The thing with Shawshank is it touches so many emotions
first is infidelity ... what " would " you do if you caught your wife cheating with the tennis pro ? ... get drunk ? ( he did ) or would you shoot her and the bugger that was shagging her
Next is getting convicted of a crime you did not commit and spending 20 years in jail ... it has crossed most peoples minds whenever the trustworthiness of the justice system comes up in conversation ... look at dna evidence exonerating prisoners on death row
next is prison life and how people adapt to it and survive ( yes there is the bull queers as they called them back then ) but the show showed that at least in prison there is still some humanity in people like Red (the character that Morgan Freeman played )
there is also the main character holding onto " hope " of getting out ... and plotting his escape very early on
and finally there is the end where he saves his friend Red from being " institutionalized " as they called it where they cant function outside of the prison environment after having lived it for so long
This movie came out at the same time as Forrest Gump and although I thought Forrest Gump was a very good movie and well deserving the Oscar I thought that Shawshank was a better film.