电影《肖申克的救赎》涵盖全片的主题是“希望”，全片透过监狱这一强制剥夺自由、高度强调纪律的特殊背景来展现作为个体的人对“时间流逝、环境改造”的恐惧。影片的结局有《基督山伯爵》式的复仇宣泄。

　　故事发生在1947年，银行家安迪因为妻子有婚外情，酒醉后本想用枪杀了妻子和她的情人，但是他最终没有下手。然而一个不幸的巧合发生了——那晚另外有一个人枪杀了他的妻子和她的情人，于是安迪被指控为谋杀，并获判判无期徒刑，这意味着他将在肖申克监狱渡过余生。

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

　　记住,希望是美好的，也许是人间至善，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.

　　生活可以归结为一种简单的选择: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.

　　懦怯囚禁人的灵魂，希望可以令你感受自由。强者自救，圣者渡人。

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

　　监狱生活充满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.

　　监狱里的高墙实在是很有趣。刚入狱的时候，你痛恨周围的高墙;慢慢地，你习惯了生活在其中;最终你会发现自己不得不依靠它而生存。这就是体制化。

　　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鸟是不能关在笼子里的，他们的羽毛太漂亮了，当他们飞走的时候...你会觉得把他们关起来是种罪恶，但是，他们不在了你会感到寂寞，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.

　　我发现自己是如此的激动，以至于不能静静地坐下来思考，我想只有那些重获自由即将踏上新征程的人们才能感受到这种即将揭开未来神秘面纱的激动心情。我希望跨越千山万水握住朋友的手;我希望太平洋的海水如同梦中的一样蓝;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 ****.

　　我无时无刻不对自己的所作所为深感内疚，这不是因为我在这里(监狱)，也不是讨好你们(假释官)。回首曾经走过的弯路，我多么想对那个犯下重罪的愚蠢的年轻人说些什么，告诉他我现在的感受，告诉他还可以有其他的方式解决问题。可是，我做不到了。那个年轻人早已淹没在岁月的长河里，只留下一个老人孤独地面对过去。重新做人?骗人罢了!小子，别再浪费我的时间了，盖你的章吧，我没有什么可说的了。

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

　　瑞德：听我说，朋友，希望是件危险的事。希望能叫人发疯。

　　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 expressed 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：到今天我还不知道那两个意大利娘们在唱些什么，其实，我也不想知道。有些东西还是留着不说为妙。我想她们该是在唱一些非常美妙动人的故事，美妙得难以用言语来表达，美妙的让你心痛。告诉你吧，这些声音直插云霄，飞得比任何一个人敢想的梦还要遥远。就像一些美丽的鸟儿扑扇着翅膀来到我们褐色牢笼，让那些墙壁消失得无影无踪。就在那一刹那，肖申克监狱的每一个人都感到了自由。

　　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.