“I find I’m so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”
– Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding (The Shawshank Redemption, 1994)
The Shawshank Redemption is one of my favourite films. I’ve tinkered (below) with the parole board scenes where Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman) must convince his interrogators that he’s “no longer a danger to society”. I always get a kick out of seeing his attitude change with time and wisdom and find it very relatable to my own profession and it’s various gatekeepers. [Spoiler alert] Ultimately, Ellis stops trying to satisfy the parole board with what he hopes they want to hear; he no longer cares about the outcome, chooses not to censor himself or fear the consequences and in doing so earns his freedom.
Jeffrey Mundell 