Shawshank
Redemption
A PowerPoint by: Carrie Hess
Characters
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Andy Dufrasne played by Tim
Robbins.
A New England banker accused
of murdering his wife and her
lover. Claims he is innocent, but
everyone is innocent in
Shawshank.
Likes to collect rocks, read, starts
a library, and dreams of building
a boat at the Pacific Ocean.
Close friends with Red and
Brooks.
Works Cited:
www.movies.yahoo.com/shawsh
ankredemption
Characters continued.
 Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding
played by: Morgan Freeman.
 Fellow inmate and prisoner in
Shawshank. Imprisoned as a
young man he has almost
been entirely institutionalized.
Very close friends with Andy
and dreams of being free
someday.
 Works Cited:
www.dvdanswers.com/
images/screenshots/shawsha
nkredemption
Characters continued.
 Warden Norton played by: Bob
Guntan.
 The warden is a very religious
man who on the side is hiding
money in false bank accounts and
using Andy so his crime can’t be
traced to him.
 He enjoys using sadistic means to
torture his prisoners such as
throwing them in the “hole”. He is
very powerful and exerts
immense influence on the prison.

Works Cited:
www.dvdanswers.com/
images/screenshots/shawshankre
demption.
 www. timmargh.net/.../the_
shawshank_redemption_3.jpg
Characters continued.
 Brooks Hatlen played by:
James Whitmore
 The prison librarian, Brooks
has been in Shawshanks for
almost all of his life.
 He is known for his caring
personality( takes care of a
baby crow Jake), but
eventually is released.
 He gives into
institutionalization and
commits suicide because he
can’t live in the real world.
 Works Cited:
www.theboxset.com/images/
reviewcaptures
Characters continued.
 Tommy Williams played by:
Gil Bellows
 A young man in and out of
prison his whole life,
Tommy came to
Shawshank for robbery.
 Has a wife and child at
home, so he enlists Andy’s
help in learning how to read
and write so he can get a
high school diploma.
 Was in prison with the man
who killed Andy’s wife and
her lover.
 Works
Cited:http://www.gonemovi
es.com/WWW/Raketnet/Dr
ama/ShawshankTommy.jpg
Theme
 Institutionalization is a major
theme in Shawshank
Redemption. Many prisoners
have been in the prison for so
long that they have been
institutionalized, which means
the only life that they know is
the one within the prison
walls. Ex: Brooks lived most
of his life in the prison, so
when released he does not
know how to live in the
outside world. Things have
changed so much while he
was in prison and he even
thinks of crimes he could
commit in order to be thrown
back into prison. He
eventually commits suicide
because he cannot handle life
in the real world.
 Works Cited:
www.dvdbeaver.com/.../
shawshank/11336a.jpg
Symbols
 The Holy Bible: To the
warden, the Bible is sacred
and to be followed at all
times, so it is a rule book.
 To Andy he hides his rock
hammer in the Bible going
against the rules completely.
 Embroidered “His Judgment
Cometh and that Right Soon”
a symbol of the warden’s
faith, but ironic because his
own judgment will come when
Andy anonymously tells on
him.
 Works Cited:
www.moviedeaths.com/
images/grabs/shawshank
Symbols Continued
 The music symbolizes hope
and especially Andy's hope
that he will someday be free
and living on his own again.
The music can be in his heart
and mind and the warden
cannot take that away from
him.
 The harmonica is a symbol of
harmony and it shows the
harmonic relationship
between Andy and Red
because Andy gives it to Red.
It also symbolizes hope.
 www.theboxset.com/images/
reviewcaptures,
www.silentrunningaudio.com
Technical Shots
 Aerial shot: A shot taken
from the air which is often
used for large crowds or to
emphasize how expansive
and large something is.
 Close up: The camera
focuses in very closely upon a
person or object to emphasize
the importance of an
expression or meaning of an
object.
 Works Cited:
thewebshite.net/
~off/images/shawshank.jpg
 www.americanrhetoric.com/
images/shawshank4
Technical Shots continued
 Two Shot: Shows the
relationship of two people by
body language and their
discussion when it is only
them in a shot.
 Long Shot: This type of
shot emphasizes size and the
enormity of a setting. It also
can emphasize the quantity
like in this case the amount of
prisoners Shawshank holds.
 Works Cited:
www.smh.com.au/ffximage/
2004/09/23/shawshank
 www.geocities.com/
aaronbcaldwell/Shawshank04
.jpg
Background Information
 Shawshank was the quietest film to be nominated for seven
academy awards. It did not win any.
 In 1995, a year after it came out in the theaters, Shawshank
became the top video rental of the year.
 Based on the book Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank
Redemption by: Stephen King
 An actual correctional facility was used that had been shut down
for cruel and unusual punishment.
 The original Red was a white, Irish man with red hair, but
Morgan Freeman was chosen because his personality matched
perfectly.
 The last scene on the beach was almost left out of the movie,
but it was too important that they be reunited for the audience’s
sake. It showed the love story between two friends who
transcend life and space in order to remain close.
 Shawshank Redemption shows that with hope and persistence,
everyone can find their own place in the sun.
 “Get busy living or get busy dying”- it’s important to have hope
and to live for something or else it isn’t worth living.