Redemption as a Theme in Movies and Television

This theological term appears as a theme in countless movies and television series.

Generally, redemption means deliverance, rescue. In theological terms, it can mean atonement for guilt. For our purposes related to movies, I prefer this: To free someone from bondage.

Bondage can translate into being tied to some event or circumstance in the past, a character bound to it emotionally, even spiritually. They are not free to move on with their psychological development, and certainly not toward Unity, unless and until they confront this bondage and resolve it. If they do, they achieve redemption.

Consider these movie examples:

• The Silence of the Lambs: Clarice Starling life is bound to the murder of her father [a sheriff] when she was 11 years old. The guilt she feels about his death was concretized in the experiences she had on her uncle’s Montana farm — the spring slaughter of the lambs — and her attempt to rescue one of the animals, which she was unable to do. As Hannibal Lecter — her Mentor — determines, if she can save Catherine Martin [kidnap victim], she can silence the lambs. Unstated is this dynamic: Clarice also needs to slay Buffalo Bill as a blood sacrifice to achieve redemption for her father’s death.

Clarice Starling seeks redemption in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’.

• In the Line of Fire: Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan is bound to the assassination of President John Kennedy, a death he believes he should have prevented. Decades later when a shrewd assassin appears on the scene, Horrigan is determined not to let history repeat itself. In order to redeem himself, Horrigan must stop this assassin from killing the current President of the United States. If he can succeed, he will achieve redemption.

• The Shawshank Redemption: Andy Dufresne is bound to the murder of his wife and her lover. Although this is a crime for which he is wrongly convicted, Andy comes to realize through his tenure at Shawshank that he is guilty of having driven his wife away, complicit in her adultery and eventual death. Andy’s redemption lies in the hope he instills in his fellow prisoners — from little things like getting them ‘suds on the roof’ to playing a Mozart opera over the loudspeaker system to big things like expanding the library. Andy’s life well-spent behind bars ‘earns’ him his freedom through his escape. But his redemption is not complete until Red, finally freed from prison, faces a choice — “Get busy living, or get busy dying”. It is Andy’s influence — fanning the flames of hope — and a promise Red makes to Andy that keeps Red from following Brook’s path toward suicide, balancing out the death of Andy’s wife.

Andy’s redemption in The Shawshank Redemption includes his rebirth as a new man in this scene.

Redemption is a powerful theological movie theme. It provides a simple, understandable psychological dynamic with a clean beginning, a clear ending, and a satisfying resolution.

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