What could I possibly add to the hundreds of reviews done on this splendid movie that would be of interest or benefit to a reader? Only this: the last 20 minutes of this film are worth the whole of it; so beautiful in it's meaning that I have watched it over and over, because of how it affects me. A Friendship so special that it becomes the "bridge over troubled water" for one who has all but given up in despair across the miles from another whose sprit refuses to be broken or maimed and rises above it all; whole and seemingly unaffected by the horrific prison experiences.



The culmination of this unusual rapport between Andy Dufresne and Red Redding ends with keeping a promise made to an old friend while never dreaming that it will come to be when it was made. The writing in a "half way" room scratched above a table just right for completing a suicide tells yet another story of the difference inspiration can make; one life ends in death because there is no hope, one life goes forward because of the bond between two - provided by only one. And the remembered phrase coming back to give him strength - "Get busy living, or get busy dying."



The visuals and audio during this finale are what make it so fine; more poignant than any dialogue. Determined to keep his promise to his friend made while in prison, (almost as a deathbed promise) Red goes to the fragrant hay fields of Buxton seeking the rock wall and what is buried beneath by Andy. As he descends from an old red farm truck that has given him a ride to the area, it as though he has entered another world, one tranquil and peaceful; gravel crunching under his feet as he walks in the hot summer sun; corn and hay fields, bird voices, dense green foliage; untroubled life and sound is everywhere; and at long last the old rock wall that holds his salvation buried there.