Ответ:

Dear Cinephiles,

Andy Dufresne: “There are places in this world that aren’t made out of stone. That there’s something inside… that they can’t get to, that they can’t touch. That’s yours.”

Red: “What’re you talking about?”

Andy: “Hope.”

In 2020, we’ve been battered – tested and stretched to the maximum. We’ve seen so many dark days. Instances in which we thought we couldn’t sustain. We’ve felt fear, uncertainty, despair and sadness. There are a handful of things that kept me moving forward this disastrous year – and yes, it was essential to keep moving – I had the good fortune to have a solid love at home – a steadfast and nimble group of co-workers that met over Zoom every day to brainstorm or to simply check on each other. I also had the movies — and writing about them. I never imagined last March that I’d be putting my thoughts together — and typing them up — day in and day out for over 200 missives. The truth is that writing gave me purpose and knowing that you were reading gave me hope. Knowing it meant something to you to receive these daily notes kept me and my staff motivated – and for that I’m indebted. It’s all about moving forward – one step at a time.

Since I saw writer and director Frank Darabont’s “The Shawshank Redemption” (1994) there’s one scene that has always stuck in my mind. One of the main characters, Andy Dufresne (beautifully rendered by Tim Robbins) slithers through this narrow sewage pipe through five hundred yards of squalor. The narrator, Red (that gorgeous voice of Morgan Freeman), tells us that “I can’t even imagine, or maybe I just don’t want to.” Andy endures five hundred yards. We’re told “that’s the length of five football fields, just shy of half a mile.” In a tightly framed shot in low-key lighting we watch him prevail. It’s such a graphic scene I can even smell it. Through the years it has stayed with me because I’ve always wondered if I could undergo something like that. . 19 years of suffering – 19 years of planning – and those last five hundred yards through all the muck. Andy crawls to freedom – with determination, with purpose and hope.

If you’ve never seen this film – and even if you have – you should see it. Trust me when I tell you it will have a renewed impact on you. It will ring louder than ever.

It is an adaptation of a Stephen King novella – entitled “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” from his 1982 collection “Different Seasons.” It’s worth noting that the compilation is subtitled “Hope Springs Eternal.” Darabont’s first film was a short based on another King story named “The Woman in the Room.” The film went on to be short-listed for Oscar. This led to King offering a handshake deal for the rights to the “Rita Hayworth…” title.

It starts in 1947, when banker Dufresne is convicted for murdering his wife and her lover and sent to the Shawshank State Penitentiary to serve two consecutive life sentences. An African American inmate, Red, who befriends Andy becomes the voice of the film and we see the developments through his eyes. He muses, “I could see why some of the boys took him for snobby. He had a quiet way about him, a walk and a talk that just wasn’t normal around here. He strolled, like a man in a park without a care or a worry in the world, like he had on an invisible coat that would shield him from this place. Yeah, I think it would be fair to say… I liked Andy from the start.”