A lot of people told me that one video that I should really watch was The Shawshank Redemption. I didn't find the time to watch it till recently. I soon found out why everyone was raving about this film. It is one of the best films that I've seen in years.

The plot for the film comes from a novella that Stephen King published in 1982. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor.

Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is a banker in Maine about 1945 or so. He is found guilty in court of killing his wife, along with the man she was having an affair with. He supposedly caught them in the act and exacted his vengeance. Andy is sent to Shawshank prison to serve out a life sentence. He claims that he is innocent of the crime.

At Shawshank Andy meets up with and befriends another prisoner, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman). If you want something smuggled in or done at Shawshank, Red was the man to see. Red was serving a life sentence for murder. He keeps getting turned down for parole.

Andy adjusts slowly to prison life, but finds that another prisoner has taken interest in him. Bogs Diamond (Mark Ralston) is the head of a group of prisoners that are called the "Sisters". These prisoners liked to rape new people coming into Shawshank prison. If you liked what they did, then you could become a member of their group. If not, then you were just a victim.

Andy has Red get him a rock hammer so that he can pursue his hobby of geology. This hammer and hobby come into good use later in the film.

Andy overhears the head of the guards, Hadley (Clancy Brown) complain about some tax problems that he was having. In exchange for a sit-down break with beers, Andy fixes Hadley's tax problems for him. This leads to Andy doing tax work for other guards.

After getting a severe beating from the Sisters for not having sex with Bogs, Andy gets transferred to the prison library. There he is taken under the wing of Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore). He begins to do financial planning for the prison staff, including Warden Norton (Bob Gunton). The warden likes to quote bible verses as he administers beatings to the prisoners.

Andy has Red get him a poster of Rita Hayworth for his cell. Later he takes that poster down and replaces it with one from Marilyn Monroe. Still later the Monroe poster is replaced with one of Raquel Welch.

Andy begins to launder money for the warden. In the midst of all this a young prisoner comes to Shawshank. Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) tells of a story that he heard a prisoner at another jail tell. It seems that this thief had walked in on a couple and decided to kill them. Tommy's story could help get Andy his freedom.

The ending of The Shawshank Redemption is kind of pat. You just know that the good guys win at last, even if they might be the bad guys. Even so, this film was very enjoyable. The acting was good and the storyline was solid.

Copyright © 2000 Bruce E. Von Stiers