• 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 location in a hayfield near Buxton to retrieve a package. 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 had 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.
• In 1965, Tommy Williams 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 , claimed to have committed a nearly identical murder—this might prove Andy's claims of innocence. Norton, fearing Andy might tell of his corruption if released, refuses to cooperate. After they argue, he throws Andy into solitary confinement. Norton has Hadley kill Tommy, claiming he was attempting an escape.
Director
• On a manual labor detail, Andy overhears Captain of the Guards Byron Hadley complain about having to pay taxes on a forthcoming inheritance. After explaining a legal loophole to Hadley, Andy is reassigned to assist the prison librarian, elderly inmate Brooks Hatlen , a pretext to allow Andy to work on financial requests full time. Andy's financial advice is soon sought by other guards at Shawshank and by visiting guards from nearby prisons.
• 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.
The Andrew "Andy" Dufresne is wrongfully 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 . Andy is quickly befriended by Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding , 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, allowing him to create small stone chessmen from rock. Andy later obtains a large poster of Rita Hayworth from Red, followed in later years by Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch.
Brief introduction
The Shawshank Redemption is a staggering piece of work by Frank Darabont who did an exceptional job in adapting Stephen King’s 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption to his first film .It is a movie about time, patience and loyalty -- not sexy qualities, perhaps, but they grow on you during the subterranean progress of this story, which is about how two men serving life sentences in prison become friends and find a way to fight off despair.
• Red receives parole after serving 40 years, 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 friends are happily reunited on the beach.
• It is not a depressing story, although I may have made it sound that way. There is a lot of life and humor in it, and warmth in the friendship that builds up between Andy and Red. There is even excitement and suspense, although not when we expect it. But mostly the film is an allegory about holding onto a sense of personal worth, despite everything. If the film is perhaps a little slow in its middle passages, maybe that is part of the idea that to give us a sense of the leaden passage of time, before the glory of the final redemption.
This is not a "prison drama" in any conventional sense of the word. It is not about violence, riots or melodrama. The word "redemption" is in the title for a reason. The movie is based on a story, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King, which is quite unlike most of King's work. The horror here is not of the supernatural kind, but of the sort that flows from the realization than 10, 20, 30 years of a man's life have unreeled in the same unchanging daily prison routine.