It has been a habit of mine lately to try and process a movie after I watch it. To analyze parts of it, to see if I can extract the eternal truths that shine through any good story. Tonight I watched The Shawshank Redemption.
It strikes me that there are three themes that resonate with me from this movie.
First… Attitude is crucial to our lives. What is your attitude toward your circumstances? Are you ready to hang your hat on hope or despair? As the movie so famously asks, are you ready to “get busy living” or are you ready to let despair sink in, and “get busy dying?”
Life isn’t fair, and for Andy (the main character who was falsely sent to prison for the murder of his wife) that is an understatement. Here you have a succesful man, a brilliant banker, a seemingly decent man by most accounts. Early on we find out his wife has cheated on him, and if that isn’t bad enough, he is then wrongly accused of her murder. Andy is betrayed by those closest to him, and he has his life taken from him (in this case by two life sentences in prison). When analyzing his situation in prison he can think these things happened for no other reason other than “bad luck.” And the truth is, it seems like it is just a bunch of bad luck. Unlike some stories, you don’t really get a reason for the struggles and attacks that Andy faces. So what does he do with his sad situation?
While he see’s other inmates give in to despair, Andy is always hanging on to something. Whether it’s securing a few beers for his fellow inmates by helping out one of the guards with taxes, or securing funds for a prison library expansion, helping a fellow inmate graduate from high school, carving chess pieces, or playing Mozart over the public address system at the prison (and getting punished by solitary confinement for it), Andy is always hanging on to something. He has hope, that his current predicament isn’t the end of the story.
The Second theme in this film that resonates with me is the importance of community. If anyone had any doubts about how hard prison life is, this movie does a great job of displaying the nasty, rough, reality of life in the clinker. However, that being said, you notice that there is a bond, a brotherhood, a community that exists within these walls. And it is in large part that fraternity that helps sustain these men from day to day. I think the movie makes it very clear that we are relational beings. Sadly, the way the men in the prison relate as friends and allies often displays deeper relationships than many free men have with their neighbors, co-workers, classmates, or other acquaintences.
I believe this truth shines through in the film: Community, relationships, this is what is of utmost importance in life. Life behind bars with strong community seems better than life in the free world with no friends and isolation. Do you have a band of brothers to live life with? To fight through trials with? To commiserate with? To encourage you along the way? Brooks, an older character who had been in the prison for 50 years, had community and purpose in prison. Once he was released, he was isolated, he felt completely out of place, and ultimately sank into despair and took his own life.
The third truth that I walked away with, was the fact that we as human beings were never meant to judge the worth of other human beings. You see in the move it’s very clear that the good guys aren’t always good, and the bad guys aren’t always bad. Unfortunately, we spend way too much time labeling people, and I’m as guilty as anyone. Despite the popular quote, I’m more and more convinced that actions DO NOT define the man.
We all make mistakes, sometimes they are horrific, and there are terrible consequences. Such is the case with Red, one of the main characters who committed murder as a young man. Red spends 40 years in jail, and there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind about his guilt and remorse, Red himself admits he is guilty joking that “he’s the only man in Shawshank who is actually guilty.” Throughout the film you see Red’s wisdom on display and his care for others. I dare say he’s a man of high character. You spend a lot of the movie getting to know Red, and the last thing I walked away thinking was, “He’s just a murderer.”
I’m not suggesting that murder is acceptable, nor am I suggesting that there aren’t consequences for our actions. However, I am suggesting that you (and I) cannot judge a man’s worth by his actions. If we could just look at human beings and see the glory, the dignity, the intended purpose endowed by our Creator… perhaps we could find empathy for men who commit atrocious acts, knowing that the act itself is an anomaly, a malfunction, contrary to the original glory of men. Or have we forgotten that men were made in the image of God?
Also in the movie there are guards who kill prisoners, the Warden launders money and has an inmate murdered, and the supposed, “good guys” are not all that good at times. Perhaps we should be slower to label “good people” and “bad people” and instead try to understand that there is a war within each of us. For those who are in Christ the tide has turned, the battle is being won by the good inside us. What’s truest about believers is the good heart. For those not in Christ, there are still the reminants of original glory…how else could you explain the good that is in the world among non-believers? But, ultimately evil is winning out in their hearts, and they are being eaten alive by sin.
I have been guilty, many times, myself of seeing people in black and white terms. That’s just a terrible way to analyze a human being. In fact, I would say it’s almost an insult to God to see people in such simple terms. Our Creator designed us with far too much detail and intricacy for us to simply discard some as bad and label others as good. There are more wounds, more stories, more internal struggles, in each and every individual than what any of us could even begin to comprehend. I for one, am thankful that God judges the heart, rather than the actions.