hope vs. fear

hope vs. fear

i hope the pacific is as blue as it has

been in my dreams

i hope

shawshank redemption is often regarded

as one of the best films of all time

managing to bridge the perfect balance

between the artistic and

entertaining to make it a favorite for

both those types of audiences

you'd be hard pressed not only to find

anybody who doesn't like the movie but

anybody who wouldn't rank it as one of

their favorites as

i definitely would obviously there will

be spoilers on the off chance any of you

haven't already

seen this juggernaut of a film

that's your warning and thinking

spoiler-wise if i try to think back to

the first time i watched this film

the ending came with a twist that

technically should have been entirely

predictable

this is a prison film every prison film

in existence involves prisoners escaping

from prison

and yet this movie functions perfectly

to make andy's escape come

as a surprise not as a great shock

admittedly i mean it makes sense no one

would have said it was completely

unexpected but it is still a twist

which i'm highlighting not just because

1:12

it's clever storytelling how

1:13

to make the expected outcome end up like

1:16

a twist which

1:17

they do well technically through things

1:19

like the rock hammer being introduced

1:21

with the idea of escape as a complete

1:23

joke i finally got the joke it would

1:26

take a man about

1:27

600 years to tunnel under the wall with

1:29

one of these

1:30

and the fact the story is told from

1:31

red's viewpoint and andy is naturally a

1:33

bit of a closed book means he can hide

1:36

secrets from the audience easily without

1:38

us being suspicious but

1:40

the big reason it's able to function as

1:42

a twist is also sort of the greater

1:44

emotional point behind it all

1:46

it's a twist that underpins the main

1:48

thematic point of the film

1:49

more than anything this is a story about

1:51

hope and how it's a

1:53

terrible thing to live in fear i mean

1:55

this isn't a story about escape at all

1:57

until the end of the film no one ever

1:59

really talks about it

2:01

nobody seems to try escaping shawshank

2:03

but instead we see the reverse

2:05

brooks threatening to kill hayward so

2:07

that he doesn't have to leave at the end

2:09

of his sentence

2:10

so that he can stay in prison we're

2:12

given one of the most

2:13

heartbreaking sequences in cinema where

2:16

the idea of

2:17

outside life the very dream of a prison

2:20

and what

2:20

should be the most beautiful good thing

2:24

of all becomes so

2:25

frightening as to turn away from it this

2:28

isn't the story about escape because the

2:29

spirits have become too broken to even

2:31

want that

2:32

first with brooks then slowly with red

2:34

who is the one able to explain

2:36

brooks feelings and being

2:37

institutionalized great empathy

2:39

whose character arc at first seems to be

2:41

a parallel of brooks where he considers

2:43

hope to be

2:43

a dangerous thing i better get used to

2:46

that idea

2:48

like brooks did which is why it is so

2:51

thematically important that we

2:52

as the audience kind of forget about

2:54

escape in this film

2:56

because when you think about escape and

2:57

not just in terms of prison but

2:59

escaping an addiction and abusive

3:02

relationship

3:03

ruts in your life a state of feeling

3:05

whatever it is um

3:07

it doesn't just come down to that

3:09

practical dilemma of how to

3:11

actually get away the technical aspects

3:13

of like digging the tunnel and when to

3:15

make a break for it how to avoid the

3:17

cards kind of stuff

3:18

what it also comes down to is that

3:20

emotional

3:22

tumultuous battle between hope and fear

3:25

can you maintain belief in this better

3:27

world can you really trust that it's

3:29

worth the risk that

3:31

things will be better in that very

3:33

distant and unfamiliar outside world or

3:36

do you fear it too greatly you know when

3:38

you've become used to

3:39

alcohol or whatever is the thing that

3:41

makes you feel better can you believe

3:43

that you can function happily without it

3:46

that beyond that initial stage of

3:47

withdrawal you will adjust

3:49

or that turning away from the partner

3:51

who hurts you or makes you feel

3:52

miserable

3:53

that there will be greater happiness

3:55

beyond that initial pit of loneliness

3:57

you feel in their absence

3:59

and so it's the emotion of that struggle

4:01

that the film functions perfectly to

4:03

express

4:04

hope isn't just beautiful but incredibly

4:06

fragile

4:07

whilst red is right to say it's a

4:09

terrible thing to live in fear it's also

4:11

very hard not to

4:12

many times in our lives what we witness

4:14

across the majority of this film is the

4:16

gradual decaying of a community spirits

4:19

until

4:20

even andy who has served as a beacon and

4:23

reminded of hope in the shawshank prison

4:25

starts to look broken

4:27

but we begin to fear he's finally on the

4:29

same route as brooks the same

4:31

red seems to be travelling which begins

4:33

mostly with the death of tommy who

4:36

if hope was a motif in this film tommy

4:38

would certainly be

4:39

part of it the young energetic eager for

4:42

life kid hey come on old boys

4:44

moving like molasses making me look bad

4:46

tommy represents potential for the

4:48

future as this thief who has been in and

4:50

out of prisons for years

4:51

now finally looking to change not just

4:54

thinking about it but

4:55

incredibly driven seen for the example

4:57

of his determination to pass exams

4:59

despite the fact he barely knew how to

5:01

read in the beginning

5:02

he represents the hope of a future

5:04

generation the hope that

5:06

criminals can be reformed that people

5:08

can do better that

5:10

people at a great disadvantage so much

5:12

as even being illiterate

5:13

can grow and achieve and in fact i think

5:15

his story of the exam is a bit like a

5:17

mini fable about this hope versus fear

5:20

struggle where he becomes so convinced

5:22

he's done badly and will fail the exam

5:25

that he screws up his paper and throws

5:26

it away

5:27

afraid to see his imagined failure

5:29

printed in a grade

5:31

whereas andy maintains hope and mails

5:33

the paper anyway

5:34

to the revelation then that tommy did

5:36

actually pass

5:37

his fears were wrong you know how easily

5:40

our fears can limit our capacity to grow

5:42

or do good things but this hope tommy

5:45

represents is then destroyed in his

5:47

murder at the hands of the warden

5:48

it's a freeway death of hope in his film

5:50

however firstly

5:52

because it's the loss of this good man

5:53

being killed secondly because it's the

5:56

loss of andy's one chance to prove his

5:58

innocence since tommy could stand as

5:59

witness and thirdly

6:01

because it leads to the warden turning

6:02

nasty to andy and putting him through

6:04

two months of solitary confinement which

6:06

is just

6:07

horrendous solitary confinement for

6:10

extended periods

6:11

especially like that is just torture

6:14

really

6:14

all of it appears to finally break andy

6:17

and we get a long scene where he talks

6:18

about his pain and the sense of

6:20

injustice to red who

6:22

even remarks with concern to his friends

6:24

that andy's he's talking funny

6:27

i'm really worried about him and so when

6:29

hayward mentions that andy asked him for

6:30

a length of rope we believe

6:32

andy's fate will parallel brooks now

6:35

that shawshank has finally broken him as

6:37

it has so many others

6:38

the entire arc of the movie kind of

6:40

leads towards this knife point

6:43

and we get a shot of andy silent in his

6:45

cell holding the rope

6:46

the cell split between light and dark on

6:48

either side of him emphasizing this

6:50

knife point between hope and fear

6:52

even more so between the rope for a

6:55

noose or a rope to help his escape

6:57

we're led to consider that andy might

6:58

commit suicide precisely because it is a

7:01

very real

7:02

possibility it would take very little

7:04

for that last thread of

7:06

hope to snap and so in that sense it

7:10

does

7:10

ultimately come down to the very thin

7:12

line of get busy living

7:17

so yeah whilst on the one hand it's not

7:19

an unexpected twist

7:21

i think we do imagine some escape of

7:24

sorts to happen

7:25

and it would be a very unsatisfying film

7:28

if andy did just hang himself here

7:30

but emotionally a very plausible plot

7:32

point

7:33

whereas escape is realistically the more

7:36

surprising outcome maintaining hope is

7:39

one

7:40

hell of a task in anybody's life

7:42

shawshank redemption serves to emphasize

7:44

that point to us very clearly

7:46

which feels like a concluded place to

7:48

finish this video but there's still a

7:50

lot of other stuff i want to say about

7:51

this film

7:52

um one being how to maintain hope when

7:55

it is understandably very difficult i

7:57

think the film makes

7:58

a few points on that too although i feel

8:01

that there's probably more to say than

8:02

i'm noticing here

8:03

um the obvious being through the

8:05

experience of beauty

8:07

andy spends 19 years in shawshank prison

8:10

most of which is an ongoing

8:12

collection of bad experiences

8:15

and time stretching out into this

8:17

agonizing

8:19

empty treadmill of an existence i like

8:21

how

8:22

directorially how seamlessly everything

8:24

transitions in this film to make 19

8:26

years past like a timeless blink

8:28

even for the way reds narration

8:30

sometimes melds into the dialogue

8:32

the powers that be decided that the roof

8:34

of the license plate factory needs

8:36

resurfacing this is a place where bad

8:38

experiences do

8:39

a hundred percent outweigh the good

8:42

unquestionably so

8:44

and i think this tendency we have as

8:46

humans to weigh up and compare

8:48

good against bad in life as though to

8:50

try and find

8:51

some clear answer as to whether or not

8:54

life is a good thing i think that's

8:56

something i've talked about at times in

8:57

the past but here i just wanted to point

9:00

out

9:01

the power of beauty even in the small

9:04

and very sparse moments because within

9:06

this

9:07

unending bleak existence of shawshank

9:10

prison we get one

9:11

or two beautiful experiences the beers

9:14

on the roof

9:15

my god in terms of just how vivid it is

9:18

that's a scene i find one of the most

9:20

beautiful in any film really

9:22

we sat and drank with the sun on our

9:24

shoulders and felt like free men

9:26

hell we could have been touring the roof

9:28

of one of our own houses

9:30

we were the lords of all creation how

9:32

this one

9:33

brief moment seems to soar up far above

9:36

the rest of the desolation

9:38

how even the smallest experiences of

9:40

beauty can be enough to maintain hope

9:42

or at least bolster your spirit once

9:44

more against the burdens it has to carry

9:46

the same can be said for the scene with

9:48

andy playing mozart it was like some

9:50

beautiful bird flapped into our trap

9:52

little cage and made those walls

9:54

dissolve away

9:55

the power of its beauty is so great that

9:57

the few minutes of music makes the two

9:59

weeks in the hole that follows the

10:00

easiest time i've ever done

10:02

there are just some experiences we have

10:04

for whatever reason

10:06

that feel like beauty beyond all

10:09

ordinary existence and that are worth

10:11

just

10:12

cherishing forever one i have is from

10:14

when i was about

10:15

13 at school waiting for the bus home on

10:17

a sunny day

10:18

under a conquer tree and a group of us

10:21

for some reason playing this game of

10:24

trying to throw conkers so they curved

10:26

round this turn in the road

10:27

and all the while listening to three

10:29

little birds by bob marley on

10:30

repeat that one of us had on their

10:33

motorola

10:34

razer flip phones i don't know what made

10:36

that experience so

10:38

perfect or why it sticks in my mind like

10:40

that but

10:41

red is absolutely right we felt like the

10:43

lords of all creation

10:44

and whenever i hear that song i think

10:47

back to that moment

10:48

in addition to that though the film is

10:50

permeated with lots of metaphors for

10:52

kind of

10:53

having the grit to really work of things

10:56

the idea of andy continuously sending

10:58

one letter a week asking for funds to

11:00

build a library until he does

11:01

finally get them well the idea geology

11:03

is the study of pressure and time

11:07

that's all it takes really pressure

11:11

and time which on its own does stand for

11:13

that general idea of working hard in

11:15

life to achieve things but i think it's

11:18

particularly the fact this grit often

11:20

comes alongside the kind of tenacity

11:22

or sense of clear direction to what

11:25

you're working at

11:25

because andy isn't the obedient good

11:29

hard worker he's a man who pushes at the

11:31

system by mailing these letters when

11:33

he's not supposed to

11:34

by having a clear vision for this

11:37

library and

11:38

creatively stretching funds with

11:39

donations and charity books to manage it

11:41

that's

11:42

about really pushing at the world around

11:46

him in a clever way pressure and time

11:48

but not

11:49

too much pressure that reacts back

11:51

against him or gets him in trouble kind

11:53

of thing

11:53

i think that makes sense and the

11:55

tenacity to have approached hadley

11:57

with the offer to act as his lawyer in

12:00

return for beers

12:02

the risk to have secretly tunnelled at

12:04

the wall for 19 years

12:05

knowing what would have happened if he

12:07

was caught to risk switching

12:09

and taking records so that he could both

12:11

empty out the wardens funds of himself

12:13

whilst also providing evidence for his

12:15

crime to send him down

12:17

that's more than just work hard and the

12:19

world will reward you which

12:21

we know it often doesn't otherwise andy

12:23

would never have ended up in a prison to

12:24

begin with

12:25

you know um it's work hard but

12:28

fighting for what he's owed and he has

12:30

to put up a hell of a fight in this film

12:33

but without seeking petty revenge

12:36

against the world i'd say

12:38

fighting with hope and not bitterness um

12:40

i suppose the clearest metaphor for all

12:41

of it is andy as a man who crawled

12:43

through a river of [ __ ] and came out

12:45

clean on the other side also when i say

12:47

it took him vision

12:49

think andy using his position as prison

12:52

guard lawyer to secure funds for

12:53

expanding the

12:54

library and another prisoner remarking

12:57

gonna ask for something else for pool

12:58

table

12:59

which at face value we'd all probably

13:02

rather pick

13:02

over a library but how much more of a

13:05

meaningful difference the library makes

13:07

and the self-improvement it offers

13:09

it takes vision to recognize that so

13:12

other points

13:12

um i think red's doing a voice over

13:15

narration for this film

13:16

is perfect voice over narration is the

13:18

sort of thing that's often seen as lazy

13:21

and bland in movies as a form of

13:22

storytelling but

13:24

this is the exact kind of film where it

13:26

fits also red doesn't actually spout

13:28

much

13:28

exposition at all in the voiceovers he's

13:31

mainly just cementing some of the themes

13:33

or

13:34

andy's feelings or his opinion on andy's

13:36

feelings um

13:37

i think we could follow the plot pretty

13:39

much fine

13:40

with the narration muted so i think that

13:43

helps it not feel as lazy

13:45

instead we get this incredibly poetic

13:48

narration

13:49

so many of red's voiceover lines are

13:52

just

13:52

fantastic writing old life blown away in

13:55

the blink of an eye

13:57

nothing left but all the time in the

13:59

world to think about it

14:01

it's important because andy is this

14:02

slightly closed off

14:04

almost mystical character so telling

14:07

events from red's viewpoint

14:09

informed by his feelings and

14:11

interpretations about his friend

14:12

enhances this it's like the sherlock

14:16

told through the lens of watson type

14:18

thing and obviously like i hinted

14:20

earlier having a voiceover

14:21

makes it easier for the passing of time

14:23

to merge so that the 19 years go by

14:26

without

14:26

any obvious shifts i think andy is a

14:29

fascinating character in terms of how

14:31

subdued he is

14:32

to the extent he believes it's his

14:34

inability to really express

14:36

passion that led to his wife having an

14:38

affair

14:39

and subdued to the extent the court

14:41

interprets him as being very icy and

14:43

sinister

14:44

and to the extent it takes him ages to

14:46

really open his mouth to talk to anyone

14:48

at shawshank

14:49

part of that last one is obviously kind

14:51

of protecting himself in his prison

14:52

environment

14:53

keeping everything within including his

14:56

sense of hope in a way

14:57

um perhaps shielding it but this

15:00

is a man who could be absolutely furious

15:04

at his situation and the injustice of it

15:07

also perhaps furious at himself

15:09

out of guilt when he found out about his

15:11

wife's affair and he got drunk and

15:13

stumbled over to the golf pros home with

15:15

revolver to shoot them

15:16

i mean he obviously wasn't going to go

15:18

through with it he sobered up and came

15:20

to his senses but

15:21

on some level the desire or fantasy of

15:25

murdering them

15:26

was there one he might have felt bad

15:28

about having come the morning

15:30

however when they do actually then get

15:32

murdered even if it wasn't him it brings

15:34

home the reality of what that little

15:36

part of him was wishing for

15:38

perhaps unconsciously making him feel

15:40

like it was this wish he had that then

15:42

caused it to literally happen we know he

15:44

must feel some guilt simply from the

15:46

fact he gave up drinking after that want

15:48

a cold one andy

15:50

no thanks gave up drinking instead

15:52

however all this anger stifles into his

15:55

naturally already subdued manner but it

15:57

is always there and i think

16:00

he'd probably get some release through

16:02

the delight he must feel

16:03

getting one over on the wardens or

16:05

guards in

16:06

all the little ways he does manage

16:08

having a sales search in the warden even

16:10

taking andy's bible briefly

16:12

all the while knowing there's a tunnel

16:14

hidden behind the poster and a rock

16:15

hammer hidden in the bible the

16:17

thrill of that one of the other obvious

16:20

things this film is about is

16:22

the prison system itself a film set in

16:25

the 40s

16:26

50s 60s era made in the 90s about a

16:30

prison system that still

16:31

bears resemblance to today that's quite

16:34

sad

16:35

um obviously we see corruption brutality

16:38

dehumanizing prisoners profiting off

16:40

their labor as

16:41

america still does to horrendous

16:43

extremes um

16:44

i think american prisons make up like a

16:46

fifth of prisoners across the entire

16:48

world as well i'll have to check that um

16:50

it's the idea of rehabilitation though

16:52

our introduction to red

16:54

is through a parole hearing with them

16:56

asking if he feels he's being

16:57

rehabilitated

16:58

we see it happening three times

17:00

throughout this film asking the same

17:02

question despite red seeing it as

17:04

a made-up word a politician's word so

17:07

that young fellas like yourself can wear

17:09

a suit and a tie and

17:11

have a job and yet what about shawshank

17:13

prison has functioned to rehabilitate

17:16

anyone into society more likely to

17:19

alienate them from it so much so that

17:21

tommy as a kid

17:22

eager to get somewhere in life is the

17:24

rarity the

17:25

exception to the rule and even his drive

17:28

having already been in and out of most

17:30

prisons in the state

17:31

comes through the library that andy has

17:32

to fight to get built and through

17:34

andy's own passion to teach him not from

17:36

the prison system itself

17:38

i mean prisons are supposed to have two

17:41

functions really i suppose

17:42

one is obviously to keep the public safe

17:45

by

17:45

keeping dangerous people away and

17:48

children does obviously achieve that

17:50

but the other function is to also reform

17:52

them so that when they return to society

17:53

they're less

17:54

likely to break the law again there's

17:57

the idea that by punishing them and

17:59

giving them a long

18:00

hard time to reflect on their actions

18:02

they'll just naturally learn

18:04

and change except the joke in this film

18:06

is that nobody

18:07

reflects on their crimes because

18:09

everybody ensures shank argues they're

18:11

innocent

18:11

they resist any reflection altogether

18:13

because of course you would you're

18:15

already being treated like an animal

18:17

you don't want to feel even worse about

18:19

yourself throw a bunch of criminals

18:21

together

18:22

treat them like duh and then somehow

18:24

expect them to believe in the

18:26

possibility of change how were they

18:28

supposed to maintain the hope of

18:29

goodness within themselves the potential

18:32

to achieve the idea that they could be

18:34

better

18:34

which is already hard for all of us

18:37

anyway in general life

18:38

let alone when you're being treated like

18:40

scum it takes the extraordinary strength

18:42

of andy to maintain

18:44

belief in himself it takes the strength

18:46

of him to

18:47

spread that to other people but even

18:49

then all that seems to keep red from

18:51

veering away

18:52

is a promise i made to andy the

18:54

environment that then put into

18:56

the treatment and also the social

18:59

pressures of society looking down on you

19:01

or the people you know back home perhaps

19:03

expecting you to return to crime

19:05

all of that does just make change

19:08

incredibly difficult

19:09

it's the same emotional struggle really

19:11

as this one of escape from shawshank

19:13

prison it's

19:14

a tremendous undertaking so when red

19:17

is asked if he's been rehabilitated red

19:20

says

19:20

you know i don't have any idea what that

19:22

means because either rehabilitation is

19:24

not the point of prison

19:26

and it's all about revenge and

19:27

punishment against this sect of society

19:30

we can freely look down on us bad people

19:32

or else it's hypocritical to talk about

19:35

rehabilitation and

19:37

perhaps all of that does simplify things

19:39

a bit but

19:40

it is largely the argument of this film

19:43

that prisons expect rehabilitation

19:45

without providing or

19:47

teaching it and it is of course set a

19:49

good

19:50

70 odd years ago and i do think a lot

19:52

has improved since then but

19:54

i'd also argue not enough the great

19:56

point however is of course still hope

19:58

in spite of this backwards prison of

20:00

shawshank and

20:02

in many ways hope isn't the deepest most

20:05

artistic of themes

20:06

um like i don't think i've said anything

20:08

about it here that's like

20:10

groundbreaking or whatever but i don't

20:12

think it matters

20:13

hope is a universal theme for a film

20:17

one that touches everybody's heart very

20:19

closely because we all

20:21

in our own ways and with our own scale

20:23

understand that struggle between hope

20:25

and fear

20:26

between getting busy living or busy

20:29

dying

20:30

this film is so loved because it touches

20:32

everybody's heart and does it through a

20:34

setting and a story that can talk about

20:36

hope without it being forced or

20:38

contrived and

20:40

without being wishy-washy all optimism

20:43

because

20:44

this does still show the harshness of

20:46

prison and provides

20:47

down-to-earth appeal and humor through

20:49

the ordinary prison characters around

20:51

andy so in that sense it's meaningful

20:54

moving and entertaining all at once

20:57

it's also probably about time i read the

20:59

book

21:00

um anyway that's basically everything i

21:03

wanted to say about shawshank redemption