I recently rewatched The Shawshank Redemption and its emotional rollercoaster really pushed me hard (as it always does). Every time I watch a movie, I always come and think about different aspects of it. This time around, I want to think about the idea of hope in the movie. I feel as if in real life, nobody ever fully understands the importance of hope until they hit a wall that seems impossible to get past. There is nothing that encapsulates that feeling like when Andy realizes there isn’t a chance that he’ll finally be redeemed as not-guilty. Not a chance. So, how does he find hope? Yes, it helps that there’s a huge tunnel he’s building, but it also helps that he sees a goal. For him, it’s leaving. His quote “get busy living, or get busy dying,” is absolutely iconic and emotional. It calls into question how we all live our lives. For me, when I rewatched this movie, it immediately made me want to say all the things to people I want to say but haven’t. To not be afraid. To have hope is to be able to live a life, and I believe this movie exemplifies that. Recent movies like Star Wars: The Last Jedi have also had such a clear message of hope, and how the smallest showing of it can push a person or groups of people past whatever they thought to be possible. How I see The Shawshank Redemption is a movie that is heartbreaking; however, at its core, it has moments where it make the audience have trust that something good is coming. I have almost never had a movie make me cry like that, yet leave me at the end with such a sigh of relief and a realization of hope.
Side note: All of this is helped by some of the best possible casting for a movie there can be. Every performance invokes deep emotional reactions, which only adds to the story.
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