Brooks, freed on parole, is unable to adjust to the outside world, and hangs himself; Andy dedicates the expanded library to him. In 1965, Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) is incarcerated into Shawshank on robbery charges. Tommy is brought into Andy and Red's circle of friends, and Andy assists Tommy into getting his GED. Tommy, upon learning of Andy's crime, reveals that one of his old prison-mates, Elmo Blatch (Bill Bolender) had claimed to have committed a murder just like the one with which Andy was charged. Norton, fearing that Andy might expose his illegal activities if he were released, puts him into solitary confinement and has Tommy killed by Hadley, claiming he was an escapee. When Andy is finally released from solitary, Norton threatens to destroy the library if Andy does not continue to launder the money for him.

Shortly after, Andy informs Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican-Pacific coastal town, and instructs Red, should he ever be freed, to visit a specific hayfield near Buxton to find something he had left there. The next day at roll call, Andy's cell is found empty. Norton, in anger, throws one of Andy's rocks at the poster of Welch; the rock tears through the poster, revealing a tunnel that Andy had dug with the rock hammer over the last two decades that allowed him to escape Shawshank, along with a set of civilian clothes, his chess set, and the books he had kept for Norton, having swapped them for fakes the night before. Andy uses his false identity to withdraw all of Norton's money from the bank, at the same time, sending the evidence to a local newspaper. On the day the story runs, the police converge on the prison; Hadley is arrested while Norton commits suicide.

When Red finally achieves parole after serving 40 years of his sentence, he finds himself in the same bagging job at a grocery store as Brooks, and living in the same apartment where Brooks committed suicide. Red decides to follow Andy's advice and visits Buxton. In the hayfield where Andy specified, he finds a cache of money and a note left by Andy, reminding him of Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole and travels to Mexico. The two friends finally reunited on the beach of Zihuatanejo on the Pacific coast.

Tom Hanks, Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage and Charlie Sheen were each considered for Andy Dufresne when the script was circulated in Hollywood. Hanks turned it down because he was committed to Forrest Gump, but he later worked with Darabont in The Green Mile. While studio favorites Cruise and Sheen were passed over for the part, Costner liked the script but turned it down because he was filming Waterworld.

Before Morgan Freeman was cast as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford were each considered for the role. Although written as a middle-aged Irishman with greying red hair, Darabont cast Freeman for his authoritative presence and demeanor, because he could not see anyone else as Red.

Darabont secured the film adaptation rights from author Stephen King after impressing the author with his short film adaptation of "The Woman in the Room" in 1983. Although the two had become friends and maintained a pen-pal relationship, Darabont did not work with him until four years later in 1987, when he optioned to adapt Shawshank.

Unusually the voiceover narration was recorded before filming began and was then played on set to dictate the rhythm of each scene. The guide track was recorded in an Iowa recording studio by Morgan Freeman in only 40 minutes. Unfortunately, there was a minor hiss to the track which sound engineers in Los Angeles were unable to eradicate. Consequently it had to be re-recorded in a proper studio; this time it took 3 weeks.

The exteriors were filmed at the defunct Mansfield State Reformatory in Ohio. The prison was in such poor condition, renovations had to be made prior to filming. However, most of the interiors were shot on a sound stage, because they determined it would be cheaper to build duplicates of the interiors rather than renovating the interiors of Mansfield.

Frank Darabont preferred to end the film with Red searching for Andy. In fact, if he had been allowed to shoot the ending as he wanted, the closing shot would have been Red on the bus heading for the field. Darabont wanted to end on an open, ambiguous note. But Castle Rock insisted on a reunion between the two to please audiences. So instead of showing us a teary reunion, the film observes it from a distance. Darabont's response to Castle Rock's demands.

The score was composed by Thomas Newman. The majority of the score consists of dark piano music, which plays along the main character's role at Shawshank. The main theme is perhaps best known to modern audiences as the inspirational sounding music from many movie trailers dealing with inspirational, dramatic, or romantic films. A central scene in the film features the "Letter Duet" from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro(an comic opera).

District Attorney: Mr. Dufresne, describe the confrontation you had with your wife the night that she was murdered.
Andy Dufresne: It was very bitter. She said she was glad I knew, that she hated all the sneaking around. And she said that she wanted a divorce in Reno.
Heywood: Red? You saying Andy's innocent? I mean *for real* innocent?
Red: Yeah, it looks that way.
Heywood: Sweet Jesus. How long's he been in here?

Red: Since '47, what is that... 19 years. Red: I wish I could tell you that Andy fought the good fight, and the Sisters let him be. I wish I could tell you that - but prison is no fairy-tale world. He never said who did it, but we all knew. Things went on like that for awhile - prison life consists of routine, and then more routine. Every so often, Andy would show up with fresh bruises. The Sisters kept at him - sometimes he was able to fight 'em off, sometimes not. And that's how it went for Andy - that was his routine. I do believe those first two years were the worst for him, and I also believe that if things had gone on that way, this place would have got the best of him.

When Red and Andy meet for the first time, an extra is seen behind each of them. It is the same scene but as the lines were filmed at different times, the extra is wearing different shirts - one prisoner shirt the day that Red's lines were shot, and a different shirt behind Andy the day his lines were filmed.

Towards the beginning of the film, during a beautiful aerial shot of the bus entering Shawshank Prison, the camera flies over the buildings, where we see the prisoners on their way to "greet" in the new inmates. As the camera circles around, at the top of the frame, in an area of green grass, near a building, the shadow of the camera's helicopter is clearly visible.

When the top of the pipe is broken open, it shoots a fountain, indicating that it is pressurized. But then the pipe drains nearly empty. It should only have drained to the lowest point in the hole broken at the top.

Adapted from a Stephen King novella, The Shawshank Redemption takes a prison drama and twists it into a fascinating existential treatise on how to approach the business of day-to-day life in the face of a desperately Sisyphian reality.

Spanning twenty years in the lives of its protagonists, Darabont's screenplay and direction allow us the luxury of getting to know these men - hardened criminals, with little hope for the future - through a series of quietly captivating scenes that slowly build atmosphere and tension without sacrificing characterization and thematic integrity.

—Critic Dan Jardine

Darabont managed to create one of the most recognizable independent releases in the history of Hollywood. The Shawshank Redemption defines a genre, defies the odds, compels the emotions, and brings an era of artistically influential films back to Hollywood.

This film manages to redeem Hollywood in the eyes of people who feared it long lost in a dark sea of clichés and predictability. Darabont shows us that artists still work in the Hollywood studios and production facilities.

Oscar (Academy Awards, USA)
Best Actor in a Leading Role, Morgan Freeman
Best Cinematography, Roger Deakins
Best Film Editing, Richard Francis-Bruce
Best Music, Original Score, Thomas Newman
Best Picture, Niki Marvin
Best Sound, Robert J. Litt, Elliot Tyson, Michael Herbick, Willie D. Burton
Best Writing, Frank Darabont

Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
Best Writing, Frank Darabont

Camerimage (The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography)
Golden Frog, Roger Deakins

Golden Globes, USA
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, Morgan Freeman
Best Screenplay - Motion Picture, Frank Darabont

Screen Actors Guild Awards
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Morgan Freeman
Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, Tim Robbins

American Society of Cinematographers, USA
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases, Roger Deakins

Awards of the Japanese Academy
Best Foreign Film

Camerimage
Bronze Frog, Roger Deakins

Heartland Film Festival
Studio Crystal Heart Award, Frank Darabont

Kinema Junpo Awards
Best Foreign Language Film, Frank Darabont

Mainichi Film Concours
Best Foreign Language Film, Frank Darabont

Hochi Film Awards
Best Foreign Language Film, Frank Darabont