44
thoughts on Shawshank Redemption?
(hexbear.net)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
44 points (92.3% liked)
Movies & TV
22887 readers
111 users here now
Rules for Movies & TV Discussion
-
Any discussion of Disney properties should contain a (cw: imperialism) tag. If your post isn't tagged appropriately it will be removed.
-
Anti-Bong Joon-ho trolling will result in an immediate ban from c/movies and submitted to the site administrators for review.
-
On Star Trek Sunday only posts discussing how we might achieve space communism are permitted. Non-Star Trek related content will be removed and you will be temporarily banned until the following Sunday.
Here's a list of tons of leftist movies.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
U could also take it as "use your visible signifiers as a protected class to grift the powers that be, right up until the point where you utterly fuck them over, while using what access you have to power to the betterment of everyone around you"
Idk, I like the movie, I do think you're being cynical, but I'm just one person on the internet
Edit: I also feel like there's an obvious theme of "our justice system is utterly fucked and does not care about reintroducing people into society, only about breaking their humanity." Only then does Red get paroled. I don't think there's anything unique about Shawshank where they're like "this is the one spooky, evil jail," it's just like, prison is an utterly fucked institution upheld only by the sadism of those who run it, and real justice is a bullet through the warden's skull
I guess you could read it that way if you chose to, but it doesn't necessarily feel intended. I mean, the ending is basically just Andy and Red being like 'hey I got mine, time to get completely trashed off cheap margaritas until I die' (which is awesome and I suppose fair given the circumstances).
The second thing, yes, true overall. That is definitely a strong and pretty well presented theme, but lacking in critical/analytical details that I expected from 'THE PRISON MOVIE OF ALL TIME. I did feel like they implied Shawshank was extra bad a few times though, although I watched it a while ago so perhaps not.
I think there's a lot of things one could ascribe to it, but overall given that it's so widely enjoyed and referenced by liberals and conservatives alike, it tells me that it's themes were perhaps not so controversial or radical.
I also think that setting it in the late 40s means the average late 90s viewer can rest easy knowing that hey, those were the bad times!
I also think if I knew nothing about it going into it, I could have gone, eh, it's a feelgood prison drama, it's enjoyable enough... but given it's acclaim I was more disappointed than hating perhaps.
I feel like seeing this movie at an impressionable age helped me understand that the American penal system is irredeemable, and that was part of my path to the leftist nutjob u see before u. So it holds a special place to me for that.