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Irony In Shawshank Redemption

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"The Shawshank Redemption" premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 1994, and opened a few weeks later. It got good reviews but it did not do good business as it does not have an interesting title; it was a "prison drama" which did not attract women. It contained almost no action, it starred actors who were respected but not big stars, and it was a long 142 minutes. Clearly this was a movie that needed word-of-mouth to find an audience, and indeed business was slowly but steadily growing when it was yanked from theatres. Within five years, "Shawshank" was a phenomenon, a video best seller and renter that its admirers feel they've discovered for themselves. When the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the "Shawshank" groundswell …show more content…

He is apparently innocent, and there are all sorts of details involving his case, but after a while they take on a kind of unreality; all that counts inside prison is its own society -- who is strong, who is not -- and the measured passage of time because his innocence was ignored by the Warden. The irony is that in prison that he learnt how to lie and because of the circumstances he was forced to do illegal money laundering. Andy does special fiscal favours for the warden. ("You know, the funny thing is, on the outside I was an honest man, straight as an arrow," he says about this. "I had to come to prison to be a crook.") The film shows how much Andy has changed yet preserved his own passions, values and humanity and made an impact in his fellow inmates lives. Despite being locked in prison everyday, he still has passion for life. He also had faith stronger than anyone in this prison as he was strong and never complained despite the numerous tortures he went …show more content…

The word "redemption" is in the title for a reason. The horror here is not of the supernatural kind, but the sort that flows from the realisation than 10, 20, 30 years of a man's life have unfolded into unchanging daily prison routine. There is a lot of life and humour in it, and warmth in the friendship that builds up between Andy and Red. The loyalty between the two was also amiable and almost unbelievable. There is even excitement and suspense, when we least expect it. But mostly the film is an allegory about holding onto a sense of personal worth, despite everything. The film also holds on to the though that what we might see might not always be the truth. The film also gives the impression that those that do bad will be punished. Although the film is slow paced in the middle passages, maybe that is part of the idea, too, to give us a sense of the leaden passage of time, before the glory of the final

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