Hope And Despair In The Shawshank Redemption

How does the director of The Shawshank Redemption show hope and despair? Focus on two or three scenes.

Frank Darabont the director of the film The Shawshank Redemption uses hope and despair to a theme using, lighting, camera angles, sound effects, miss-en-scene. The film is about the prisoners, being institutionalised and the effect it has on life after prison. The film involves two imprisoned men, who over years become good friends, and find comfort and a redemption through everyday living. There are many scenes in this film where hope and despair is displayed, most importantly in the rooftop scene, the ending scene, and Brooks death, all which create different effects on the audience. All these scenes and the cinematic techniques are to …show more content…
Brooks is released from prison and experiences everyday living, yet finds it hard to adjust to the feeling of being in constant fear. The director created a scene using different camera shots to correspond to the narration of Brooks reading his letter. The close up and tracking shot of Brooks crossing the road, as he explains how everything is ‘too fast’ while looking quite lost, creates the effect of sympathy on the audience. The directors intention was to develop an emotion evoking scene by creating the mise-en-scene to be somber. This is shown in Brooks slow walk, dull expression, and his dejected narration. A scene of Brooks at the park is shown as he lets crumbs, (for feeding the birds) slip out of his hands. This could be a metaphoric representation of how time or hope is slipping away from his loose grip on life. Along with an expressionless emotion on the characters face, zoom in shots are used to show the directors intention of the metaphoric representation. Different techniques were used in the scene to show the directors intention of despair, yet many of these to do with the characters

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