43. Bridge Over Troubled Water &...

Lyrics

When you're weary
Feeling small
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them all

I'm on your side
When times get rough
And friends just can't be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

When you're down and out
When you're on the street
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you

I'll take your part
When darkness comes
And pain is all around
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

Sail on Silver Girl,
Sail on by
Your time has come to shine
All your dreams are on their way

See how they shine
If you need a friend
I'm sailing right behind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will ease your mind


I am a huge fan of Paul Simon. He is a really great musician, who has written some of my favorite songs. I am not such a big fan though of his early career with Art Garfunkel. I like some of their songs, but I find many of them to be a bit bland, like this one. The song is considered to be one of the best songs about friendship, so the movie I chose is a movie about a friendship between two men. It is often considered to be not only the greatest movie about friendship, but one of the greatest movies ever made. It is admittedly not a very inspired or original choice.

The Movie: The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont, 1994)

The Shawshank Redemption, the seemingly perpetual number 1 movie on IMDB's list of the 250 best movies, is not the best movie ever made. It's also not the best movie of 1994. In fact, it is the fourth best movie of the Best Picture nominees that year. All of this shouldn't be seen as a knock on The Shawshank Redemption. It is very good. 1994 was simply a very strong year. I mean Speed, the best action movie ever made, isn't even in my top 5 of 1994. That doesn't mean that I am not surprised by it's enormous popularity. It's not so much that I am surprised that it is considered better than movies like Pulp Fiction or The Godfather part 2. I like those movies more, but I can easily understand why someone would prefer The Shawshank Redemption over those movies. No, I am surprised by how much more popular it seems to be than other similar movies that came out around that period, which I also would consider very good. By similar I mean movies about good people who try (and often improbably manage) to overcome the enormously dire situation they've found themselves in. Why, in other words, is The Shawshank Redemption so much more beloved than movies like Apollo 13, Forrest Gump or In The Name of the Father?

I don't know the answer to that question, but if I had to guess, it is because of the great empathy and understanding it has for its characters. I dislike using the phrase 'There, but for the grace of God, go I/we'. But I think that phrase does explain the popularity of the movie. The movie makes unambiguously clear that most of the people in this prison are guilty of a crime. But it understands that not everyone who is guilty of a crime is necessarily a bad, evil person. Good, decent people we can easily identify with can, for some reason, commit a horrendous crime that could ruin their (and other peoples') lives forever. That doesn't mean that we should treat them inhumanely. There is, I think, a very crucial scene at the beginning in which a warden beats up a prisoner to death. The movie asks us to be sorry and feel empathy for the killed prisoner. We don't know him much and we don't know what he did to end up in prison. But I think that's the point. It doesn't matter whether he was rightfully in prison or not, or whether he committed a serious or a small crime. He is a human being and he does not deserve to die. I have read once or twice that this is a pretty unrealistic representation of a prison. And that there are actually many bad people in prison. Such criticism is stupid. The movie doesn't want to present a realistic view of a prison. It's more a metaphor. Besides it is an adaptation of a Stephen King book. I am not very familiar with his books, but I am pretty sure realism isn't their main concern.

What I also like about this movie is that while it asks us to believe that Andy is innocent, it is left relatively ambiguous whether he really is. At the beginning we see him sitting in a car holding a gun, looking as if he is planning to do something with it. We don't see what he does next and we cut to the courthouse where he is on trial for murdering his wife and her lover. The attorney does make a pretty compelling case for Andy's guilt. Later on a fellow prisoner tells a story about how he was in prison with another man who seemingly committed the crime Andy is imprisoned for. This seems a pretty huge coincidence, and the warden's doubt that the prisoner may have made up that story is actually pretty reasonable, and very much in accordance with the character of the prisoner. This ambiguity is not only interesting because it adds a layer to Andy and the movie, but also because it is very much connected to the point I've raised in the previous paragraph. The movie wants us to have empathy for people and to believe in their goodness. The only real reason we have to believe that Andy is innocent is the fact that he says so and that he seems to be (and acts like) a very decent, good person. But he has a motive, no real alibi and he certainly is capable of doing unthinkable, improbable acts. After all, not many people would manage to escape from a heavily-guarded prison by cracking through the walls for 20 years with a small rock hammer, and then crawling through stinking mud. The scene in which he escapes, by the way, is a great scene, not so much because we are so happy for him, but because of the ingenuity and the sheer guts of the escape.

There are many other great scenes. The fate of the institutionalized Brooks who can't live anymore out of prison is quite poignant. The opera scene is pretty great too of course. And I love the fact that the not guilty Andy commits his first actual crime in prison, whitewashing money for the warden. Lastly, and I'd almost say naturally, the portrayal of the friendship of Red and Andy is genuinely moving and wonderful. We really believe that they are friends who need and care deeply about each other. But all of this wouldn't work without the great actors. This is actually Morgan Freeman's best performance I believe. And Tim Robbins had a pretty great and versatile 1994. Besides being great in this drama, he also acted in the screwball comedies I.Q. and The Hudsucker Proxy. The only thing that doesn't really work is their reunion at the end. I am glad that the movie choose to reunite them. They deserved a happy ending. It just felt a bit contrived. Red has to basically solve some sort of elaborate puzzle to find out where Andy is. Their reunion would have worked better I believe if the movie didn't make Red's search for Andy so complicated.