Ethan Mowery's Online Portfolio

Frank Darabont Directs Prison Miracles

Can miracles really happen in prison? This is a question many people have when they think about the penal system, a place where men and women are left to be forgotten, endure abuse, and pray for their own salvation. Writer and Director Frank Darabont leads us into a journey through prison life in his movies The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. It’s a journey that explores spirituality and provokes us to ask if miracles can happen in an environment where people have been all but lost to the greater world, and who now live in a new, smaller world – and a world where conventional rules of society no longer apply. In both films the ideas of spirituality and belief in the impossible play important roles in character and plot development, further highlighted through special effects and religious analogies. The traditional prison movie theme surrounding the issue of guilt or innocence is not the driving factor of these two films, but it’s rather a spiritual awakening, as the characters in the movies are metaphorically baptized, or spiritually transformed.

Frank Darabont’s movie The Shawshank Redemption tells the story of a banker, Andy Dufresne, who is sentenced to serve two consecutive life sentences for the murder of his wife and her secret lover. Upon entering the prison Andy is seen as weak, and is taken advantage of by several inmates, including spending the first two years of his incarceration being raped, but never opening his mouth for the men. This action is similar to that described in the Biblical passage from Isaiah 53:7 which reads, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.”
It wasn’t until Andy assisted what can only be described as the prison guard from hell by saving him from paying taxes, that life in Shawshank began to change. When word spread about the hot shot banker that was helping guards with their taxes he drew the attention of the prison warden, Samuel Norton. The warden then plans a random cell inspection as an excuse to size up Andy.

Earlier in the film, during Andy’s arrival at prison, the prison warden lets inmates know, “I believe in two things, discipline and the Bible. Here, you’ll receive both.” During the warden’s inspection of Andy’s cell, Andy can be seen carrying his Bible underneath his arm. This draws the warden’s attention and he asks Andy what his favorite Bible passage is. Andy replies by saying, “Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the master of the house cometh.” It’s a jab at the warden, implying you can search my cell but I’m waiting for you and expect that. Norton responds to Andy’s passage by saying, “Luke Chapter 13, verse 25. I’ve always liked that one, but I prefer ‘I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shave the light of life’.” It seems that the warden heard Andy’s message, but he is letting him know that those that don’t follow his direction are doomed. Upon leaving the cell Norton returns the Bible to Andy and says, “Salvation lies within,” which indeed it does, but not in the way viewers may expect.

In the cell inspection scene we have to wonder what purpose religion is serving. In the film as a whole we can see two different sides. On one hand we have a warden that uses religion as a guise for evil doings. He portrays himself to be God-like and behaves as one in the closed-off prison environment. Guards follow his lead, and the prisoners must follow the guards’ leads. In one notable scene Norton even orders the execution of one of the prison inmates because he fears that Andy might be set free because of his testimony. After the prisoner is shot the Director uses a camera crane shot set high above the warden to give viewers the feeling that he is being watched from above and that he, too, will one day be judged himself by a higher power. We can see how the warden attempts to shield himself using religion when he hides his illegal business activities in safe hidden behind a needlework portrait that reads: “His judgment cometh and that right soon.”

The warden, however, isn’t the protagonist of The Shawshank Redemption. The movie revolves around Andy and the movie’s narrator, his fellow inmate and friend, Ellis Boyd, Redding (called Red by his friends). The friendship between the two was slow growing at first, but ultimately turns into something more profound. Red and the audience eventually discover Andy has been telling the truth all along about being wrongly convicted of murder. This could be viewed as making Andy out to be a Christ figure in the movie. The notion that Andy is some sort of higher power is supported by his teaching of fellow inmates and guards, giving them purpose in life very similar to Jesus. This notion is similar to John 10:10 which reads, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Akin to the Christ-like behavior Andy exhibits, he also has several rebirth experiences in the movie. One such experience happens when Andy says, “It’s funny. On the outside, I was an honest man. Straight as an arrow, I had to come to prison to be a crook.” Transcending his own rebirth, Andy brings the entire prison new life, changing it from a bleak depressing place to one boasting the best prison library in the country. Andy’s ultimate rebirth begins with an escape through a hole chiseled through his cell wall and hidden behind the womb of his Raquel Welsh poster. He climbs through 500 yards of sewer pipe full of human excrement to reach freedom and then is ceremonially cleansed in the rain outside the prison walls.

Frank Darabont’s follow-up film, The Green Mile, also tells the story of a prisoner’s ability to affect the lives of those around them, and in a sense give them new purpose. The Green Mile is a story about an innocent man, John Coffey, portrayed by the actor Michael Clarke Duncan, who is serving time on death row in the mid-1930’s for a murder he did not commit. Coffey at first appears as a scary, giant man fully capable of the atrocities of which he was convicted, but the movie progresses into a deeper and more spiritual meaning when we discover John Coffey has special powers.

John Coffey ironically shares more in common with Jesus Christ than the same initials. He also has the ability to heal others. The first time the movie viewer witnesses this is when Coffey grabs the head prison guard and the movie’s narrator, Paul Edgecomb, played by Tom Hanks, by the crotch and cures Edgecomb of his horrendous bladder infection. The spiritual nature of these and subsequent healing events in the movie is heightened through the Director’s use of otherworldly bright light, as light bulbs burn so hot that some of them even combust. The special effects and the taunt pacing of these healing, or cleansing, scenes all contribute to a sense that God is present.

Darabont has an uncanny eye for detail; the bright lights aren’t the only elements of a mis-en-scene that creates this overall spiritual feeling. In scene toward the end of the movie the guards take John out of the prison to perform another miracle by healing a guard’s wife from a deadly brain cancer. During their journey to save the woman Coffey can be seen dramatically lit from behind by the moon’s light. The lighting creates a halo-like effect, and conversation during the trip concerns angels.

Both The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption are generously sprinkled with spiritual and religious references but also share other common themes. Apart from the obvious similarity in the choice of a prison setting, each movie is told from a third person perspective drawn from close interracial friendships. The telling of the story provides the perspectives of time and wisdom, helping the narrative seem more authentic. The viewer is almost made to feel that pages are being turned in book as we are visually and verbally moved from scene to scene. This contributes to a slow, deliberate pacing that adds to the weighty messages being conveyed in each movie.

This paper began by asking, “Can miracles really happen in prison?” True miracles must stand the test of time. Frank Darabont’s masterful use of perspective, Biblical allegories and layering of small miracles upon small miracles throughout these movies makes us believe that big miracles really can occur in prison. Not only are the central characters transformed in The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption, we are transformed as the movies’ viewers to accept the possibility of spiritual transformation in our own lives.


Works Cited
The Bible

http://www.geocities.com/tommyonugent/ShawshankRedemption.html

http://www.christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/pre2000/thegreenmile.html

http://www.imdb.com

http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/shawshank.htm

Fade In – Interview with Director Frank Darabont

http://www.shawshankredemption.org/

Shawshank Redemption: How a Movie Found and Afterlife, Wall Street Journal, April 30, 1999

http://www.christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/pre2000/thegreenmile.html

Creative Screen Writing #28 – Frank Darabont/The Green Mile – Nov/Dec 1999

The Structural Characteristics of the Cinematic Christ-figure, Anton Karl Kozlovic, The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture

Telford, W.R. 2000. "Religion, the Bible and Theology in Recent Films (1993-1999)." Epworth Review

Stone, B.P. 2000. Faith and Film: Theological Themes at the Cinema. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press.

Malone, P. and R. Pacatte. 2001. Lights, Camera … Faith! A Movie Lover's Guide to Scripture. A Movie Lectionary— Cycle A. Boston: Pauline Books and Media.

Deacy, C.R. 1999. "Screen Christologies: An Evaluation of the Role of Christ-figures in Film." Journal of Contemporary Religion
http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/index.html

The Green Mile, Detweiler, Craig, Christian Century, 117 no 1, Jan 5-12 2000

http://www.epinions.com/review/mvie_mu-1093549/mvie-review-25AB-48CEAB60-3A547086-prod3

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03728a.htm

Contact Me

So you like my work and you want to hire me for a job? Just get in contact and lets make it happen.

- Contact Me

Other Essays

Donnie Darko

Refresh, Refresh.

To The Edge