Shawshank Was Almost Real

Check out Michael Miller's article at the Washington Post titled, "‘Shawshank’ prison escape ends 56 years later with cinematic stakeout." 

In 1957 Frank Freshwaters was a 20-year-old Ohio bad boy.  On a July night, he hit and killed a pedestrian while speeding.  He was given 20 years, but the sentence was suspended.  However, he got back behind the wheel of a car, and so he went back to prison in 1959.  He landed in the Ohio State Reformatory.  

Now, track with this: The Prison closed and became the set for the 1994 Stephen King classic, "The Shawshank Redemption."  

Freshwaters secured a transfer to a nearby “honor camp,” and disappeared in 1959.  (See the link for the rest of the story.)

Shawshank is epic

I was just looking at IMBD's list of 250 greatest movies.  #2 is Godfather.  #10 is Schindler's List.  #12 is the Empire Strikes back.

So what's #1 ?  The Shawshank Redemption.

Now I like Shawshank a lot.  But, I like the Green Mile better.

www.imdb.com/chart

For context, The Lord of the Rings is #17.  And the original Star Wars is clear down at #20.  Yikes.

The formula for calculating the Top Rated 250 Titles gives a true Bayesian estimate:

weighted rating (WR) = (v ÷ (v+m)) × R + (m ÷ (v+m)) × C

Where:

• R = average for the movie (mean) = (Rating)
• v = number of votes for the movie = (votes)
• m = minimum votes required to be listed in the Top 250 (currently 25000)
• C = the mean vote across the whole report (currently 7.0)

Shawshank Redemption Deleted Scenes

Freeman and Kimmel talk Shawshank

"Jimmy Kimmel Live," Morgan Freeman reflected on, "Shawshank Redemption."  Of  particular  interest -- why he thinks it didn't blast into theaters as a hit.

He said it was hard to gain popularity through word of mouth because people couldn't pronounce the word Shawshank.

Freeman also said that he's only stopped to watch it once or twice over the past 20 years.

Even More Shawshank Facts You Didn't Know

GIFs created by Lisa Aileen Dragan

It seems every day I see postings about The Shawshank Redemption.  The movie is a true American gem.  Because it is so popular, every bit of minutia is dug up.  And, truth is -- it's all kind of cool.

Archana Ram at yahoo.com posted an article today titled, "13 Things You Didn't Know About 'The Shawshank Redemption'

• Morgan Freeman’s son makes a cameo.  On Red’s parole papers, that’s not a picture of an extra, but Freeman’s son, Alfonso, who’d come to set often with his father. He also appears as a rowdy prisoner when Andy first enters the yard.
• What Happened to Rita Hayworth? (But I did know that)
• King never cashed the $5,000 check he got for the movie.
• Freeman suggested Robbins for the role of Andy.
• Remember when Red was white and Irish? Darabont made some changes.The director took some dramatic license, the most important of which was changing Red from an Irishman to an African-American. “Once I got over my preconception of what the character was, it became such a good choice,” Darabont says on the DVD. “[Freeman] has become indelible in the role.” (In fact, when Andy asks him why he’s called “Red,” Red quips, “Maybe it’s because I’m Irish.” Darabont chose not to change the line.)
• Real wardens played extras.
• Morgan Freeman pitched that baseball for nine hours.
• Robbins did some time in solitary for research.
• ‘Goodfellas' was one of Darabont’s inspirations.
• Freeman had to record his voiceover over again from scratch
• The opera scene was a memento from Darabont’s writing process.
• That water Andy crawls through was toxic.
• The final scene on the beach was a late addition.

The full article is at yahoo.com/movies

Hey, Want To Visit Shawshank?

shortlist.com posted a story today announcing that the visiting public can now take a tour of The Ohio State Reformatory, which was the main location for the 1994 movie's prison.

is now being opened for tours. The move came after the prison, which closed as a working building around 25 years ago, had successfully hosted ghost tours, a Halloween and murder mystery festival last year and a Shawshank anniversary celebration last weekend. The roof has now been fixed and plans are afoot to upgrade the rest of the building so that it will be visitable all year round.

The article says that the tour will be a 13-stop bus tour which includes:

• The reformatory 
• The bench where Brooks fed the birds, 
• Malabar Farm State Park where Andy followed his wife 
• The Bissman building where Brooks and Red live after they have been released.

The article explains,

Up until now, fans have organised their own tours, but these have carried their own dangers; tour guide Pastor Ron Puff has said that, "To be honest, we don’t have keys for some of these [cell doors]", so don't close them behind you, or you could be doing some time yourself.

Shawshank Facts

answers.com has an interesting article (if you can make it through all their pop-ups, flashes, ads and whatever else they've come up with to slow the page) titled, "10 Things You Never Knew About "The Shawshank Redemption."

Here's a couple.

Why is it on cable so much?  "There is a very good reason this movie is on basic cable nearly every day. Ted Turner sold the distribution rights to his network TNT, opening the door for it to be one of the most aired films."

And this is really interesting: "The ASPCA objected to the scene depicting Brooks as he feeds his pet crow a live maggot. The animal rights group declared that it was cruel to the maggot, so the crew had to find one that died of natural causes before shooting the scene, according to IMDB."

That's just great.  I understand animal rights; but do maggots even count as animals?

(A final note of complaint -- I hate articles with short comments that make me click forward and reload a new page for each part of a list.)

Remember The Time. . .

When you enjoy a person, you have some great memories of them.  When you don't actually know the person, the stories you remember are stuff  you got second or third hand.  We all have favorite stories of famous people. 

Here are a few of my favorite Stephen King antidotes:

Remember the time. . .

He slipped into a bookstore and started signing his own books.

A bookstore manager was stunned when she saw someone enter her bookstore and begin writing in the books. The person quickly left, causing the employees think they were the victims of vandalism. 

Ms. Ellis said, "So we immediately ran to the books and lo-and-behold here was the signature in several books. We sort of spun around on our heels, [saying] 'where did he go, where did he go. . . So I went over and introduced myself ... He was lovely, very nice, charming." 

King signed a total of six books. I don't know, I just find something fun about that story! Imagine going to the bookstore, not a specialty store or something like that, just a regular store, and choosing to buy a Stephen King book -- and it turns out to be signed! Cool.
www.abc.net

The time the lady told him WHAT?!!!

King told Neil Gaiman at journal.neilgaiman.com this fantastic story:

I was down here in the supermarket, and this old woman comes around the corner this old woman – obviously one of the kind of women who says whatever is on her brain. She said, 'I know who you are, you are the horror writer. I don’t read anything that you do, but I respect your right to do it. I just like things more genuine, like that Shawshank Redemption.'

“And I said, 'I wrote that'. And she said, 'No you didn’t'. And she walked off and went on her way.”

Stephen King was so messed up, he forgot writing Cujo.

I'm not kididng! King has said that he was so drugged and drunk at the time he wrote Cujo, he doesn't remember the process of writing it.

Stephen King and his wife went to see Carrie in the theater:

In Stephen King Goes To Hollywood, King shared:

The first time I saw Carrie with an audience they previewed it about a week and a half before Halloween.  They didn't do a screening in Maine, but they did one in Boston, so my wife and I went down to the theater, and I just looked around in total dismay, because the regular picture that they were showing was Norman, Is That You? with Red Foxx.  The theater was entirely full of black people.  We looked like two little grains of salt in a pepper shaker, and we thought: This audience is just going to rate the hell out of this picture.  What are thing going to think about a skinny little white girl with her menstrual problems?  And that's the way it started, and then, little by little, they got on her side, you know, and when she started doing her shtick, I mean, they were going, "Tear it up!" "Go for it!" and all this other stuff.  These two guys were talking behind us, and we were listening to them, and at the end they're putting on their coats and getting ready to leave.  Suddenly his hand comes up, and these two big guys screamed along with everyone else, and one of them goes, "That's it!  That's it!  She ain't never gonna be right!"  And I knew it was going to be a hit.  (p.ix) 

Stephen King threw Carrie away:
Yeah, you remember that one.  But  what I love more is the story of the day he got the call Carrie was going to be a paperback.

Stephen King used another persons author photo for Richard Bachman

Richard Bachman's author photo taken by Claudia Inez Bachman. The actual subject of the photo is Richard Manuel, the insurance agent of Kirby McCauley, who was King's  literary agent. (Source: Wikipedia)

Stephen King bought the van that almost killed him. 

"Yes, we've got the van, and I'm going to take a sledgehammer and beat it!" King told the Bridgton News of Bridgton, Maine. (chicagotribune.com)

The Crapper

This is from Tom Barton's short piece on King's speech in Savannah:

King, who was in his mid-20s at the time, was in the Steel City on a book tour, promoting his first novel "Carrie." Part of his job, he said, was to appear on morning TV shows (AM Pittsburgh), along with jitterbugging grandmas, to plug his book to the locals.

That evening, King said, he had a command performance at a dinner that the local newspaper hosted at a fancy restaurant. Unfortunately, the author was suffering from homesickness and a far worse malady -- an intestinal disorder that forced him to make an emergency trip to the joint's opulently appointed restroom.

This was a place that had its own restroom attendant. King remembered him as an ancient man who appeared to be about 108 years old.

Unfortunately, there was one necessity that this restroom lacked: Doors to the stalls. So as King was sitting on the toilet, the attendant approached the young author, carrying pen and paper.

"He said, 'You're Stephen King, aren't you? I saw you on AM Pittsburgh. Can I get your autograph?' I gave my first autograph sitting on the crapper."

Emily Shultz Spent Stephen King's Money

This is one of my favorites.  In 2006, Emily Shultz wrote a book titled Joyland.  A lot of people bought the wrong book!  

Schultz writes at her website:

I'm Emily Schultz. My first novel came out eight years ago. It was called Joyland. Last year Stephen King released a print-only novel with the same title. That was cool, until a few King readers bought the e-book version of my novel by mistake and started leaving negative and confused Amazon reviews. I asked Amazon to change their search results to keep people from buying the wrong book but never heard back. 

Apparently there were a lot of confused readers as this week I got a—for me—big royalty check for those mistaken books. I'm not so upset anymore. Sure, it's more a pleasant surprise than a fortune, and I'm stuck with those reviews, but I thought a blog detailing how we're spending the Stephen King money would be a nice way to end this funny and strange story.  

So what do you do when Stephen King's money starts to roll in?  Well, obviously, if you're a writer, you write about it!

Schultz has started a delightful blog titled, "Spending The Stephen King Money"  With each purchase she records, she also asks the question, "Would Stephen King like it?"  This includes: furniture from Ikea, a haircut for Brian, the deductible for bumper repair, books, Dinner for two at a place called "Junoon" . . . and more.  She notes that she bought a new Apple computer, and asks if Stephen King would approve. 

 King told Entertainment Weekly that he is “I’m delighted for her."  And, what's more, "I’m going to order her book.”  So there's a real sale!  And, from none other than Stephen King.  Schultz said in turn that she would be buying King's book. Of course, she'll be buying King's book with King's money.  A nice way to go!

What's your favorite (REAL) Stephen King Story?

What You Didn't Know About Shawshank

ifc.com has an interesting article titled, "15 Things You May Not Have Known About The Shawshank Redemption."

Actually, I did know  most of it.  But here's a fact that was new to me: The title was changed to avoid confusion.  (Yes, I knew the title was changed.)  But apparently it held the original title for quite a while in pre-production, creating some interesting situations.  Check it out:

Darabont wrote the script in eight weeks before pitching it to Castle Rock Entertainment. He decided to drop the “Rita Hayworth” part of the novella because actresses sent their resumes in for consideration thinking it was a Rita Hayworth biopic. During the casting process, Darabont even received a call from an agent who represented a supermodel; he swore the script was the best she had ever read and that she’d be perfect for the (non-existent) part of Hayworth.

Also, it turns  out that voice overs are not that easy!  Seems like they should be, doesn't it?  But we're not in the movie making business.  

Originally, all of Morgan Freeman’s voiceover was recorded before any of the film was shot. The fact that much of it syncs up to the onscreen action (see: the scene on the roof where the inmates drink beer) isn’t simple editing. Darabont would playback the recorded voiceover on-set during each take for the actors to specifically play off of the audio. But the audio quality of his voiceover was too poor to include in the movie due to tape hiss, so Freeman had to re-record the entire voiceover in post-production.

Read all 15 at ifc.com

King Never Cashed His Shawshank Check

The Wall Street Journal posted a series of behind the scenes pictures from The Shawshank Redemption.  One caption read:

Mr. King never cashed the $5,000 check Mr. Darabont sent him for the right to turn his story into a movie. Years after 'Shawshank' came out, the author got the check framed and mailed it back to the director with a note inscribed: 'In case you ever need bail money. Love, Steve.' 

Check all the pictures out at online.wsj.com

In another article, WSJ points out that The Shawshank Redemption continues to make money.  Though the film did poorly at the box office, it caught on later.

In the days when videocassettes mattered, "Shawshank" was the top rental of 1995. On television, as cable grew, it has consistently been among the most-aired movies. 

In a shifting Hollywood landscape, film libraries increasingly are the lifeblood of studios. "Shawshank's" enduring appeal on television has made it more important than ever—a reliable annuity to help smooth the inevitable bumps in a hit-or-miss box-office business. When studios sell a package of films—many of them stinkers—a "Shawshank" acts as a much-needed locomotive to drag the others behind it.  (online.wsj.com/news)

How strong is the film?  WSJ notes that though Warner Brothers wouldn't say how much they made off the film, that it was "one of 6,000 feature films in a library that last year helped generate $1.5 billion in licensing fees from television, plus an additional $2.2 billion from home video and electronic delivery."

Clancy Brown Talks Shawshank

In an interview with Adam Pockross of Yahoo Movies, the discussion turned to his work on The Shawshank Redemption:

Here's the portion related to Shawshank Redemption:

What do you remember about dangling Andy Dufresne from that roof in "The Shawshank Redemption"?

That was fun. That was the day before I got married actually, in real life. I had to hop on a plane or hop in a car and drive down to Chicago and say my wedding vows the next day. So I was a little preoccupied during that scene, and it was a long day I remember, because they had a lot of rigging to do to make sure that Tim didn't fall over and die. We were both kind of tied off, so that took a while. And I think the lighting was problematic that day, too. Maybe it was cloudy or maybe it was too sunny. I don't remember, but Roger Deakins is a pretty exacting DP, and rightfully so. So it all worked out. I think Tim might have made up a line and I might have made up a line, just to see if it would piss Frank [Darabont] off, but it didn't.

Do you remember which line you made up?

No. Not really. Maybe "ball washing bastards," or something like that. I don't know.

Did you guys share a bottle of suds afterward?

Yes. Absolutely. We had the prop beers. ... That was back in the day where you actually could do something like that. You're not allowed to do that stuff anymore, but I think the prop guys brought up real beer after we wrapped and we all shared a cold one.

And then you went off and got married?

Then I went off and got married. And somebody else got married that weekend, too. So it took all the notoriety out of my marriage. Story of my life.

The full interview is at movies.yahoo.com

Shawshank and Greenmile make list of great films with no Best Picture Oscar

The Independent has an article titled, "Shawshank Redemption voted 'best Oscars also ran," in which they note, "The Shawshank Redemption has been hailed by movie buffs as the greatest film to miss out on a best picture Oscar."  and, "Shawshank was followed in the list by The Green Mile, which was made by the same director, Frank Darabont. Both films were based on stories by novelist Stephen King."

The website offers this interesting list:

Here's the top ten films, with what actually won in parenthesis.
1. The Shawshank Redemption (lost out to Forrest Gump in 1995)
2. The Green Mile (lost out to American Beauty in 2000)
3. Avatar (lost out to The Hurt Locker in 2010)
4. Saving Private Ryan (lost out to Shakespeare In Love in 1999)
5. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (lost out to Gandhi in 1983)
6. Star Wars (lost out to Annie Hall in 1978)
7. Mary Poppins (lost out to My Fair Lady in 1965)
8. Doctor Zhivago (lost out to The Sound of Music in 1966)
9. Pulp Fiction (lost out to Forrest Gump in 1995)
10. To Kill a Mockingbird (lost out to Lawrence of Arabia in 1963)

The full article is HERE.

Want To Visit Shawshank ?

Want to visit Shawshank prison?  Want to be part of the story?  It's in London.  Really!  (Bet ya didn't know Shawshank prison is in London.)

It's part of Secret Cinema's unique presentation.  The theater not only shows the movie, it moves you into the era and surroundings.  Nick Curtis gives this explanation, saying it is "an immersive experience that builds the world of the film around its audience, elevating them from spectators to enthralled participants."

Their youtube video simply says, "Secret Cinema presents Frank Darabont's 'The Shawshank Redemption' at the Cardinal Pole School, East London."

Here is Curtis' description of the Shawshank experience in November:

In November I attended Secret Cinema’s screening of Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption. After signing up online, I was issued with a new identity, Hal Wood, by the ‘State of Oak Hampton’ and told to report to Bethnal Green Library one Sunday evening. There were obscure clues to the film’s identity (I thought it was 12 Angry Men), hints that 1940s-style men’s suits would be suitable apparel, under which guests should wear long johns and a T-shirt, for reasons that later became apparent. 

In a chilly hall I was sent down for bigamy by a judge, and covertly sold a £20 ‘library ticket’ by my lawyer to buy privileges — food and drink — in prison. Then I and 400 others were driven in vintage coaches to ‘Shawshank’ — in fact, the forbidding former Cardinal Pole Lower School building by Victoria Park. Inmates banged on the van and shouted sexual taunts as we spilled into the yard: ‘Hey, Dapper Dan, you wanna be my friend?’ 

We were herded into a hallway by yelling guards, told to strip to our underwear and put our clothes and possessions in numbered sacks that contained our prison uniforms. Then we were marched through showers where a naked man crouched, bleeding, on the floor, to cells where we were banged up. I got my first taste of the underground prison economy, swapping my ill-fitting trousers with a fellow guest: my second, when an actor inmate sold me a Jack Daniel’s miniature for a tick on my library card. He then exhorted us to chant ‘new fish, new fish’ at other prisoners shuffling along the corridor outside, until someone on the landing above broke down and cried, to lewd hoots and catcalls. 

This was the first of sundry scenarios from the film played out live, along with a hostage situation, a sudden surge of opera through the corridors, and an escape that led to us being put on lockdown in the gym, which is when the screening started. Mostly, though, it was about atmosphere as we drifted or were gently guided through the teeming life of the building. Some were taken to the work sheds to repair bicycles or brew beer (both sheds are run by local Hackney businesses), some were examined by a psychoanalyst (a real one, who works in prisons). There were work programmes — candle-making, cross-stitching, composing letters to imprisoned writers for the anti-censorship charity Pen — in rooms studded with quirky artworks assembled by Riggall under another offshoot brand, Secret Gallery. 

Those who had paid £100 for the Secret Restaurant package got to dress up as the governor’s guests for a three-course meal prepared by Alan Stewart and the catering/design company Blanch & Shock. I was smuggled a shin of beef in the school’s boiler room: delicious. For an extra £30, you could stay in the Secret Hotel — one of the shared ‘cells’ — and be further hectored overnight, followed by a yoga session in the exercise yard in the morning. In effect, you’d be paying to stay in a cell with four or five strangers, in a chilly former school, wearing either underwear or a uniform, before a PE lesson and breakfast in an institutional canteen. Surely only a dominatrix could better persuade people to collude in, and enjoy, their own discomfiture. 

But the level of detail and organisation in the building was extraordinary, the immersion an oddly nuanced process. No one broke character: Riggall tells me later that a bus broke down one night and the actor in charge frogmarched his ‘prisoners’ through the rain for 35 minutes, past boggling onlookers. The selling of drinks and snacks was conducted as if it were a black market. In a quiet moment I found myself shooting hoops in the yard with two strangers, exchanging nods like weary lifers. 

In the library I got talking to a German animator called Viv (she initially gave me her male, Shawshank, name) who has worked on a lot of live art events. ‘It’s extraordinary to corral and control this number of people in this big a space, and to be giving them booze at the same time,’ she said. ‘It should be a riot but it isn’t.’ For the guests there was an odd tension between the maintenance and subversion of the illusion. 

From Nick Curtis' article, "Secret Cinema: how to get 25,000 people to pay £50 for a film ticket, without knowing what the film is."  The full article is at www.standard.co.uk

--thanks to Micheal o'Reilly

The Shawshank Tree

The "Shawshank Tree" ripped in half
Photo credit HERE

In 2011, the oak tree featured in The Shawshank Redemption, was badly damaged.  Katlin, at twobackpacksoneworld.com, wrote that she visited Malabar Farm,

home of the famous “Shawshank Tree.” The tree was used in the 1994 film Shawshank Redemption and was ripped in half by strong winds during a storm in July 2011.  (Her blog is HERE) 

Todd Hill has an interesting article at Mansfield News Journal titled, "'Shawshank' and its damaged tree have achieved cinematic immortality." (HERE)

About the tree, Hill writes:

The Pleasant Valley oak tree, a victim of straight-line winds, may or may not survive. I hope it does. But I highly doubt this tree cares a whit about being prominently placed in one of today’s most cherished motion pictures, and if the tree is soon no more I think tabloid readers in London and website visitors in India will get over its loss without much fuss.

Now. . . aren'tcha glad ya know all that? Just building up material for  someone to use on a commentary track!

Why is Shawshank So popular?

The fun part of the article  is Hill discussing what makes Shawshank such a popular film.  Is it destined to be a "classic" of the genre?  Why is it so popular?

Of course, asking this question is like asking what makes certain kids in high school so popular.  Who really knows!

Hill suggests that we love it because it's been shown so many times on television.  He writes, "The cable TV network TNT has shown “The Shawshank Redemption” about once every two months since 1997. I think this explains more than anything the movie’s enduring popularity."

Shawshank Edges 20 Years

Mansfieldnewsjournal.com is reporting that a 20th anniversary reunion of the filming of “The Shawshank Redemption” is being planned for the summer of 2013.

Bill Mullen, who is in charge of the Shawshank Reunion, said several things are being planned for the 20th anniversary, including a showing of the film at the Renaissance Theater. Organizers are hoping that Freeman and Bob Gunton (who played the warden) will be able to attend.

article is HERE 

Beijing censors SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION searches

The China Post reports that  Chinese censors have begun to block search terms related  to blind activist Chen Guangcheng.   You can't search for his name. . . and they have also deemed the search term "Shawshank Redemption" to be unacceptable! Search words  such as: "Shawshank" "blind person" and "embassy" were all blocked.

Why block "Shawshank"?   Because Chen Guangcheng case has been compared to the Shawshank Redemption.  

The  China Post reports:

After completing a four-year jail sentence in September 2010, he and his family were put under what Chen has called “illegal” house arrest at their home in Shandong province.
Some Web users had used the Chinese characters for “Shawshank” to refer to the case.
“The Shawshank Redemption” was a 1994 film based on a novella by U.S. author Stephen King, about a convict's escape from an American prison. 

Shawshank: Make it a vacation!

Bob Downing, writing for Akron Beacon Journal, has an interesting article about the shooting locations for the Shawshank Redemption.  No, it was not filmed in Maine!  Try. . . Mansfield, Ohio.

Downing reveals, "If you're looking for a movie-themed last minute road trip this Memorial Day weekend, the Shawshank Trail, with 12 stops in three counties, might be just the ticket. The drive-it-yourself Hollywood tour, mostly around Mansfield in Richland County — some three hours from Detroit — celebrates the 1994 film "The Shawshank Redemption" with Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. It has its own website, brochure, map and special offers for visitors."

The notes in this article are great.  Want to see the tree where the letter was hidden?  You can pay it a visit. . . only it's on private property!  And what about the prison itself?  Yep!  You can visit there, too! 

Downing explains, "The Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society offers Sunday afternoon tours. . . . The Hollywood tour includes a peek at Dufresne's tunnel, which is two feet in diameter. The sewage Dufresne crawled through in the film was concocted from chocolate syrup, sawdust and water.  You can also see the warden's office and the carving on the ceiling that reads "Brooks was here. So was Red."

And I was wondering where to spend my summer vacation!

This is under the heading: "If You Go"



The Shawshank Trail
Mansfield & Richland County Convention & Visitors Bureau
124 N. Main St., Mansfield, Ohio 44902
(419) 525-1300 or (800) 642-8282; www.mansfieldtourism.com/shawshank


Ohio State Reformatory
100 Reformatory Road, Mansfield, Ohio 44905
Tickets for the Sunday and weekday tours are $8 for adults and $6 for children 7 to 17.
(419) 522-2644; www.mrps.org or www.mansfieldtourism.com.

Malabar Farm
4050 Bromfield Road, Lucas, Ohio 44843
Tour fee is $4 for adults, $3.60 for 55 and older and $2 for students 6 through 18.

The Full Article Is Here:


http://www.detnews.com/article/20110528/LIFESTYLE07/105280303/1034/ENT/Fans-can-escape-to-Shawshank

The Shawshank Redemption

Finished reading Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption. I've seen the movie several times, and enjoyed the novella very much. A few short notes on the story.

.

Title:

The book uses the name "Rita Haywroth" while the movie is only titled "The Shawshank Redemption." The audio is also only marketed as "The Shawshank Redemption." Of course, Rita Hayworth has a very important role in both the movie (where she is actually given screen time) and the book. Rita Hayworth was a movie star who rose to fame during the Great Depression. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000028/

.

The narrator:

Probably the thing I liked least about the book was the narrator. Red is locked in a prison cell, so the story relies more on his ability to pick up bits of gossip than on first hand information. This gets really wild when the actual prison break takes place. He's not there! So how Andy got out is left to Red's imagination. The constant guessing instead of story-telling gets tiresome.

.

Of course, in the movie, this isn't a problem! Because the movie isn't locked in to Red's point of view. It is able to pull away. By the way, in the movie Red was masterfully played by Morgan Freeman.

.

I did enjoy Red's recital of various prison breaks. And I also enjoyed it when the story seemed to end, then picked up again. Since I was listening on CD, this actually caught me by surprise since I didn't know how many pages were left.

.

The book is more a tale of escape than the more complicated elements of revenge that the movie introduces.
.
The Whistle
As noted in a previous blog, Shawshank bears similarities to Escape From Alcatraz. King, via the narrator Red, mentions that in the movies a whistle always goes off when there is an escape. Well, I was watching "I am a fugitive from a chain gang" (1932) in which there are two prison breaks. The first time they are in a field, so there is no whistle to go off. Instead the score itself blares with trumpets -- making almost the exact sound! The escape in that scene is brilliant. Later int he movie there is another prison escape, and sure enough, the whistle goes off. (By the way, Shawshank has a much better ending)

.

The writing
The first person narrative also tends to talk over the story, instead of building it scene by scene, the way King usually does. I actually like this kind of writing, since it is more direct. King is good at making decades slip by in this book, without feeling like they've just been skimmed by. He doesn't belabor the time elements, but as time passes the reader feels it go by. The reader ages with the characters.

.

What I liked:

1. The story is great.

2. The writing moves the story forward at a pretty fast pace.

3. The movie. I think the movie advanced the story in some very key ways, actually making it better.

4. I listened to this on CD. I really liked the reading by Frank Muller. He is absolutely awesome! Audio file says, "Muller's flawless reading enriches King's powerful story, providing a superlative audio program."

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Editions:

1983, a story in Different Seasons.

1983, a large print book.

1995, a audio recording.

1994, a major motion picture.

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See my post: Escape From Alcatraz & The Shawshank Redemption here, http://talkstephenking.blogspot.com/2010/09/escape-from-alcatraz-and-shawshank.html

Escape From Alcatraz and Shawshank

I've been reading The Shawshank Redemption. It's wonderful. A few weeks ago TCM ran Escape From Alcatraz. I DVR's it... and forgot about it. Today in an attempt to clean up my DVR, I decided to watch the Eastwood film.

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Of course, it reminds me a lot of Shawshank and The Green Mile. Mostly it's just the mood of the film. Escape doesn't have the same energy that Shawhank Redemption has; nor does it have characters you would ever want to meet.

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1. It's an escape from prison film.

2. There's a mouse.

3. Hiding stuff in the Bible.

4. There's a man who can get you things.

5. The method of dirt removal. (Sprinkeling it when out for a walk)

6. Posters are important in both.

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I know there's more, so post them for me.

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Having been to Alcatraz, I can say that it is the only prison I've ever paid to get into. Yes, I have been to others... but those were freebe visits. Funny story: I go to visit this guy in a medium security prison. I tell the clerk who I want to see and that I have an appointment. She sends me to a guard at the door. he has me sign in, and then says, "It's the fifth door on the right." I just stared at him. You mean you don't escort me there? I'm just free to walk through the prison and find door 5 on my own? I've got to tell you, I've never counted doors so carefully!

Shawshank: A rainy day movie

With all the rain here in California (and there has been a LOT) the Orange County Examiner has this article: 10 Movies You Can Watch on a Rainy Day. Number four is none other than one of my own favorites... and an itneresting note about it being #1 on IMBD. But, here's the quote and the link:

4. Shawshank Redemption (1994)This Frank Darabont film, based on a Stephen King story, about a banker who is falsely sentenced to prison for murdering his wife, is #1 on IMDB’s Top 250 (as of this writing) for a pretty good reason—it’s a very good film. It’s an uplifting movie despite the gloomy situation the main character Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, is in. He develops a friendship with the warden (a bad guy) and other inmates that makes the prison life a little more bearable. A story about hope that can literally take you places. There’s also a great rain scene at the end. To say more would be spoiling it.

http://www.examiner.com/x-32109-Orange-County-Movie-Examiner~y2010m1d21-10-Movies-You-Can-Watch-on-a-Rainy-Day?cid=channel-rss-Arts_and_Entertainment