The Shawshank Redemption

Task: Examine how the themes of hope and power are depicted in “The Shawshank Redemption”. You should make reference to at least two of characterization, setting, key scenes, mise-en-scene (including lighting, costume, ect) music, camera angles or any other feature you feel is important.

In the film “The Shawshank Redemption” Frank Darobont has used characterization, camera angles and mise-en-scene to depict the themes of hope and power. Now the film is about a man called Andy and he is wrongly accused of the murder of his wife and her lover. So he is sent to shawshank prison to serve two life sentences, but he manages to escape by digging a hole from his cell to the sewage pipe which then leads him out of the prison.

“The Shawshank Redemption” has a religious theme throughout the film as the warden only believes in two things “discipline and the Bible” and when the warden first speaks to Andy he quotes from the Bible “Salvation lies within” which isn’t mentioned again in the film until Andy escapes and the warden reads it in the inner cover of the bible which also Andy kept his rock hammer in which was the tool Andy used to create the hole in his cell for him to escape. Now Andy a character which throughout the film has been seen as an imagery of Christ, as he is different from the other prisoners “he had a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn’t normal around here”. He made a difference which benefitted himself and the other prisoners and showed that even just one person can do a lot if they have determination and most importantly hope.

The film wouldn’t be the success it is now, if it wasn’t for the use of the camera angles and lighting effects that were used, which helped create the themes of power and hope. One example of this is when the new prisoners arrived at the prison. They used an ariel shot so we can see how big the prison and also