Shawshank Redemption Themes

Frank Darabont directed The Shawshank Redemption and wrote the screenplay based on the novel Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by author Stephen King. The movie was made in 1994 and produced by Niki Marvin. The movie stars Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins as two convicts serving time in a New England prison named Shawshank. Tim Robbins plays a man named Andy Dufresne, a banker, who gets convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and is sent to prison in Shawshank. Andy eventually becomes good friends with a fellow convict by the name of Ellis Boyd Redding(Morgan Freeman) who is able to get anything for anyone within reason. The story follows the prison life of Andy Dufresne and his eventual escape from Shawshank's walls. The elements of unique cinematography, a formalistic style of direction, and an excellent screenplay, Darabont uses in this film are paramount to portraying the themes, and conveying the storyline.
The most unique part about the style of the movie is in the cinematography by Roger Deakins. Deakins utilizes tools such as a blue filter in order to convey emotions, and portray scenes through different lights. The filters give a special beauty to the scenes, which in turn causes more dramatic feelings for the audience. With this blue filter the movie tends to bring out the two different colors of blue and brown. These colors are dually used by Deakins to portray either dark or light. The blues of the uniforms are all the more dramatic compared to the drab brown buildings surrounding the prisoners. The colors also produce dramatic irony in the last scene of Red and Andy on the beach. The blue and brown colors that once gave feelings of confinement and despair in the prison are now colors of freedom and happiness. Tools such as the filter are expertly used by cinematographers like Deakins to pinpoint details in scenes, and to portray the desired mood or tone of the film.
The movie follows a formalistic style of direction under Frank Darabont,