History YMMV / TheShawshankRedemption

** [[spoiler:Heywood]] at the beginning appeared as this, as he taunted an emotionally-overwhelmed prisoner by reeling him in with what starts out sounding reassuring... only to go on to something that is practically the opposite of reassuring. Then the prisoner broke down in tears.
-->"''Don't you listen to these nitwits, you hear me? This place ain't so bad. Tell you what, I'll introduce you around, make you feel right at home. I know a couple of big old bull queers that'd just [[PrisonRape love to make your acquaintance. Especially that big, white, mushy butt of yours.]]''"
*** Of course, this latter turned out to be just prison culture (when the crying man began attracting Byron's attention, [[spoiler:Heywood]] started panic and whispered that he should calm down). {{Subverted}} eventually that Heywood joined Andy's clique.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: "[[TheCountOfMonteCristo The Count of Monte Crisco]]..." "That's Cristo, you dumb shit" "by [[AlexandreDumas Alexandre Dumbass]]. Dumbass?"
** Immediately trumped, of course, by:
--->'''Andy: '''You'll like it. It's about a prison break.
--->'''Red: '''Then we oughtta file that under "Educational", too, don't we?

* FridgeBrilliance: "Maybe because I'm Irish". Red's evasive answer when asked directly how he came by his nickname on the heels of asserting that everybody in prison claims innocence becomes unspokenly chilling when spoken by Morgan Freeman. Hint- he's a murderer.
** Hint- his full name, as shown on his parole form, is Ellis Boyd REDDING. So where do you think that nickname came from?
** Then again, for the real reason behind his nickname, see MythologyGag below.
** Red tells Andy that escaping from prison is just a "shitty pipe dream." [[spoiler: Then Andy escapes through a shitty pipe]]
*** As an extension of that, [[spoiler: The iconic part where he reaches up to the sky after finally escaping Shawshank prison. The reason why he did it because he just crawled through a few hundred yards of shit and piss, and he wanted the rain to wash the smell off.]]
** How Andy gets past the Guards re-entering the cell-block after stealing the Warden's shoes. [[spoiler: By wearing them.]]
** The sequence of Andy carving his name, which was cut halfway to show him, in a seemingly non-connected manner, asking Red for a Rita Hayworth poster. When they're revealing [[spoiler:what he's actually been doing for 20 years near the end of the film, it turned out that it was during this sequence that he found out about the vulnerability of the wall. He asked for a poster because that's how he's going to cover the hole.]] The FridgeBrilliance comes in when you realise that the two scenes are actually ''connected'' and not a change of subjects.
*** This also subtly explains his vague dismay when Red said the poster's arrival could take some time.
*** And why the poster is mentioned right in one of Red's first voiceovers.
** Oh, and warden Samuel Norton's "[[VillainousBreakdown it's a conspiracy]]" rant seems to be a case of him [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection projecting]] [[spoiler:his corrupt nature]] onto everyone else.

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:Warden Norton.]]
** Also, Byron Hadley (he's more of an ambiguous example, though, as he does have his PetTheDog moments).
** The Sisters.
** Heywood at the beginning appeared as this, as he taunted an emotionally-overwhelmed prisoner by reeling him in with what starts out sounding reassuring... only to go on to something that is practically the opposite of reassuring. Then the prisoner broke down in tears.

*** Of course, this latter turned out to be just prison culture (when the crying man began attracting Byron's attention, Heywood started panic and whispered that he should calm down). {{Subverted}} eventually that Heywood joined Andy's clique.

** Also, Byron Hadley
*** He's more of an ambiguous example, though, as he does have his PetTheDog moments.

** Also, the unnamed guy at the beginning who taunts an emotionally-overwhelmed prisoner by reeling him in with what starts out sounding reassuring... only to go on to something that is practically the opposite of reassuring.

*** Note that this made said emotionally overwhelmed prisoner break down in tears. [[KickTheDog And then the guy LAUGHED at this.]]
*** That was actually Heywood in the movie. Is he really a Complete Monster, though?

** Others would go slightly earlier than that: [[spoiler:The Warden clearly hindering Andy's appeal for Tommy to testify, and out of the blue ordered him to serve a month in solitary confinement.]]

* AntiHero: Andy's [[spoiler:sneaky, underhanded way of bringing down Norton]] seems more like something a villain would do, until you consider [[KickTheSonOfABitch who is harmed by it]] and [[ShootTheDog why it needed to be done]].

* AntiHero: Nobody's perfectly morally upstanding in these movies, but Andy himself [[spoiler:is basically the "good guy" equivalent of a MagnificentBastard. The underhanded scheming he gets into in this movie is morally ambiguous, to say the very least.]]
-->"''The funny thing is, on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook.''"

* BlackAndGreyMorality: Andy's [[spoiler:sneaky, underhanded way of bringing down Norton]] seems more like something a villain would do, until you consider [[KickTheSonOfABitch who is harmed by it]] and [[ShootTheDog why it needed to be done]].

* AwardSnub: Probably the [[MostTriumphantExample Most Egregious Example]]. ''It won absolutely '''nothing'''.''

* FandomRivalry: In 2008, a somewhat complicated series of votes on the Internet Movie Database led to first ''TheDarkKnight'' and then ''Shawshank'' replacing ''TheGodfather'' as the #1 film of all time on the IMDB's ratings system. ''TheGodfather'' had held that position for quite a long stretch of time, and its fans were, to put it mildly, not impressed; even now, a year later, a visit to ''Shawshank'''s IMDB forums reveals thread after thread attacking it as unworthy of being #1 (and, implicitly or explicitly, favouring ''The Godfather'').
** This makes the movie inevitably HilariousInHindsight when you think about the RobotChicken sketch where... [[XMeetsY well, you know:]]
*** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3jfbAcsfX8

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: By the end of the movie, not only has Andy [[spoiler:managed to escape, steal $370,000 of Warden Norton's money and blow the whistle on his corrupt activities, but he taunts Norton with his own words: "Salvation lay within".]]
** "Three beers apiece for each of my co-workers."

* UnfortunateImplications: Either [[AvertedTrope averted]] or [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], depending on how you interpret the scene. The [[DepravedHomosexual Sisters]] take a [[RapeIsLove liking to Andy and want to ride him bareback]]. Red and Andy discuss this with the following exchange:

*** The Sisters.

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler:The Warden ordering the death of a recently transferred con who has evidence of Andy's innocence, so that Andy will be forced to continue working at the prison.]]

--> Andy: "I suppose it wouldn't helpd if I told them I wasn't homosexual."

** "Two beers apiece for each of my co-workers."

** The sequence of Andy carving his name, which was cut halfway to show him, in a seemingly non-connected manner, asking Red for a Rita Hayworth poster. When they're revealing [[spoiler:what he's actually been doing for 20 years near the end of the film, it turned out that it was during this sequence that he found out about the vulnerability of the wall. He asked for a poster because that's how he's going to cover the hole.]]

** The sequence of Andy carving his name, which was cut halfway to show him, in a seemingly non-connected manner, asking Red for a Rita Hayworth poster. When they're revealing [[spoiler:what he's actually been doing for 20 years near the end of the film, it turned out that it was during this sequence that he found out about the vulnerability of the wall. He asked for a poster because that's how he's going to cover the hole.