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The Shawshank Redemption

While Darabont's film The Shawshank Redemption presents a sense of resolved conflict at the end, it seems that Darabont has used the mis-en-scene to express a series of conflicting themes. These themes being corruption and justice, brutality and kindness and freedom and imprisonment. At the beginning of the film we are presented with damaged characters; Andy, Red, Brooks and Tommy, who are grappling with grief and unresolved conflict. The new prisoner Andy creates chaos and also provides the catalyst for change and healing. It is through the journey of each character that Darabont is able to present in detail the conflicting themes.

A major emphasis of the film is corruption and justice. These two opposing themes which are presented to the viewer in numerous forms are a reflection on life while inside the Shawshank Prison. An example of the corruption within Shawshank Prison is when Hadley beats the Prisoners. The Warden watches on as if he approves and even expects this to happen and then continues with his speech in which he says that prisoners will receive discipline and the Bible. Later on in the Shawshank Redemption you find out that Shawshank prison is a cess pool of corruption. It is in these early hours of entering Shawshank Prison that the prisoners are made aware of the corruption and their upcoming fight for survival. Darabont explorers the theme justice in numerous ways the main one being Andy's fight to receive the justice he deserves. He encounters numerous setbacks such as the murder of Tommy who would have testified and got Andy's case reinvestigated. The pressure and time of life inside Shawshank Prison forced Andy to take justice into his own hands and undo an unjust decision. Andy provides hope to the other prisoners and it is through these two themes that Darabont is able to show how Andy is able to save not just himself but Red also.

At numerous points in the film the viewer is subjected to both acts of kindness and brutality and both of these are explored from one extreme to the other. Kindness is explored both in the form of gifts such as the poster of Rita Hayworth that was given to Andy and the harmonica given to Red. This theme is also explored in a different way and that is the guards taking care of the "sisters" who were sexually abusing Andy on a weekly basis. Brutality is also explored in twp ways and they are physically and emotionally. Physically Darabont explores brutality by violence such as beatings and murder. Emotionally prisoners are subjected to far worse and that is to be locked in solitary confinement. The brutality that Andy suffered due to playing the record