Dish of the Day
Just some film musings of a more succinct, spontaneous and sometimes seditious nature:
Monday, February 6, 2023
Today’s “Dish of the Day” has a brief review of mine that was inspired by a post in one of the film related Facebook chat rooms.. This includes the Cinema Cafe group (all readers are encouraged to join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/902349343110685). My thoughts on the following motion picture form an extreme minority view, almost the lone dissenting voice.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
I guess I'm one of this film's very few detractors finding its popular placating style, manipulative and grandiose emotional payoffs, artificial, embellished and contrived. ***SPOILERS*** Just marvel at the way our story's hero Andy Dufresne (whom the filmmakers make sure we know, and are reminded of, is really and truly innocent) endures, teaches, outwits, triumphs… announcements the filmmakers constantly trumpet which undermines their film’s natural sense of individual interaction and setting of human hardship. In addition, many of Andy’s exchanges with fellow prisoners are carried out with an extraordinary breadth of compassion especially considering his brutal, unforgiving habitat. Is there any positive human quality this guy doesn’t have? Even his handwriting is perfect. He not only manages to escape prison completely on his own (and don’t pay close attention to how exactly), * gets the bad guys big time, sets himself up financially while taking care of his prison buddy in the bargain! This film has one of those 'everything works out if you just try hard enough' messages. And just to make sure we really get the meaning behind it, there’s a non-heroic character for contrast that we shouldn’t root for because he’s given up the storytellers’ precious commodity of hope: Brooks Hatlen poignantly portrayed by the great James Whitmore. ** Brooks finds that life inside prison has made life outside unbearable enough to “… get busy dyin’.” All of this overt preachiness cheapens and squanders the storytelling art form's potential for truth, insight and enlightenment but much of the general public seem to appreciatively applaud. One need only compare the fantasy wish fulfilment created in The Shawshank Redemption to the genuine, anxiety infused prison break depicted in Le Trou (1960) to see the enormous difference between these dissimilar approaches to depicting life behind bars. Darabont's solid direction was put to much better use in 1997’s The Mist (which like The Shawshank Redemption was taken from a novella by Stephen King), an urgent and courageous exploration of individual human duress without sermonising, falsifying its subject matter or turning its characters into communiqué delivery agents. And that’s saying something because unlike what is supposed to be the realistic harsh environment of The Shawshank Redemption, The Mist is part of an alternative make believe fantasy/horror genre.
* All kinds of logistics that would prevent Andy Dufresne’s escape are ignored here e.g. prisoners having to change cells, being noticed digging that enormous hole in the wall, Andy’s absence when tunnelling further in and how to get that poster back on the wall while doing so. In comparison, the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz does realistically address its prisoners’ technical challenges (many of which are similar to those previously mentioned) and instead of just one, there were originally four of them all working together.
** “Hope” is referenced as a positive trait, but Red (a primary character) is only released from prison when he abandons all hope of ever being paroled. It would seem, therefore, that the storytellers missed this thematic contradiction when they were constructing their story.
All responses are not only welcomed but encouraged in the comments section below.
Hope to see you tomorrow.
A.G.