This scene - oh Morgan Freeman. He could narrate the phone book and we’d love every word, but when he is given a gift like this monologue, it becomes movie gold. There are so many scenes in Shawshank Redemption that I could choose to focus on, and I might in some future video, but this scene always stuck with me. When I was trying to come up with my favorite movie scenes of all-time, I knew I wanted to use at least one from Shawshank, but this scene just kept popping into my head. I wasn’t sure why until I really looked at it. Until I really looked at why it was so moving and just plain fantastic. When audiences spend time with a character, most of that time is spent seeing the character set in their flaws, their old belief systems and patterns. We get comfortable with THAT character. We know what to expect and that’s comfortable for audiences. But as writers we don’t want the audience to get too comfortable. That doesn’t mean we need to scare them or frighten them out of their seats, necessarily.
What it means is that the writer needs to present something unexpected. That’s a very very basic tenet of the writing process, of course, but when it comes to a character who is living a life’s term prison sentence AND who happens to actually be very likable, how do we create something unexpected for him personally while not going the route of violence? This movie didn’t need the violence to be memorable. The purpose of the movie is in the title, of course - redemption - but it’s also within the metaphor of a prison. It wasn’t just the walls that were imprisoning Red - Freeman’s character. It was his inability to attempt change. And it isn’t even an inability, really. He was stripped of his freedom to change. But what happens to him? Andy Dufresne comes along and shows him what hope looks like. Shows him what belief looks like, and most importantly, Andy shows Red that truth is the only thing that matters. And here…in this scene…Red finally, after decades of being locked up, finally tells his truth. Not “the” truth, but his truth, and it’s what his character has always needed to do in order to grow and evolve.
Writers, we see moments and scenes like this all the time - at least in the really good movies. But we need to understand why we see them. We see them because every single story ever told is about change, evolution, and some kind form of redemption, even in the smallest way.
This Scene...from Shawshank Redemption