Andy:  “I’m Andy Dufresne.”

Red:  “Wife-killing banker.  Why’d you do it?”

Andy:  “I didn’t, since you asked.”

Red:  (chuckle) “You gonna fit right in.  Everybody in here’s innocent.  You know that?”

Unfortunately for The Shawshank Redemption, it came out the same year as Forrest Gump — 1994 — otherwise it might have won the Oscar for the best picture.  In my view, it’s one of the cleverest film scripts in history.  It takes more twists and turns than the D.C. Beltway, and there’s not a dull moment in the whole movie.

Having said that, I would be remiss if I didn’t also point out that, for the most part, it is also a totally unrealistic story.  Banker Andy Dufresne is (falsely) convicted of killing his wife, which is believable.  But his escape from prison is not.

Of course, it’s only a movie, so you have to cut it some slack.  If its main purpose is entertainment, the screenwriting is Hollywood imagination at its best.

That said, the one line that has really stuck with me all these years is when Andy Dufresne introduces himself to longtime inmate Red Redding.  Red’s cavalier response to him is to say simply, “Wife-killing banker.  Why’d you do it?”

To which Dufresne responds, “I didn’t, since you asked.”

Chuckling, Red answers, “You gonna fit right in.  Everybody in here’s innocent.  You know that?”

(Later in the movie, Dufresne, by then a longtime inmate, repeats virtually the same line to a new arrival who is proclaiming his innocence.)

You don’t have to have ever been behind bars to relate to Morgan Freeman’s words.  Heck, just watch an NBA game sometime.  Judging by the players’ reactions every time a referee blows his whistle, none of them has ever actually committed a foul.  Arms thrust outward, palms upward — Tim Duncan style — and a look of disbelief is all part of the entertaining show.

Unfortunately, it’s almost as bad in everyday in life.  When is the last time you heard someone say, even when trapped by the facts, “I admit it.  I did it.  I was wrong.”  Kids should be taught at an early age that if it’s important to them that people admit when their wrong, they’re headed for a great deal of frustration throughout life.

Maybe the moral is that, when you get right down to it, prison inmates have at least one thing in common with human beings on the outside. Human nature is human nature, regardless of where the humans happen to be living.

Catch the introductory exchange between Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins at the very start of this clip from The Shawshank Redemption.