Shawshank Redemption Essay

Analyse how at least TWO of the following were used to present a main theme:
Colour Lighting Music

The movie “The Shawshank Redemption”, directed by Frank Darabont, is a movie adaptation of the novella “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption”. It’s a prison drama about hope and the related issues of freedom and redemption. The director uses features such as colour, lighting and music to help us understand these ideas.

At the start of the movie, we see the main character Andy Dufresne being accused for murdering his wife and her lover. The director uses a flash back and we see Andy’s wife in a red dress. The red dress is used to represent the passion she has for her lover. It also shows her sinful ways. Red is again used in the scene where Tommy is killed. The Warden offers Tommy a cigarette. The cigarette packet is red, this foreshadows Tommy’s death. In the prison the colours are very grey and blue. This reflects the emotions of the prisoners and shows how dull and lifeless the place is. We see blue again at the end of the film, but this blue is strong and vibrant. It is the blue of the Pacific Ocean. This represents Andy’s rebirth and redemption.
Music is used to help show us Darabont’s idea of freedom and institutionalisation.
Andy deliberately disobeys the warden and plays “The Marriage of Figaro” on the large speakers. He is severely punished for this and is sent into “the hole”. As the music is playing, all the prisoners stop what they are doing as they are awed by the beautiful voices of the Italian women. This gives the prisoners freedom as it brings back memories and takes them to a place outside of the prison. It gives them hope that someday they might be free of this prison. When Andy is sent to the hole, he says that he took the music down there with him. He had the music in his head and it gave him hope. This hope helped him survive throughout the following years in the
prison.

Lighting is used to help reinforce the director’s view. There is little light through most of the movie. The prison is very dull and the lighting reflects this. It is often very dark and gloomy and large shadows are cast by the prisoners. This represents their mental state and how they act. This is shown when “The Sisters” attack Andy. They sneak up on him in the dark. This conceals their face as they know what they are doing is wrong. Andy Dufresne is a beacon of hope and so is usually seen outside with plenty of light on him. This represents his hope that one day he will escape this prison. The corrupted warden is often seen inside and in the dark. When we first see the warden he is in a gloomy room with all the new convicts. This shows us his malevolent ways and his corruption shown through his money laundering. This also shows us that he is a shady character who we shouldn’t trust. This is again shown when the warden arranges a meeting with Tommy. At first all we can see us his dark silhouette but we can hear his voice. This tells us that the warden knows he is doing something wrong and is using the cover of darkness to conceal his face. This further reinforces the idea that lighting reflects the mental state of the people. At the end of the movie we see Andy and his best friend Red on a beach in Mexico. There is light everywhere which shows their purification and their hope.

This shows us that Darabont has effectively used lighting, sound and colour. These features were clearly used to help portray his ideas about hope, freedom and redemption. Darabont helps us understand that “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies”.