Notes:  

• The scene starts with the normal day at shawshank, the prison cells open and all the inmates walk out of their cells.

• Everyone is accounted for except for cell 245, Andy Dufresne’s cell

• One of the prison guards yells for Dufresne to come out and when he doesn't, the guard walks down to the cell and sees nobody is inside, meaning Andy Dufresne had escaped.

• When walking down the cell block, the camera man obviously has to be walking backwards fast to get out of the way, then there is a close up of the prison guard’s face saying “Oh my holy God”

• Next we go to the scene of the prison warden taking off his shoes, he opens the box where his spare shoes are and finds Andy’s shoes, then the prison siren goes off.

• The camera man has to also walk fastly backwards as the prison warden and the other guards walk down the cell block.

• Next we get a face shot of the prison warden inside Andy’s cell leaning against the barred window questioning the other guards

• Then there is a clip of the warden talking to the other guards, the camera is showing only their shoulders and faces, the lighting is dark mostly with the exception of the barred window and the lighted prison behind them

• After, we get a line by the warden, that is remembered as one of the best lines in the movie “I want him found, not tomorrow, not after breakfast, NOW.”

• The prison guard we see in the beginning now addresses the warden and leaves abruptly.

• Once the guard is out of the shot and his footsteps fade out, Red, (played by morgan freeman best friend of Andy in Shawshank), is pulled into the room by another guard to talk to the warden.

• We then get a few back and forth shots of the warden and Red’s faces, but Red is as confused as the warden is, they both have no clue where he went.

• The warden then laughs sarcastically and says he got up and vanished like a fart in the wind, he picks up the rocks that are on the window sill and yells at Red and the other prison guards nearby saying this is a conspiracy and everyone's in on it

• He even looks at the poster of the lady on Andy’s cell wall and says “Well maybe she knows, lets ask her, you know where he went fussy bridgets?  Guess not, why should she be any different.”

• He yells at everyone saying this is one big conspiracy and everyone's in on it and he throws rocks at the guards and Red, then he says, “including her” (talking to the poster of the girl on the wall.”

• Then he throws a rock at the poster, but instead of hitting the wall and falling off, it goes through the poster and we hear the clanking of rubble then pipes.

• Next, the two prison guards and Red in the middle are looking at the poster with curiosity and the warden is show in a very close face shot, him walking up to the poster

• He reaches the poster and pokes his finger through the hole where he through the rock, he goes so far in that his whole arm is inside the tunnel.

• He rips off the poster leaving him and the other guards in bewilderment because of the long tunnel that Andy crawled through to freedom.  

• The last shot is the camera inside the tunnel, pointing out towards the warden, the other guards, and Red, the lighting is dim, but you can see everything clearly, the camera is slightly going backwards, getting further into the tunnel, showing how long the tunnel really is

• The music that’s playing is like the drop after a large build up in a song, it’s hard to describe the feeling a viewer gets from watching and listening

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Review:

My initial reaction of the scene is just bewilderment, the look on the faces of the prison warden as well as the other men around him depict my thoughts.  This scene is placed towards the end of the movie, commonly referred to as the climax or revelatory scene. The overall message of the scene is to show that if you put your mind to it anything is possible.  In the scene, it starts with the normal routine wake up call, but one cell has no prisoner outside of it, Andy Dufresne is gone. As one of the main prison guards, Hay, walks down to the cell, the cameraman is walking backwards fast to fit in the guard’s entire body.  After a close up of the guard’s face realizing that Andy Dufresne had vanished and a few more scenes, we come to Norton, the prison warden also walking down the cell block. The cameraman again has to walk backwards fast as he is storming down the walkway. While walking down he says, “I want every man in this cell block questioned, starting with that friend of his” pointing at Red (Morgan Freeman, Andy’s best friend inside the walls).  The prison warden, Norton, is addressing Hay, and the captain of the guards, Byron Hadley. Norton is resting his arm up on the barred window sill, asking Hay, “What do you mean he was just gone?” The camera now shows the three men looking at last night’s routine check, Andy was in his cell at lights out, but he was gone in the morning. Next, we get a line of dialogue from the warden that is widely known, “I want him found, not tomorrow, not after breakfast, NOW.”  Hay scurries off and once his footsteps fade away, Red is escorted into the cell to talk to Norton. The lighting here is very well setup, not only is there outside light from the window, but there are lights from the prison hall that allow the viewer to see everyone present. The camera then shows Norton and Red talking, going back and forth, face to face, both just as confused as the other. Norton then yells that everyone is conspiring against him and starts angrily throwing rocks at everyone else in the room.  He even yells at the poster of the half naked lady on the wall, saying that she is even in on it. Red and Captain Hadley could do nothing but stare at the warden, there is a continuous shot of the warden throwing the rocks at them. After throwing rocks at Red and Hadley, he throws one at the poster of the half naked girl on the wall. Instead of bouncing off the wall and possibly backfiring, hitting the warden, it goes through the poster and we hear bounce off rubble/clank off pipes. This next shot shows first Red and Hadley dumbfounded staring at the poster, then the warden’s face and shoulders appear as he walks closer to the poster.  The camera shows his face mainly and the lights used show his skin color very radiantly, yet color sound. Once he reaches the poster, he pokes his finger into the hole and keeps going deeper until his entire arm goes through. Then he violently rips off the poster from the wall and stares in awe and disbelief at the elongated tunnel that Andy used to escape. The camera slowly moves backwards, getting deeper into the tunnel and all Red, Hadley, and Norton can do is stare, no words can describe what they saw. When Norton rips off the poster, a song plays, called 18 And That Right Soon, it captures both the intensity and creates a good climax for the film.