Reflection On The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption Watching The Shawshank Redemption seemed rather appropriate now for Jurassic Park's dinosaurs still enthralled me during my teenage years. In the year of 1994, when mass audiences were still basking in the stories of Forrest Gump while most cinephiles were preoccupied with relative newcomer Quentin Tarantino, the Shawshank was not duly appreciated during the time it originally released, and yet at this point, it has achieved a cult-level popularity with its repeated airings on cable television. It is interesting to know that Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford were about to play the roles that Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman later fulfilled. I can even visualise Tom Cruise managing an elaborate machine gun

Why does it still seem relevant some twenty-two years later? There's sure something timeless about The Shawshank Redemption. Though placed in the historical period of a penitentiary in the late 1940s, the feelings and struggles of the characters and themes still resonate with viewers who have never been inside of a prison cell. The reason lies in that the film has raised many philosophical questions at hand and they can be wrestled with by almost anyone alive. What's the meaning of freedom? Why is hope being considered as an integral part of our being? How could art and music speak in ways words never can? In the setting of the Shawshank prison, the prisoner is stripped of all distractions and interference with only bare desire intact. Thus it enhances and emphasises these question that most of us may choose to

"These walls are funny. First, you hate them, then you get used to them, enough time passes, you get to depend on them." This is Red's statement about the process of institutionalization. It also serves as a powerful statement about our unwillingness to leave the comfort zone and playing on the safe side in our lives. How many of us choose not to resign ourselves to the monotony of the routine and plunge into the icy waves of the uncertainty? How many of us would have the patience to dig day after day your tunnel to your redemption? The Shawshank Redemption inspired us to make a dive from a high cliff. Andy, besides being the protagonist of the film, represents the courage to dive, an instinct that we all have inside. This courage allows us to stand up against the fear that every day prevents us from doing what we want. Andy, with his hands always neat, his head always up, save us from the vertigo of fear and finally brings us to dive, refreshes us and redeems us forever from the inconvenience of the cliff, and our lives as