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The Shawshank Redemption

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The Shawshank Redemption
ENG 225
Sarah Carson
May 7, 2012

The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) was a remarkable motion picture inspired by Stephen King and Directed by Frank Darabont. It was not a big budget movie with a lot of special effects rather it was a story about two convicts Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), and Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton), the self-righteous, Bible-carrying Warden (Filmsite, 2012) that vowed they’d never be released from Shawshank State Prison. These actors are considered stars. A character actor is an actor that can fit into many different roles, “adapting to the needs of each script and director they work with” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, …show more content…

There are many different camera shots in the movie. The camera is used for close-ups, medium shots, and long shots of the characters which help generate a feeling of awareness. There were wide angles, high angles, and eye level angles used and these gave the audience a spectacular view of how the prison and characters looked. At the end of the movie the most memorable shot is just after Andy crawls through the sewage pipes and comes out on the other side. After he crawls out of the sewage pipe, there is a thunder storm and the rain is pouring down on Andy. He takes off his prison shirt and put his arms in the air and lets the rain hit his body, and as he is doing this, the lighting strikes so hard that it lights up the whole scene. Andy is free and this shot is the audience’s first view of Andy’s total freedom from the Shawshank prison. The editing style used is continuity and the shots and scenes fade into one another. During the movie you will hear a cell door close and it will signify the ending of a shot or scene. One scene in particular is where Andy is in solitary confinement and the warden comes in to talk to him and after the warden closes the door the lighting is gone and the scene ends. The next thing you know Andy is sitting in the prison yard talking with Red. We know time has passed since Andy’s appearance is sloppy with unkempt prison clothes therefore, the audience knows that he must have just been released from solitary

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