Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things — and Morgan Freeman, as Red, tells the story of a prison friendship that never gives up.
Released in 1994, The Shawshank Redemption stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, a banker wrongly convicted of murder, and Freeman as Ellis Boyd Redding, known as Red, a fellow inmate who becomes Andy’s closest friend and the film’s narrator.
Freeman’s narration is the film’s soul: warm, wry and wise, it carries twenty years of prison life, from despair to a quiet, astonishing escape. Red himself changes across the film, from a man who has given up hope to one who finally follows Andy’s example.
It is a signature role, and the one most audiences associate with Freeman, because his voice and presence make a story about imprisonment feel like a story about freedom.