Get Busy Watching

You never know where you are going to meet someone that will eventually turn into a good friend.  It could be in class, or at a club, or just by a random conversation one day, but the point is friends come to us often when we are not expecting it.  Sometimes we are even more surprised by the actual person, as we get to know them and realize how wrong our initial judgements may have been.  Frank Darabont's 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption (based on the novel by Stephen King) proves this, as fellow inmates of Shawshank Prison become close friends despite an unusual set of circumstances.

The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of two men, "Red" Redding (played by Morgan Freeman) and Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins), who are both prisoners inside Shawshank Prison, convicted of murder.  While Red jokingly claims that he himself may be "the only guilty man in Shawshank," Andy was actually wrongfully convicted, forcing him to a lifetime sentence for no reason.

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Andy, an educated man who was a banker before his conviction, knows he does not belong in Shawshank, making him withdrawn from his fellow inmates.  His isolation from the rest of the prison community and status as a new inmate makes him a target that spends his first few years enduring brutal beatings and harassment.  However, from his very first night in Shawshank, Red had taken an interest in Andy the moment he proved himself mentally stronger than anyone initially thought by not being the first to break down.

The pair have their first real interaction when Andy approaches Red with a request for a small hammer, as Red is known as the man that can get things.  The series of requests that follow spark Red's interest, and he slowly begins to get to know Andy, who in return begins to become more outgoing around Red and the other inmates.  As Andy gains more attention, he is given the opportunity to put his education and financial experience to use, teaching the other inmates, doing the guards taxes, and eventually getting involved in a money laundering scheme for the warden.  All of this occurs slowly over the course of several years, as time in prison moves pretty slow when you know you will be there for the rest of your life.

*SPOILER ALERT* One day after about two decades in Shawshank, Andy is nowhere to be found.  It is discovered that he has become the first person to escape Shawshank, conveniently around the time Red's parole is soon to be up.  By this point, Red is undoubtably Andy's best friend and the reason he does not succumb to the anxiety created by being an innocent man imprisoned.  Red is finally able to successfully get out on parole and is left with the mystery of where Andy could be. Unlike many films, the movie provides the viewer with closure, ending on a hopeful note as the final frame concludes with Andy and Red hugging each other on a beach in Mexico, having both finally made it to freedom.

While this film vividly portrays the brutality and misery that come with prison life, it also succeeds in highlighting the importance of good friends and remaining hopeful in tough situations.  Although Andy knows he is an innocent man, he struggles to feel purposeful.  However, with Red's support, Andy begins to show his personality through a variety of schemes that spice up the monotony of prison life, providing the viewer with a balanced amount of both intensity and lightheartedness. Despite this monotony that comes with years of living the same routine day after day, the film itself is anything but boring.  In addition to the plot, the film also teases out the juxtaposition between the institutionalizing of the inmates and the hope that they must hold onto in order to avoid losing themselves.  It is these moments that truly allow the viewer to recognize the mental and emotional toil caused by being locked up, as seen through the heartbreaking suicide of the prison's beloved librarian, Brooks, who is unable to adjust to life on the outside after spending fifty years in Shawshank.

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Andy and Red prove that the only way to avoid such a fate is through reliance on friends in order to maintain hope and stay true to oneself.  Or as is commonly quoted throughout the movie, "get busy living, or get busy dying."  It is perhaps for these reasons that Shawshank is the highest rated movie on IMDb, making it seemingly one of the most popular films of all time.

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If Only It Was As Simple As Bad Guys vs. Good Guys

I am not sure what it is, but something is forever enticing about the gangster genre of film.  Whether it is a director's ability to evoke a certain level of fear and respect associated with the mob or to get viewers to justify the violence their favorite characters execute, the gangster genre is somehow always able to get the viewer to blur the line of what is right and wrong.  Maybe it is this confusion that pulls viewers into these films, or just the thrill of a life that carries such high stakes all the time.

Martin Scorsese's four time Oscar winning film The Departed (2006) portrays the gangster genre a little differently than other mob classics, giving the point of view of both law enforcement and those involved in organized crime.  Showing both sides allows Scorsese to confuse viewers with which side they should be rooting for.  The film takes the story of two men with similar upbringing but drastically different goals in their adult lives who cross paths through their involvement in organized crime.  Leonardo DiCaprio's character, Billy Costigan, has tried to cut the ties between himself and his family, who has has a history of organized crime, by joining the Boston Police Academy.  Meanwhile, Colin Sullivan, played by Matt Damon, has also entered the police academy the same year as Billy with a seemingly spotless reputation.  However, Sullivan has also been involved in organized crime since his youth, after being taken under the wing of Jack Nicholson's character, mobster Frank Costello (loosely based off real life gangster Whitey Bulger).

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This begins to shade the gray area of good guys and bad guys as Costigan, whose intentions of joining law enforcement were to clear his name and conscience of his family's reputation, is told that he will never make a good police officer because of his history.  However, Staff Sergeant Dignam, played by Mark Wahlberg, tells Costigan that his best bet of helping the department is by going undercover and taking down mobster Costello from the inside.  On the other hand, Sullivan has been instructed by Costello, his mentor and boss, to enter law enforcement in order to keep tabs on the investigation surrounding the take down of Costello himself.

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In other words, we have a bad guy pretending to be a good guy and a good guy pretending to be a bad guy.

It is no surprise that the double lives led by Costigan and Sullivan lead to the development of relationships that exploit the classifications of bad versus good.  While the audience knows each characters' purpose, we begin to question these classifications as we see DiCaprio's character badly beat up Costello's rivals while Damon's character shows his soft side as he falls for his therapist. There is growing tension throughout the film as both the mob and the police department discover a mole among them.  The tension is aided by the fact that both moles have become so intertwined with their double lives that it seems unlikely they will ever return to their original selves, made even easier by the fact that next to no one knows of the infiltrations to both Costello's mob and the police department.

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The film successfully blurs the line of right and wrong, allowing viewers to see the corruption on both sides, and the accompanying internal strife.  As any gangster film insists, The Departed is loaded with action and suspense as Costigan and Sullivan draw closer to discovering one another (which seems inevitable as Billy has access to police knowledge and Costello's crew, while Colin leads the investigation surrounding Costello).  The undercover work on both parts demands the plot rely on lies and betrayals, emphasizing the corruption found in every corner of the city.  Portraying the gangster genre through the eyes of nervous men who must constantly be watching their backs produces a film that puts the audience through the same level of intensity, making it enticing to watch over and over.