You remember the name of the town, don't you?

[raven]

I've now seen this film twice in twenty-four hours, and the second time around, I love it even more. And despite everything I've said to the contrary, watching it with Pedar did help. He sees things in terms of vision, of how things look, of how the scenes are put together. There's one scene where Andy Dufresne talks about what he would do if ever he got out of Shawshank - of how he'd go to Mexico and live right by the ocean, because the Pacific "has no memory." Red thinks he's being an idiot, talking about "shitty pipe dreams" and he's going to go nuts if he keeps hoping. I took this at face value, until Pedar pointed out that as this is going on, Andy and his optimism are in the light, whilst Red is hidden by the shadows. It's that kind of symbolism I don't notice straight off.
But I see things in terms of words. I noticed the irony of the words "shitty pipe dreams" when Andy finally does crawl to freedom through 500 yards of sewage. And obviously I loved the fact that a raven features heavily - a library's raven, Jake.
And for a film that features so much horrible stuff - like the fact an innocent man is condemned to prison for nineteen years, and in the process is beaten up and raped and forced into submission by a corrupt staff, it's very uplifting.
Pedar likes the cinematography, I like the poetry.

"Some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are much too bright. And when you set them free at last, the past of you that knew it was a sin to lock them up rejoices."