T H E EXOD U S
DIG DEEPER INTO THE CRITICALLY-ACCLAIMED FILM DESIGNED BY JESSICA PALEY
WELCOME TO SHAWSHANK WORDS BY DAVE MOODY
The Shawshank Redemption
his claims of innocence. Life
1994 American drama film.
the worse for this new inmate.
is an Oscar Award nominated,
Directed by Frank Darabont, this film is based on the 1982
Stephen King novella Rita
seems to have taken a turn for
Fortunately, as his prison stay lengthens, Andy befriends
some of the other inmates,
Hayworth and the Shawshank
and even becomes particularly
of big-time, hot shot bank
Red, who becomes his closest
who was convicted of the
ways to live out his sentence
lover. Andy is faced with hard
end, rewarded with freedom.
Redemption. It tells the story
merchant, Andrew Dufresne, murder of his wife and her evidence against him, and is
sentenced to spend his life
in prison at the Shawshank State Penitentiary, despite
close to a character known as
friend. Over time, Andy finds
with relative ease, and in the
This leaving a message for
all, that while the body may
be locked away, the spirit can
never be truly imprisoned.
THE BEGINNING OF A FRIENDSHIP
I
n 1947, Andy Dufresne, a rich banker living in Maine, is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, a golf pro. Since the state of Maine has no death penalty, he is given two consecutive life sentences and sent to notoriously harsh Shawshank State Penitentiary. Andy always claims his innocence, but his cold, measured demeanor led many to doubt his word, including the judge that convicted him.
During the first night, inmates
in the prison take bets on all the new fish, and which one
A month later, Andy approaches
Red, who is known to run contraband inside of the walls
will be the first to crack. The
of Shawshank. He asks Red
savagely beats a newly arrived
an instrument he claims is
chief guard, Byron Hadley,
inmate because of his crying and hysterics. The inmate
later dies inside the infirmary
to located him a rock hammer,
necessary for his hobby of
rock collecting and sculpting.
Though the prisoners consider
because the prison doctor had
Andy “a really cold fish,� Red
Andy remained steadfast and
likes him from the start. Red
known as Red, bet against
hammer to engineer his escape,
one to break down first, and
other prisoners if trouble breaks,
left for the night. Meanwhile, composed. Ellis Boyd Redding,
others that Andy would be the
loses a considerable amount of
sees something in Andy, and believes Andy intends to use the or use it to rough up some of the
but when the tool arrives and he
cash. Red has been in prison
sees how small it is, Red puts
given three consecutive life
would use it as a weapon, or
wife and two other individuals.
out of Shawshank and escape.
for several years, having been sentences for the murder of his
aside the thought that Andy
could ever use it to dig his way
ANDY DUFRESNE
THE MAN WITH THE ROCK HAMMER INMATE NUMBER: GENDER: HEIGHT: WEIGHT: OCCUPATION:
37927 Male 6 feet, 3 inch 210 lbs Accountant for the Warden
A
ndy’s a whole different animal who lived a much different life than most of the men in Shawshank. He doesn’t escape the ugliness of the prison any more than his fellow inmates, but instead of letting certain events break him, he uses them as motivation to fuel his escape. Knowing it will take twenty years to tunnel through the prison wall should seem so daunting that an inmate would be discouraged from even trying it, but that’s certainly not the case for the cold fish, stubborn ol’ Andy Dufresne.
HOPE IS
A GOOD
THING
A big part of the reason that
him out to the guards, but even
successful is because he never
the other inmates could bring
Andy’s escape was particularly trusted anyone. Even Red, his best friend in the world, never
knew a thing about his plans to hightail it out of there. The rea-
son for this was two-fold. For
one thing, the less Red knew the less he could be held accountable for assisting Andy, so in
a sense he was protecting him. Perhaps more the more import-
ant factor was that Andy had put far too much time and ef-
fort into pulling this thing off, to unnecessarily entrust a secret of that magnitude to anyone else. Red could be trusted to not rat
the slightest little slip to one of the whole grand plan crashing
down. Also, we get the sense
that Andy didn’t suddenly just develop the secretive gene once he got into prison. What we
know by the type of husband he was, and how he behaved in his court trial, leads us to believe
that he was never one to show
his emotions like an open book. His emotional distance led to the demise of his marriage but
it also likely gave Andy a leg up in the slammer. He plays his
cards close to his chest, which ultimately enabled his escape.
ELLIS BOYD REDDING
THE MAN WHO KNOWS HOW TO GET THINGS INMATE NUMBER: GENDER: HEIGHT: WEIGHT: OCCUPATION:
30265 Male 6 feet, 1 inch 195 lbs Prison Smuggler
E
llis Redding is the wise old man of Shawshank Prison. He’s Andy’s closest friend and shows him the ropes of prison life. He’s the narrator of our story, and unrolls it gradually for us. Despite being a convicted murderer, he has our sympathy from the get-go. What we have here is a kind
who made some mistakes in his
worthy man, who’s sort of the
pretty bad mistakes, and he
hearted, intelligent, and trust-
Shawshank office manager, for
lack of a better description. In
just a few words, we already have the sense that we like this
Red guy. Why not? Everybody
else seems to. Who are we to go against popular opinion? Why is Red so darn good at
getting stuff—a regular “Sears and Roebuck” as he describes himself? Two reasons, really, and they both tell us quite a bit
about his character. First, he’s a smart man. He’s not just some
brainless goon who got locked
away for hacking up a bunch of innocent people with a machete. He’s a bright, resourceful fellow
past—okay, so they were some admits that he’s in Shawshank
guilty of murder, although he never divulges any of the juicy specifics—when he was young and stupid. Now though, by his character, you can tell how truly
he regrets his actions. Second,
he’s well-liked, well-known, and well-trusted. In order to
make the whole “getting things” racket run smoothly, he has to
coordinate operations with a half dozen different people inside of the prison. This requires
him to necessitate confidence in
his ability to keep mum about
their involvement and his work inside of Shawshank Prison.
THAT’S THE BEAUTY OF MUSIC
A
fter six years of writing letters, Andy receives a $200 check from the State of Maine for the library, along with a collection of old books and phonograph records. Though the state senate thinks this will be enough to get Andy to halt his letter-writing campaign, he is undaunted and redoubles his efforts to gain more for the prison. When the donations of the old
Andy is sent immediately to
warden’s office, Andy finds a
weeks. When he gets out, he
of Figaro among the records. He
was some of the “easiest time”
books and records arrive at the
copy of Mozart’s The Marriage
locks the guard assigned to the
warden’s office in the bathroom
solitary confinement for two
tells his friends that the stretch he ever did in the hole because he spent it thinking about the
and plays the record over the
Mozart’s Figaro. When some
prison seems captivated by the
how unlikely that is, he replies
prison’s PA system. The entire
music. Red remarks that the
of the other prisoners tell him that hope can sustain them. Red
voices of the women in the
is not convinced and leaves,
if only for a brief time. Outside
enlarged library and materials,
intro made everyone feel free, of the office, Norton appears,
furious at the act of defiance,
and orders Andy to turn off the
bitter at the thought. With the
Andy begins to teach those
inmates who want to receive
their high school diplomas.
record player. Andy reaches for
After Andy is able to secure a
the volume on the phonograph
various government sources,
to break into the office and
and named for the late Brooks.
the needle arm at first, then turns
up. The warden orders Hadley
steady stream of funding from
the library is further renovated
WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS
L
ucky for Warden Norton,
labor. Occasionally, he lets
details with his friend, Red,
great knowledge of accounting.
they bribe him, just to keep his
prison to learn how to be a
he profits from Andy’s
Over the course of Andy’s time in prison, Norton devises a
scheme whereby he puts prison inmates to hard work in public
projects which he can win by outbidding other contractors,
because inmates provide cheap
others get some contracts if laundering schemes seemingly
normal. Andy launders money for the warden by setting up accounts in different banks,
along with several investments, using a fake identity: “Randall Stephens.” He only shares the
noting that he had to “go to criminal.” All of the laundering scheme’s Andy works on for
the warden take place inside of his office. This is where his
wall safe resides, and where the scheme and documentation notes are recorded by Andy.
HIS JUDGEMENT COMETH…
T
hat morning, around the
account and walks out with
Norton had discovered Andy’s
he leaves, he asks them to
same time that the Warden
escape, Andy walks into the
directly to Portland Daily Bugle
a big cashier’s check. Before
newspaper. Not long after, the
drop a package in the mail.
Prison with arrest warrants.
police storm Shawshank State
Maine National Bank, where
He continues his visitations
money. Using his assumed
banks, ending up with almost
Warden Norton finally opens his
all Warden Norton’s account
since Andy escaped, instead of
he had put all Warden Norton’s
to nearly a dozen other local
identity as Randall Stephens,
$370,000. The package contains
documentation, he closes the
books, which are then delivered
and with all of the necessary
Hadley is the first arrested for
the murder of several inmates. safe, which he hadn’t touched his books, he finds a Bible.
A BUS TOWARDS ZIHUATANEJO
A
t Red’s next parole hearing, one year later in 1967, he talks to the parole board about how “rehabilitated” was a made-up word, but that he regretted his actions of murder over 40 years ago. A sort of resolved defeat is in his voice as he thinks it doesn’t matter what he says to the board. His parole is granted this time around. Once released, he goes to work
sum of cash and instructions
the same halfway house Brooks
somebody “who knew how to
at a grocery store, and stays at
had stayed in. He frequently walks by a pawn shop which
has several guns and compasses in the window. At times he
contemplates trying to get back
into prison feeling that he has no life outside of prison where
he has spent most of his adult life, but he remembers the
promise he made to Andy. One
day, with a compass he bought
from the pawn shop, he follows Andy’s instructions, hitchhiking
to Buxton and arriving at the stone wall Andy described. Just as Andy said, there was a large black stone. Under it was
a small box containing a large
to find him. He said he needed get things” for a “project” of
his. Sounds like a job that Red
could certainly handle, given his prior occupation inside the
prison. Another day or two later, Red violates parole and leaves the halfway house, unconcerned
since no one is likely to do an
extensive manhunt for “an old
crook.” He buys a ticket at a
station near the halfway house,
and takes a bus to Fort Hancock, where he can then cross the
border into Mexico. In the very final scene of the film, the two friends are finally reunited on
the beach of Zihuatanejo on the beautiful Pacific Coast seas.