Genre Theme of Shawshank Redemption
John Runyon
ENG 225 Introduction to Film
Instructor: David Hayes
November 10, 2014
Many films that people will watch today different themes they try to encompass. In most films they are apparent in the beginning. They try to get a message across and all throughout they go through tough links to show why the theme will persevere. In the film The Shawshank Redemption the overall theme is hope. The film shows that the main character, Andy Defresne, has hope they he can get out of prison because he did not commit the crime he has been convicted of. Throughout the film he is shown going through a lot of tough times through the years he spends there. Even though all of this goes on he continues to believe that he will eventually no longer be there. He starts hobbies to keep his mind off of the fact of how long is sentence in prison is supposed to be. He also develops friendships to help keep himself involved and to educate his friends to help them peruse education they never thought they could obtain. He continues to give his friends hope because he himself has the hope they never had to begin with. In this film there is a particular part that uses a close up view of Andy emptying his pockets through the bottom of his jeans. This scene is shown closer to the end of the film but discloses that throughout the time that Andy has spent in the prison, he has been taking parts of his wall and emptying them out in to the courtyard pocket full at a time. This part of the film is important because as we start to reach the end of the film we would start to wonder what or where all of the parts of wall he’s been digging at are going. It also lets us know that not only did Andy have past times as helping other prisoners obtain GED’s but he also enjoyed his time outdoors emptying parts he had dug out the entire time he was in prison. The lighting use for this film is mostly high key lighting. The conversations amongst the characters is set for the viewers to focus on the main characters throughout the story. When low key lighting is used that is when the negative
