Get busy living, or get busy dying.

The Shawshank Redemption has been hailed as one of the greatest movies of all time. It had a horrible first run in the theaters, but has slowly built a following in the last decade. It has even been claimed by religious fundamentalists as a Christian allegory. Having watched it several times I have come to see it as one of the finest examples of progressive films ever made.

The movie hits all of the right notes. We have corrupt authority figures. This is different then if it were a corrupt system (which would imply a more conservative theme). The film doesn't state that the concept of a prison is bad, simply that allowing any man or group of men to lord over others, without over site, will inevitably lead to corruption. The Guard Chief uses brute force and fear to keep things in line. The Warden uses fancy words and Scripture to hid his true dealings. Both revel in treating the prisoners as less than human.

The prisoners show the wide spectrum of how people deal with corrupt systems. Some join in the brutal hierarchy and use force and fear to carve out their place. Others, like Red, create their own (somewhat) fairer system under the radar of the faulty 'government.' If the leaders won't lead properly, then the average person must pick up the slack and do things right.

And then there is the hero, Andy. At first he seems aloof, he seems to view himself as better than his peers. But in reality he just wants them to see that they all have equal potential. Any one of them can use their own innate gifts to mentally/spiritually transport themselves beyond the prison walls, even if they physically never leave. He shows that giving in to a corruption only perpetuates it. In the end he brings down the corruption, not by force, but by using the media and law enforcement. (Andy does take the embezzled money with him, so that's a little shady...)

Most of all, the most progressive theme of the entire movie is how we look at the prisoners. Except for Andy (and we don't even know the truth about him for much of the movie), all of the prisoners are justly convicted criminals, some of them murderers. But the movie demands that we look past their crimes to see that they are still human beings. It is a very radical notion, one that goes against the grain of many of the messages we receive today about the criminal justice system. But in the end, that's what progressive themes are all about; Giving a shit about human beings.