The Shawshank Redemption (1994) HD 1080p (Repost)

IMDB User Review
One of the best cinematic experiences ever…, Written by Clayton Davis on 14 December 2009.

Highest Ranking on IMDB Ever



Plot
In 1947, banker Andrew "Andy" Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, based on strong circumstantial evidence. He is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at Shawshank State Penitentiary in Maine, run by Warden Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton). Andy is quickly befriended by Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), an inmate serving a life sentence whose parole application was recently rejected. Red is known for obtaining contraband and Andy has him obtain him a rock hammer to maintain his rock collection hobby. As decades pass, Andy later obtains large posters of Rita Hayworth, then Marilyn Monroe and then Raquel Welch, from Red. Andy creates small stone chessmen from rock.



On a manual labor detail, Andy overhears Captain of the Guards Byron Hadley (Clancy Brown) complain about having to pay taxes on a forthcoming inheritance. Andy explains a legal loophole to Hadley, and Andy's financial advice is soon sought by other guards at Shawshank and by visiting guards from nearby prisons. Andy is ostensibly assigned the job as the assistant to the prison librarian, elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore). Actually this is to allow Andy to work on the financial requests full time.



Hadley delivers a brutal beating to inmate Bogs (Mark Rolston), leader of "The Sisters," after his gang's sexual assault puts Andy in the infirmary. Bogs is paralyzed, and the remaining Sisters leave Andy alone. Andy uses his goodwill with the guards to expand the prison library. When one donation to the library provides him with the opera The Marriage of Figaro, he plays an excerpt over the public address system for all the inmates to hear, well-aware of the punishment of solitary confinement he will receive for the brief moment of bliss.



Warden Norton develops schemes of using prison labor for public works, undercutting the cost of skilled labor and receiving kickbacks for it. Norton has Andy launder the money under the false identity of Randall Stevens, in exchange for allowing Andy to keep his private cell and to continue maintaining the library. Brooks is freed on parole and moves into a halfway house. He is unable to adjust to the outside world and hangs himself. Andy dedicates the expanded library to him.



In 1965, Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows) is incarcerated on robbery charges. He joins Andy and Red's circle of friends, and Andy assists him in getting his GED. When learning of Andy's case, Tommy reveals an inmate at another prison, Elmo Blatch (Bill Bolender), claimed to have committed a nearly identical murder - this might prove Andy's claims of innocence. Norton, fearing the end of income stream supported by Andy, and fearing Andy might tell of the corruption if released, refuses to co-operate. After they argue he throws Andy into solitary confinement. Norton has Hadley kill Tommy, claiming he was attempting an escape.



Andy returns to his regular cell block and tells Red of his dream of living in Zihuatanejo, a Mexican-Pacific coastal town. He instructs Red, should he ever be freed, to visit a specific hayfield near Buxton to retrieve a package Andy left there. The next day at roll call, Andy's cell is empty. When Norton, angry at Andy's disappearance, throws one of Andy's rocks at the poster of Raquel Welch, the rock tears through the poster, revealing a tunnel that Andy had dug with the rock hammer over the last two decades. The night before, Andy switched the ledger book he had kept for Norton with his prison-issue Bible. Taking the ledger, his chess set and one of the warden's suits, he escaped through the tunnel and a narrow sewage drain during a thunderstorm. After escaping, Andy poses as Randall Stevens to withdraw most of the corruption money from several banks, then sends evidence of Norton's corruption to a local newspaper. The police arrive at the prison and Hadley is arrested, but Norton commits suicide to evade arrest.



Red receives parole after serving 40 years and is allocated the apartment where Brooks committed suicide, and works at the same grocery store. Red follows Andy's advice and visits Buxton. There, he finds a cache of money and a note left by Andy, reminding him of Zihuatanejo. Red violates his parole and travels to Fort Hancock, Texas to skip the border to Mexico. The two are happily reunited on the beach.