Looking for deep spiritual truth

SCRIPTURE and the writings of those who have given their lives to its study may be the primary sources of spiritual wisdom, but, it is a good thing to keep ourselves open to finding the truth in more unlikely places.

Do you remember the 1994 film, The Shawshank Redemption? This is the movie which, on its release, was a flop at the box office, but now The Shawshank Redemption, based on a novella by Stephen King, is currently the highest-rated movie of all time on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). It didn’t perform to expectations during its release in the cinema but when it earned seven Academy Award nominations people started to take notice and, if you remember the days when video rental was all the rage, it became one of the most successful films in rental history.

It’s the story of a successful young banker, Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) who is wrongfully convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the murders of his wife and her lover. He is sent to Shawshank Prison to serve out his sentence. It is a brutal place where he has to live on his wits to survive, but for Andy survival is not the ultimate goal. For Andy the aim is escape, he dreams of Zihuatanejo, a paradise on the Pacific coast of Mexico – he describes it as a “warm place with no memory” where he wants to live the rest of his life.

The most compelling relationship in the film is the friendship that develops between Andy and Red (played by Morgan Freeman). Red is the prison ‘fixer’ who can get ‘stuff’ smuggled into prison, it is through Red that Andy gets the tools he needs for his escape –a series of rock hammers and movie posters. With these, 19 years after his incarceration Andy springs free, but, not without leaving a trail for Red to follow him to freedom.

The enduring legacy of The Shawshank Redemption is that it is a film which exudes hope. It explores some very dark themes and it exposes some deeply disturbing aspects of life in a penitentiary and yet it carries a message of hope.

The prison governor is the only character in the movie who confesses a Christian faith but he is the standout hypocrite. Brooks Hatlen, who has run the prison library for more than 40 years, becomes so institutionalised that his deepest fear is freedom itself. Shawshank Prison is so brutal and corrupt that it exposes all the faults of a system set up to deliver retribution and punishment rather than correction and rehabilitation. Yet, in the darkness of this setting, Andy Dufresne digs deep into his reserves of inner strength and conviction to maintain his decency, humanity and hope of freedom.

“The Shawshank Redemption exudes hope.

The American film critic, Roger Ebert makes the interesting observation that the popularity of The Shawshank Redemption: “Maybe [that] it plays more like a spiritual experience than a movie” and that it, “involves quiet, solitude, and philosophical discussions about life”. The most irresistible example of this is when a donation of gramophone records arrives at the prison library amongst which is a copy of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. Andy plays the Duettino Sull’aria through the public address system and the whole prison seems to stand still. Red remarks that the voices of the women in the aria made everyone feel free and Andy himself is so carried by the music that he thinks nothing of the punishment which follows.

After fourteen days in solitary confinement he tells his friends that, it was the easiest time he had ever done in the “hole” because he had Mr Mozart with him and, as he points to his head and his heart, he says: “That’s the beauty of music; they can’t get that from you”.

Make it your business to look out for deep spiritual truth in the most unexpected places.