電影《肖申克的救贖》涵蓋全片的主題是“希望”，全片透過監獄這一強制剝奪自由、高度強調紀律的特殊背景來展現作為個體的人對“時間流逝、環境改造”的恐懼。影片的結局有《基督山伯爵》式的復仇宣泄。

故事發生在1947年，銀行家安迪因為妻子有婚外情，酒醉后本想用槍殺了妻子和她的情人，但是他最終沒有下手。然而一個不幸的巧合發生了——那晚另外有一個人槍殺了他的妻子和她的情人，于是安迪被指控為謀殺，并獲判判無期徒刑，這意味著他將在肖申克監獄渡過余生。

1.Remember, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies!

記住,希望是美好的，也許是人間至善，而美好的事物永不消逝。

2.I guess it comes down to a simple choice:get busy living or get busy dying.

生活可以歸結為一種簡單的選擇:不是忙于真正的生活,就是一步步地走向死亡。

3.Fear can hold you prisoner ,hope can set you free. A strong man can save himself, a great man can save another.

懦怯囚禁人的靈魂，希望可以令你感受自由。強者自救，圣者渡人。

4.Prison life consists of routine, and then more routine.

監獄生活充滿了一段又一段的例行公事。

5.These walls are kind of funny like that. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passed, get so you depend on them. That’s institutionalized.

監獄里的高墻實在是很有趣。剛入獄的時候，你痛恨周圍的高墻;慢慢地，你習慣了生活在其中;最終你會發現自己不得不依靠它而生存。這就是體制化。

6.I have to remind myself that some birds aren't meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up DOES rejoice. Still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty that they’re gone. I guess I just miss my friend.

我不得不提醒自己有些鳥是不能關在籠子里的，他們的羽毛太漂亮了，當他們飛走的時候...你會覺得把他們關起來是種罪惡，但是，他們不在了你會感到寂寞，可是我只是想我的朋友了...

7.I find I'm so excited. I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it 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.

我發現自己是如此的激動，以至于不能靜靜地坐下來思考，我想只有那些重獲自由即將踏上新征程的人們才能感受到這種即將揭開未來神秘面紗的激動心情。我希望跨越千山萬水握住朋友的手;我希望太平洋的海水如同夢中的一樣藍;我希望......

8.There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then. Then a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can’t. That kid’s long gone and this old man is all that’s left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It’s just a bull word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don’t give a .

我無時無刻不對自己的所作所為深感內疚，這不是因為我在這里(監獄)，也不是討好你們(假釋官)。回首曾經走過的彎路，我多么想對那個犯下重罪的愚蠢的年輕人說些什么，告訴他我現在的感受，告訴他還可以有其他的方式解決問題。可是，我做不到了。那個年輕人早已淹沒在歲月的長河里，只留下一個老人孤獨地面對過去。重新做人?騙人罷了!小子，別再浪費我的時間了，蓋你的章吧，我沒有什么可說的了。

9.Red: Let me tell you something my friend: Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

瑞德：聽我說，朋友，希望是件危險的事。希望能叫人發瘋。

10.Red narrating: I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are better left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful it can’t exPssed in words and it makes you heartache because of it I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a great place dares to dream. It was as if some beautiful bird had flapped into our drab little cage and made these walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free.

瑞德旁白：到今天我還不知道那兩個意大利娘們在唱些什么，其實，我也不想知道。有些東西還是留著不說為妙。我想她們該是在唱一些非常美妙動人的故事，美妙得難以用言語來表達，美妙的讓你心痛。告訴你吧，這些聲音直插云霄，飛得比任何一個人敢想的夢還要遙遠。就像一些美麗的鳥兒撲扇著翅膀來到我們褐色牢籠，讓那些墻壁消失得無影無蹤。就在那一剎那，肖申克監獄的每一個人都感到了自由。

11.(On playing opera records in the prison)

Andy Dufresne: Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget. Forget that there are places in the world that aren’t made out of stone That there’s a---there's a---there's something inside that's yours, that they can't touch.