The Shawshank Redemption
Sep. 25th, 2004 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
morrigirlI've been lost to Sims 2 for the last two nights. So much yummy drama going on! I believe I've mentioned Belinda and Christy, yes? Well Christy proposed to Belinda and she accepted. Not long after Christy brought her friend Brandon home from work one night. He and Belinda hit it off immediately and started having a clandestine affair, getting it on when Christy was asleep or at work. So then Belinda invited him to move in. Christy had no problem with it, Brandon was after all her best friend. So the three of them lived a happy life for a couple days, until Christy caught Belinda and Brandon in bed together. She promptly broke her engagement to Belinda and moved out. At first Belinda was heartbroken, but her misery turned to joy as soon as she found out she was pregnant with Brandon's child. Three Sim days later shea gave birth to a little boy, she and Brandon got married, and now she and Brandon are in the process of repairing their relationship with Christy. Turns out that leaving Belinda was the best thing Christy ever did. Few days after moving out she met her new fiance, Marylena. Marylena and Christy share all the same desires and aspirations so they are a much better match. I think they're gonna end up adopting a baby later on today.
See why I love the Sims so much? It's fucking riveting!!! It's just like real life...only better!!! It's not reality but it's more realistic then reality television. I want to live in Simville...wait..I already do! As is coustomary I created a sim of myself and a few of my friends just to see what sort of trouble we'd get ourselves into. Not much as of yet...but there's time :-D
Okay, enough gamer geek related rambling. Last night Michael and I went to see the tenth anniversary re-release of The Shawshank Redemption at AMC. We both love the film so we wanted the chance to see it on the big screen. I've seen that movie a million times but it wasn't until last night that I realized how brillinatly directed and adapted it was. In past viewings I've gotten all caught up in the story and the characters, but this time I paid attention to the way the story was being told. Wow. What an intricate film. Frank Darabont deserves an honorary Oscar for being the driving force behind that movie!
The writing is exquisite. There is not a single extraneous piece of action or dialogue in the entire thing. Everything is deliberate and calculated, each scene building to the one that comes after. The pacing is perfect, building to a slow insidious fever pitch you don't even realize is being built until Andy breaks out and you feel all your muscles relax. The entire script and pacing is built around the repetition of certain key lines, each repetition of which punctuates a key moment in character development, relationship development, or plot development. Andy's repetition of "I hear you're a man who knows how to get things" come at three important points in his relationship with Red: the introductory encounter, the point at which they really become friends ("get me Rita Hayworth"), and their final scene together in which Andy drops all the hints about his impending escape thus cementing his love and trust of Red. Repetition of the "everyone in here is innocent" line takes us through moments in which Andy is slowly accepted by his peers.
At the very beginning Red says life on the inside is made up of routine, and Darabont structured the script around that idea. The repetitions lull the viewer into a false sense of security. They give one the illusion that they know what's coming next, even as the story builds to a point where you know something has got to give. That's why Andy's escape is so startling and joyous, because you're not expecting it. Because by that point the viewer has become so comfotable in the film's routine, then final half hour or so comes as a complete surprise and utter delight!
Ultimately it's a film about hope, about breaking out of destructive routines. When Red breaks out of his rote parole speech, he's finally approved. When Andy accepts that he does not belong in Shawshank, he refuses to be kept there. At the end Red moves through the same routine that led Brooks Hadlen to suicide, but hope saves him from a similar fate. By breaking parole and going to Mexico he breaks the insidious cycle set in motion forty years before when he was first sentenced to life in prison. After Brooks's death Red says " they give you life, and that's exactly what they take," meaning institutional life steals your ability to function in the outside world. When he gets out of Shawshank, Red says he doesn't think he'll be able to make it on the outside, but the promise he made to Andy gives him hope. it gives him something to live for. And it's that hope that gives him the strength to break the cycle and start living again.
Sorry bout that...c'mon I was an english major. We critique the fuck out of great works of art for fun. I'll shut up now *grins*
See why I love the Sims so much? It's fucking riveting!!! It's just like real life...only better!!! It's not reality but it's more realistic then reality television. I want to live in Simville...wait..I already do! As is coustomary I created a sim of myself and a few of my friends just to see what sort of trouble we'd get ourselves into. Not much as of yet...but there's time :-D
Okay, enough gamer geek related rambling. Last night Michael and I went to see the tenth anniversary re-release of The Shawshank Redemption at AMC. We both love the film so we wanted the chance to see it on the big screen. I've seen that movie a million times but it wasn't until last night that I realized how brillinatly directed and adapted it was. In past viewings I've gotten all caught up in the story and the characters, but this time I paid attention to the way the story was being told. Wow. What an intricate film. Frank Darabont deserves an honorary Oscar for being the driving force behind that movie!
The writing is exquisite. There is not a single extraneous piece of action or dialogue in the entire thing. Everything is deliberate and calculated, each scene building to the one that comes after. The pacing is perfect, building to a slow insidious fever pitch you don't even realize is being built until Andy breaks out and you feel all your muscles relax. The entire script and pacing is built around the repetition of certain key lines, each repetition of which punctuates a key moment in character development, relationship development, or plot development. Andy's repetition of "I hear you're a man who knows how to get things" come at three important points in his relationship with Red: the introductory encounter, the point at which they really become friends ("get me Rita Hayworth"), and their final scene together in which Andy drops all the hints about his impending escape thus cementing his love and trust of Red. Repetition of the "everyone in here is innocent" line takes us through moments in which Andy is slowly accepted by his peers.
At the very beginning Red says life on the inside is made up of routine, and Darabont structured the script around that idea. The repetitions lull the viewer into a false sense of security. They give one the illusion that they know what's coming next, even as the story builds to a point where you know something has got to give. That's why Andy's escape is so startling and joyous, because you're not expecting it. Because by that point the viewer has become so comfotable in the film's routine, then final half hour or so comes as a complete surprise and utter delight!
Ultimately it's a film about hope, about breaking out of destructive routines. When Red breaks out of his rote parole speech, he's finally approved. When Andy accepts that he does not belong in Shawshank, he refuses to be kept there. At the end Red moves through the same routine that led Brooks Hadlen to suicide, but hope saves him from a similar fate. By breaking parole and going to Mexico he breaks the insidious cycle set in motion forty years before when he was first sentenced to life in prison. After Brooks's death Red says " they give you life, and that's exactly what they take," meaning institutional life steals your ability to function in the outside world. When he gets out of Shawshank, Red says he doesn't think he'll be able to make it on the outside, but the promise he made to Andy gives him hope. it gives him something to live for. And it's that hope that gives him the strength to break the cycle and start living again.
Sorry bout that...c'mon I was an english major. We critique the fuck out of great works of art for fun. I'll shut up now *grins*
