Andy being wrongfully sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the murders of his wife and Glenn Quentin, his face says it all.
When we see Blatch tell Tommy about the crime, we learn that he picked Quentin at random to burglarize. So much suffering for Andy hinged on Blatch picking a random country club member to steal from.
Fat Ass being brutally beaten to death by Hadley. For as much fun all the inmates had poking fun of him and the other new prisoners, especially Heywood, you can hear a few of them pleading for Hadley to ease his beating on Fat Ass as it got quiet. You can tell some, like Heywood, started regretting their actions in that moment.
Consider the following: Andy is falsely imprisoned alongside Fat Ass, so even though every inmate proclaims their innocence, there's a chance Fat Ass was being honest when he was pleading about not belonging in Shawshank and was scared out of his mind as he begged to see his mother again. Which means that, for the crime of being afraid and alone in a Hellhole Prison that he was wrongly condemned to, the poor bastard was beaten to death by the most brutal, sociopathic man he'd probably ever met in his life, unknowing of the danger he was putting himself in. Imagine being in his shoes...
Blink and you'll miss it, but Red says that Andy being attacked by the Sisters went on for two years.
Red sounding sorrow for Andy's predicament, wishing he could tell you that Andy put up a good fight and was left alone, but prison life is no fairy tale world.
"Brooks Was Here." He is an old man devastated by the news of his parole after nearly 50 years' imprisonment (to spell it out, he missed both World Wars and the Great Depression), who resorts to attacking Heywood to prevent his imminent release, breaking down into tears when stopped. Once he's a free man, he's overwhelmed by modern life, especially cars, and barely able to keep up at his convenience store job due to his ailing hands and unsympathetic customers. He has nightmares every night, because he is so institutionalized that he is completely out of place in this brave new world.
Brooks: I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss - not for an old crook like me.
Red's words at the end of the sequence. Upon learning that Brooks had been paroled, Red looked at the prison veteranknowingly. As Andy finishes reading Brook's letter, Red just sits there forlornly, his head down, before with a heavy sigh, voicing what they (and the audience) all know.
Red: (Sadly) He should've died in here.
Red explaining why Brooks did what he did to Heywood, leaving all the others are horrified. One says that hopefully that isn't going to happen to him, just to have another shut him down by telling him to just wait until he spends as much time in prison as Brooks.
Red: The man's been here fifty years. This place is all he knows. In here, he's an important man, an educated man. A librarian. Out there, he's nothing but a used-up old con with arthritis in both hands. Couldn't even get a library card if he applied.(...)These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. After long enough, you get so you depend on 'em. That's "institutionalized."(...)They send you here for life, and that's just what they take. Part that counts, anyway.
And as a Deleted Scene shows, Jake - the pet crow that Brooks had raised - met the same fate as his owner for the same reason, they were both birds who weren't meant to be caged, but died when they were "freed".
Andy's "Get busy living" speech and his conversation with Red that ensues as Andy desperately clings to his last happy memory and his only dream for the future while Red reflects on just how worthless his life will be once he does get out and how hope is just a "shitty pipe dream". The music does not help. Like at all. Of course, this all gets completely turned on its head later but still....
The fact that all of Andy's friends begin to worry to the point of they all agree to keep him company so he doesn't hurt himself. Heywood begins to regret his actions of giving Andy six feet of rope when he asked because in his mind, "Why wouldn't I? He's Andy."
Red: That don't make you a murderer. Bad husband, maybe. Feel bad about it if you want to, but you didn't pull the trigger. Andy: No, I didn't. Somebody else did. And I wound up in here. Bad luck, I guess. Floats around. Gotta land on somebody. I was in the path of the tornado. Just didn't think the storm would last this long.
When Red learns that Andy has obtained the rope, he believes his friend has been Driven to Suicide and stays up all night, worried about him but there's nothing anyone can do. During roll call, the next day, he looks to Andy's cell, clearly dreading the moment the guards will find him...
Just how shocked everyone is when they hear that not only did Andy get a month in solitary confinement (longest sentence they've heard), but he was "for real innocent" as well. Tommy is guilt ridden for bringing up the revelation, and Heywood and Red can't believe Andy spent 19 years in Shawshank. Given what Andy went through and has done for them and the rest of the prisoners, they all knew Andy didn't deserve such a fate.
After trying his hardest to get his High School diploma so he wouldn't be a complete waste in life, having a young wife and kid, and then succeeding at getting it and willing to help out Andy, Tommy's death being ordered by the Warden came as an immense and tragic shock.
Andy: I'm done. Everything stops. Get someone else to run your scams. Norton: Nothing stops. Nothing. ...Or you will do the hardest time there is. No more protection from the guards. I'll pull you out of that one-bunk Hilton and cast you down with the sodomites. You'll think you've been fucked by a train. And the library? Gone. Sealed off brick by brick. We'll have us a little book barbecue in the yard. They'll see the flames for miles. We'll dance around it like wild Injuns. You understand me? Catching my drift? Or am I being obtuse?
To top it all off, he orders Andy to serve another month in solitary confinement just to think about it, and the look on Andy's face after his visit◊ is absolutely heartbreaking.
We all know the night Andy escaped was a triumphant moment for him, but to everyone else, this was a scary night. They all found out Andy is innocent of the crime he was committed for, but due to corruption, Andy was doomed to stay. Thinking he might kill himself, Red said himself that that night was the longest night of his life, not knowing if his best friend was dead. When the morning routine happened and Andy didn't come out, it's easy to think Red believed the worst had happened.
Red's closing narration on Andy's escape:
Red: It still hurts sometimes— Andy being gone. I have to tell myself every day 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. But still, the place you live in is that much more drab and empty now that they're gone. I guess I just miss my friend.
Red's speech before the parole board when asked if he feels regret for his crimes. Before, he would say what he thought the parole board wanted to hear. Not this time:
Red: 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: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try to 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 bullshit 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 shit.
Just how lost Red looks and feels when he's finally paroled after 40 years in Shawshank. Much like Brooks, he's an old man who's completely overwhelmed by how much the world has changed during his incareration. If he hadn't made that promise to Andy, he might have done something drastic to go back to prison, or worse, killed himself like Brooks did.
It's brief and get overshadowed in the positivity of Andy's letter to Red that gives him his hope back, but it's still sad to see Red turning his head and looking around him upon hearing a bird when he finds the box beneath the tree, and when he gets his hands on money after unboxing it, fearing that someone is watching him and that he may get arrested just for finding the box and money. Even after being freed and in the middle of such beautiful nature, Red can't let go of his paranoia.
The fact that Andy had to break out of prison to get his freedom and will never be exonerated. While he's content with his new life in Mexico under an assumed name and has Red with him, the fact is that history will record Andy Dufrense as being a double murderer who escaped prison and was never seen again.
He is an old man devastated by the news of his parole after nearly 50 years' imprisonment (to spell it out, he missed both World Wars and the Great Depression), who resorts to attacking Heywood to prevent his imminent release, breaking down into tears when stopped. Once he's a free man, he's overwhelmed by modern life, especially cars, and barely able to keep up at his convenience store job due to his ailing hands and unsympathetic customers. He has nightmares every night, because he is so institutionalized