The
Shawshank Redemption narrates the story of an innocent man’s stay and eventual escape from prison despite all obstacles in his way. Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), is convicted of
murdering his wife and her adulterous lover in the beginning scenes of the
film. Sentenced to two consecutive life
terms in jail, Andy arrives at Shawshank Prison. For weeks, Andy remains quiet, reserved, and
composed, staying out of everyone’s way.
Finally, Andy breaks his silence when he talks to Red (Morgan Freeman),
the man in Shawshank that could supply anyone with almost anything. Andy asks Red to find him a rock hammer to
chisel and sculpt rocks. This is the
beginning of Andy and Red’s friendship.
As the years pass, Andy is continually beaten and sexually abused
by a homosexual prison gang known as “the Sisters.” However, Andy is able to curry favor with the
guards when he uses his skills as a banker to help Hadley, one of the prison
guards, evade taxes on an inheritance.
In return, Hadley offers Andy, Red, and their friends cold beers and,
later on, beats up the leader of the Sisters.
Andy’s beatings finally come to an end, and his reputation increases
among both the prisoners and the guards.
This draws the attention of the warden (Bob Gunton), who decides to
visit Andy in his cell. Despite there
being a “sinful” poster of Rita Hayworth on Andy’s cell wall (which had been
obtained with the help of Red), the warden approves of Andy. In fact, he even allows Andy to begin working
in the library with an older prisoner named Brooks (James Whitmore). Eventually, Brooks is released from Shawshank
on parole. Unable to cope with normal
life after being “institutionalized” for fifty years, Brooks commits suicide,
stirring up much talk back in the prison.
Nevertheless, Andy continues his job in the library.
Due to his assistance with Hadley, prison guards begin coming
to Andy for financial advice. Even the
warden requests that Andy do his taxes!
Andy takes pride in his job by renovating the library. Meanwhile, the warden begins putting
prisoners to work on public projects. He
uses this supply of free labor to force other contractors to bribe him in order
to maintain profits. In order to avoid
being caught, he uses Andy’s skills as a banker to launder the money. One day, Andy reveals how he does this to
Red. Andy had established several bank
accounts under the alias of “Randall Stephens,” where all the profits from the
warden’s corrupt dealings are sent. They
both laugh at the thought that Andy “had to come to prison to be a crook.”
Soon after this, everything changes when Shawshank gets a new
prisoner: Tommy (Gil Bellows). Andy
befriends Tommy and begins mentoring him at Tommy’s request so that he might
receive a high school equivalency diploma.
As their friendship grows, Andy tells Tommy the story of how he was
wrongfully accused of murdering his wife.
Tommy is aghast at Andy’s story.
He then tells Andy that while Tommy was in another prison, he met
someone who talked about committing the very same crime. Amazed at this, Andy goes straight to the
warden, knowing that Tommy’s testimony in court would be enough to prove his
innocence. However, the warden refuses
to let Andy go, which sends Andy into an outrage. Rather, the warden sentences Andy to solitary
confinement and has Tommy murdered.
Andy is eventually released from solitary confinement, a
broken man. Dreaming of freedom, he tells
Red of his dreams of living in a Mexican town on the Pacific shore. Also, he gives Red specific instructions as to
where to go if Red should ever leave Shawshank.
Andy gives up all hope of ever leaving Shawshank, or so it seems.
The subsequent morning, Andy is missing from his cell. When the warden comes to investigate, he
discovers a massive tunnel that Andy had dug for years with his rock hammer
behind the poster in his cell. The very
same morning, a man by the name of Randall Stephens withdraws all the money
from his bank accounts, a total of $370,000.
It is revealed that Andy escaped
Shawshank by squirming his way through his tunnel, breaking into a sewage pipe
(using a lightning storm to disguise the noise), and crawling almost half of a
mile through the pipe to a nearby body of water. He uses his newfound funds to make his way to
the Mexican Pacific Coast, safe from the law.
Several years later, Red finally is able to leave Shawshank on
parole. Like Brooks, he has trouble
adjusting to city life. However, instead
of committing suicide, Red follows Andy’s advice, which leads him to a note
that Andy wrote just for him. In it,
Andy invites Red to break his parole and come work with him in Mexico. Red accepts the offer, and the two friends
finally reunite on the shore of the Pacific, free at last.
* * *
Psychological concepts help drive the plot of this film. Perhaps the most prominent psychological
concept found in The Shawshank Redemption
is motivation, which can be defined
as “a need or desire that energizes behavior and directs it toward a
goal.” As revealed at the end, Andy is
constantly motivated to find a path to freedom.
Whether it be a simple rock hammer, a friend’s testimony, or a tunnel of
sewage, Andy’s desire for freedom colors how he views and interacts with
everything around him. Another major psychological
concept that guides the story is the mere exposure effect. The mere
exposure effect is the idea that “repeated exposure to novel stimuli
increases liking of them.” When Andy
first arrives at Shawshank, Red bets that he will be the first to break down
that night. Obviously, Red thought very
little of Andy at the beginning of the film.
However, as time progresses, Red begins to grow fonder of Andy. Granted, this is also due to the
circumstances they face, but none of these circumstances would have been
possible had it not been for how often Andy and Red were together. Their friendship grows so strong that the
film ends by showing the mutual brotherly love they have for each other after
having gone through so much. It is very
apparent that psychological concepts are behind the driving forces that propel
the storyline in The Shawshank Redemption.
However, there are also several smaller psychological concepts
seen in the film as well. For instance,
at the end of the film, the viewer is shown Andy’s moment of insight when he
begins to think of chiseling his way through the prison wall with a rock
hammer. Insight is a “novel realization of the solution to a problem.” While chiseling his name into the prison
wall, a chunk of the wall falls to the floor in front of Andy. This serves as his moment of insight. Another minor concept shown is the effect role-playing has on one’s
attitudes. A great real-life example of
these effects can be seen in the Stanford prison experiment. In the film, however, Brooks shows the
damaging effects being a prisoner for fifty years can do to a person. Once released on parole, Brooks is unable to
adjust to “normal” life. Life is too
fast for him; there are too many options for him to choose from. He had become so accustomed to being a
prisoner that he was unable to live any different lifestyle, thus driving him
to suicide. Also, the foot-in-the-door phenomenon is seen in
Andy’s gradually increasing requests for Red.
The foot-in-the-door phenomenon is the “tendency for people who have
first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request.” If Andy had approached Red on his first day
and asked him for a large poster of Rita Hayworth, it would have been far less
likely for Red to oblige. Rather,
though, Andy begins by asking Red first for a rock hammer, and later specific
rocks. This coupled with the mere
exposure effect mentioned earlier allow the friendship between Andy and Red to
slowly and naturally develop. There are
many more psychological concepts scattered throughout the film, much too many
to name here. However, one’s understanding
of these concepts allows the viewer to enjoy the movie that much more.
All in all, The
Shawshank Redemption portrays these psychological concepts quite accurately. Motivation and the mere exposure effect are
very easy concepts to portray, and the film utilizes these concepts to propel
the plot in a realistic fashion. The
film even goes so far as to show what Andy would be like without motivation in
the scenes between Andy’s two month stay in solitary confinement and his
escape. It also uses other concepts such
as insight, role-playing, and the foot-in-the-door phenomenon in a very accurate
manner. It would not be surprising to
find out that extensive research was done to illustrate these in a way that would
probably make David Myers smile. All the
psychological concepts mentioned here are refreshingly portrayed in a correct
manner, which is unusual for a film to do.
The Shawshank
Redemption is a phenomenal film about an
innocent man’s stay in prison and how he is able to rise above the hopelessness
around him to find a way to escape. In
addition to this, the psychological themes and concepts that are scattered
throughout the film are shown in a way that stays true to modern psychological
science. However, it is done so in a way
that does not detract from the film.
Rather, it makes the film that much more enjoyable for those who do
understand these concepts. This is why The Shawshank Redemption is such a
masterpiece of a film.
Sources:
Myers' Psychology for AP Textbook
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/synopsis
Sources:
Myers' Psychology for AP Textbook
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161/synopsis
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