Shawshank Redemption

Over the weekend I had the chance to view the film, Shawshank Redemption. This is not the first time that I have seen it but it is one of those movies that contains so much that you pick up on different things each time. To be brief, this film is about a man named Andy Dufresne, who was wrongly convicted of killing his wife, and along with her another man. The consequences were two life sentences back to back. This movie follows his life through his time at prison and a brief period afterward, meeting some interesting people along the way.

It is easy to the empire being portrayed in movies that are based in a prison. In a large building filled with convicted criminals in which many develop a "me first" mentality in order to survive. The depictions of attack, and preying on new-comers as well as those who show any signs of weakness. The fact that sin has entered the world is not something that we can deny and we certainly have to have rules put in place that does attempt to limit acts of law breaking. The empire strikes the beliefs in many people in the prison environment that they have to be hard asses within the prison and have a self centered personality. 

This movie does with no doubt show the ideas that parallel the kingdom as well. As Andy carries on in his journey knocking off the years of his sentence, he runs into some interesting people. The fact that relationships develop within this story is a key thing that reflects the kingdom. A long time resident of the prison "Red" becomes Andy's closest pal. "Red" is one of the prisons inmates who gets different things from the "outside" and supplies them to the inmates in exchange for smokes. Red and Andy's relationship shows how they work together to learn from each other to survive in Shawshank. 

Two parts of this movies stuck out to me while I was watching. The first was the same clip that we ended up watching during our class early on. This was where Andy had the chance to play music into the speakers for all the inmates to listen to and enjoy. Although the music was played in Italian, there was a feeling of warmth and most definitely imagination. Each person had the chance to react to the music in there own way and take out of it what they wanted. To me this way of listening to music that was demonstrated in this film is one of the best ways to really appreciate music.

The second part was where Andy and Red were sitting down outside in the dirt, Andy wraps up a conversation by saying. "Get busy living, or get busy dying!" this line sticks out to me in this film is because of the practicality of it. To me this line is saying that it is our duty to go out in the world and make things happen. We can not just sit back and watch the world go by. As Christians, this is what the Kingdom requires of us.