http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMuam1MObtI
Clearly the theme in this movie is the classic prison break/escape film, and one of the best to boot. This theme is didactically expressed in the film's plot. Shawshank Redemption is about an innocent man that did the wrong things at the wrong time and wound up with two life sentences in the prison of Shawshank. Obviously this doesn't sit well with him, therefore he plans his escape over the 20 years we was in the clink. Then he disappears and ends up escaping in the middle of the night; a timelessly classic film plot.
There were a lot of basic film strategies used in this scene; the manipulation of movement and space. First off, movement was a large playing factor because it helped create the representation of power; the back and forth of the mopping represented the weak prisoners, and the slow walking represented the powerful guards. You can see a hint at the imminent power shift when Andy starts walking towards the guards and stops mopping. Space was also an important part of the scene because of how it made characters seem; the scene started out with the prisoners farther away, making them seem smaller or weaker, as opposed to the closer, more powerful guards. The contrast in apparent size of the characters is what set up the scene, because later there was an affinity because of the power shift after Andy talks to the guard. This film contains a lot of subtext, because the narrator (Freeman) helps the story along as it unravels, but he doesn't always explain everything. There is also a lot of stuff that someone has to figure out, like when Andy and the Sisters have their run-ins... They don't show what happens, but you unfortunately know.
