The Shawshank Redemption, 1994 - Film Analysis

Synopsis

Andy Dufrense is a young successful banker. After wrongly convicted of his wife and lovers' murder, he is sent to Shawshank prison to serve a back to back life sentence. In prison Andy experiences the unpleasantness of prison life. However, with his inner hope keeping him going, he eventually gains respect in the prison and becomes close friends with "Red" a fellow inmate.

The characters in this film are all American. This suggests that the film is set in an American prison.

The film opens with the two main actor's names who star in the film. The font is in capital lettering which makes the names appear more bolder. The colours are of a negative space style meaning white lettering and a black background. White and back are both contrasting colours which allows the name to clearly stand out from the black background.

The two main actor's  names appear before the film title does. This allows a slight build up to the title which allows it to stand out at the beginning of the film. 

The font and colours are the same for both the actor's names and the film title. This keeps a consistent and professional look on the film. If all of the fonts were in different styles and colours, the audience would be confused as to why they are different. This would make the film opening look cheap and non-important as it shows that the film company hasn't thought about the opening look of the film. It would look like they didn't care and just applied any random font without any thought.

This long shot of a house is the first thing which the audience sees in the film. The audience can see that the setting is dark so therefore it is night time and there are some front house lights on which allows the audience to see parts of the house.

The opening credits continue as the opening camera shots change. The font is still constant by the way it is in the same colour and the same style. It is still in capital letters. 

The first introduction we get to a character is a close up side shot of one of the two main characters Andy Dufrense. The lighting is quite dim on Andy as you can see that he is sitting in a car at night to. There is a bit of light which falls onto Andy's face. This is the inner car light which he has switched on. With Andy sitting and staring at the house, it makes the audience think about the purpose is of Andy sitting there is. The audience can sum up that Andy is about to do something or thinking about something to do with the house.

There is then a close up shot of Andy unwrapping a gun which was covered up with some cloth. In the cloth are some bullets. This could suggest that Andy is about to do something either kill someone or rob someone for example. The actual reason is currently unknown. This means that the audience is left to make their own assumptions about what the gun may be used for. 

The camera then moves to a close up of Andy from the front drinking alcohol. As he has just looked at the gun and then looks towards the house is another hint that he is about to use the gun for something in or out of the house. He takes a few sips of alcohol, which suggests that Andy may not be sober and may in fact be drunk which could suggest that he's not entirely sure about what he was going to do.

The shots then switch to another day. We know this because Andy looks smarter, he is sober and it is light outside. There isn't any dates to suggest how far away this next scene is from the first clip but it is clear that Andy is in a courtroom. At this point the audience will automatically think that Andy had committed a crime from the first few clips. However, Andy disagrees that he killed his wife and lover, he explains his own version to the story to prove his innocence. As there is no evidence to prove that Andy is innocent, he is sentenced to two life sentences in prison. This is an effective introduction to Andy's character as the audience are left to make judgements on him within the first few minutes of the film opening.

Opening clip

The film opens with a light-hearted soundtrack called 'If I didn't care' by The Ink Spots which is a 1940's tune. This song helps to set the scene and set hints to the audience about the time in which the film is set. The music lyrics "If I didn't care would I feel this way" is relevant to how Andy is feeling as he has just found out that his wife has been having an affair. Andy is clearly upset by this as he looks quite depressed about the matter and is drinking, probably to get rid of the pain he is feeling. Because of his saddened feelings, it shows that he still has feelings and cares for his wife. The light-heartedness of this track contrasts to the unfortunate events which occur throughout the film.

The sound of the opening music is slightly quieter when the camera moves into the car where Andy is. This suggests that Andy has the radio on in his car and this is the song which he can hear. At this point, the music becomes diegetic because Andy can hear the music as well as the audience can.

The diegetic sound of crickets are edited into the film when the first camera shots occur on screen. This is another hint to the audience that it is night time as crickets come out at night. It could also suggest that they are in the countryside or around that sort of area as there are a lot of crickets chirping which you wouldn't get in a big city.

When Andy reaches for the gun wrapped up in cloth, over the top of the opening soundtrack, a haunting, drone is played in a high key. This is non-diegetic. A piano plays a few key notes occasionally. This adds a sad and sorrow atmosphere. This music gradually builds with some violins but in a very subtle way. I really like this extra edited music over the top of the opening track as it highlights the gun which is an important prop in the film, even though it isn't used much. Guns are designed to kill or hurt people or animals. This gun gets lost in the film and because it is, it is not able to help Andy protest his innocence so therefore, he is sent to prison. If the gun had been discovered, then Andy may have been able to avoid a prison sentence. 
This music continues from Andy sitting in the car to Andy standing in the courtroom. This is a good transition to a different scene as it links the two together.

Clip

This clip suggests a great deal about the year in which this film is set which is the 1940s. Firstly, the prison uniform is the old fashioned style which the prisoners used to wear. You can also tell that the material isn't of a good quality which suggests that it was probably quite uncomfortable to wear.

The guard's uniform has an old fashioned style to it. It is a smart black uniform with brass looking buttons and a shiny badge on the left side of his chest. In later times, the guard's uniform has changed in order to provide more protection from the prisoners. The guards were a lot more stricter in the 1940's so therefore the prisoners wouldn't go to attack them. However, as violence from the guards is now not allowed, this means that the prisoners are less scared of the guards and may be more likely to attack them, therefore, they would need uniforms which would give them better protection.

The character Andy decides to play some music on a record player and then turn on the old fashioned speaker which allows all of the prisoners to hear the music. Nowadays, we don't play music on record players. Instead we would use a cd player or an iPod. Back in the 1940's recorded music hadn't been around for long and the record player was one of the first devices which was used to play music. This was still the only device which could play music in the 1940s.