Shawshank Redemption

I watched Shawshank redemption a couple weeks ago. This story is about a man who finds out his wife is cheating on him. He got drunk and took a gun with him to get payback on his wife and her lover. The viewer does not find out till much later whether he does or doesn't. Whatever the case, the main character is sentenced for life.

SPOILER ALERT! Don't read the next part if you haven't seen it because it's a fabulous movie!

After he gets very used to prison life and becomes high up in the food chain, the viewer finds out that he's actually Innocent. Knowing this the warden still won't let him out because he is doing his taxes and "stealing" money for the prison on a daily to monthly basis. He is miserable and the watcher sees how he becomes disinterested in his life. You become scared for him, until you find out he's escaped!

But back to the good and evil stuff. This man is obviously wrongly imprisoned. So is it justified that he escapes? It's still against the law isn't it? Should he technically be found and re-imprisoned for escaping? The viewer obviously develops sympathy for him, but should we?
Personally, I'm happy for him. But other people are wrongly convicted, too, and I think he should have to go through the same process as them. If every innocent man in the prison were to escape there would be some major problems. He was under extenuating circumstances, however. On the other hand, he shouldn't have been cheating people out of their money. I don't really know what is right, but I know I'm happy for him.

Switching Titles

I think it is very possible to switch the titles to "Do the Right Thing" and "Unforgiven."

In "Do the Right Thing," there are so many chances to place the word unforgiven into different scenes. Especially at the end when the town starts a riot. For example, the viewer learns that Mookie has a child and that he is not very supportive of his girlfriend or the baby. I'm sure his girlfriend Tina will never forgive him for this. At the end, Radio comes in to start something with Sal. Sal didn't have to, but he smashed Radio's radio into pieces. This is what starts the whole commotion. No one in the town will be able to forgive him because his actions indirectly kills Radio.

In "Unforgiven" there are so many actions that could be questioned. Did they do the right thing? Will kills more than a handful of men in the bar at the end. Was it justified? Personally I didn't really like the characters of any of the men in the bar. But he killed some innocent men out of anger and guilt. Did Ned do the right thing by leaving? I think he did the right thing, however what does he get for it? Lots of pain and death. He would have been better off if he had just tagged along with Will and Scholefield. That makes me wonder if the good guy ever gets what he deserves? (Which brings me back to Sal who actually loved what he did, but because of a group of aggressive men came in and aggravated him, he lost his whole business). I don't think they do. I think Scholefield did the right thing by deciding to never kill again. He may have been the only one...