Is Redemption Possible? Just a few thoughts, not really a review

On the face of it, The Shawshank Redemption is a guys movie. Tough criminals together, some sordid details, plenty of male bonding, and women right where men want them.. looking good on posters.

But as one watches, one realises that it is perhaps an allegory on life itself. Aren't we all living in prisons? Of our own making too, we cant blame the state or some lousy attorney for it. We are hemmed in our regular lives, moving between an endless cycle of office-home-grocery stores-eating and shitting endlessly. Occasionally taking a break to enjoy ourselves in usual ways, making out, going to movies, going to parks, taking a break (like being on a Parole). We are in this rut because we are too fearful of the world outside, like Red.

The stark truth is our wings are not bright enough. We just dont know how to fly away and strike our own paths. It is a kind of a movie that bowls you over in retrospect, and wants to make you watch it again, right away.