Yumu Huo
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption is a movie directed by Frank Darabont in 1994. It is one of my favorite movies. In the film, Shawshank was accused of murdering his wife and her lover and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Others in prison bullied him, but he got to know Redding, his one and an only friend there. His financial talent was discovered by the warden and was forced to help him evading tax. When he finally found someone who could witness his case to prove his innocence, the person was murdered by the warden to keep him in prison. After years of planning, he finally escaped by using a little hammer digging through the wall with a poster covering the hole in case of getting caught.
Injustice scenes can be found anywhere in this film: the bad was not punished. They get right when they do bad. But the good had to suffer. When the warden killed the possible witness to prevent Shawshank from getting out, he used his power in a paltry way to maintain what he had.
I think the term subaltern can be used on Shawshank. No one listened or believed him. Furthermore, he was abused and used by the bad. Although people always feel sorry for putting an innocent man in jail, people are unwilling to spend time helping them overthrow a case. One and Other can also be used in courts. The judges consider themselves as One, and the suspects are the Other. They have hostility against each other, especially when the suspects are innocent but sentenced.
I think what the film was trying to tell us can be summarized in a film line. “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” When you encounter injustice, do fight back.