At the same time, there are moments in Red’s story about Shawshank and Andy that illuminate the shortcomings in Sartre’s vision of hell.Īndy and Red find friendship in Shawshank hell Red is the narrator of the movie, and through his eyes the audience gains insight to Sartre’s renowned remark about hell being other people. Every convict there says he has been betrayed by a biased jury, corrupt judge or incompetent lawyer – one exception being Red (Morgan Freeman), a long-time con who admits, and regrets, the murder he committed when young and stupid. When he enters Shawshank Prison – whose façade simulates a palace or ancient cathedral – Andy’s protestations of innocence fall on deaf ears. Having motive, opportunity, and no credible alibi, Andy nevertheless insists on his innocence until the end. A young, successful banker named Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) has been convicted of murdering his wife and her golf-pro lover. But The Shawshank Redemption (1994) portrays a worldly dimension of hell: prison.īased on the novella Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King, the film begins in the state of Maine in 1947. Such wild accounts seem as if they belong to another world. Accounts through the millennia depict hell as a realm full of fascinating and ghastly demons, endless tortures, with Satan ruling with a fiery fist, and where hope is impossible. Still, hope promises a time or place where things will be better, even if it seems we’re stuck in perpetual hell. Hope is sustained by the confidence we have in our knowledge of the situation, although the possibility of being deceived, by others or ourselves, can undermine this confidence. It enlivens projects and maintains focus. Hope helps keep us alive and anticipating the next sunrise with joy rather than gloom. SUBSCRIBE NOW Films The Shawshank Redemption Alexander Hooke finds hell & existentialist hope in prison.

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