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Interesting that although the hero of the film is the convicted former banker Andy Dufresne ( Tim Robbins ), the action is never seen from his point of view. The film's opening scene shows him being given two life sentences for the murder of his wife and her lover, and then we move, permanently, to a point of view representing the prison population and particularly the lifer Ellis 'Red' Redding ( Morgan Freeman ). It is his voice remembering the first time he saw Andy ("looked like a stiff breeze would blow him over"), and predicting, wrongly, that he wouldn't make it in prison.

From Andy's arrival on the prison bus to the film's end, we see only how others see him - Red, who becomes his best friend, Brooks the old librarian, the corrupt Warden Norton, guards and prisoners. Red is our surrogate. He's the one we identify with, and the redemption, when it comes, is Red's. We've been shown by Andy's example that you have to keep true to yourself, not lose hope, bide your time, set a quiet example and look for your chance. "I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really," he tells Red. "Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'."

The key to the film's structure, I think, is that it's not about its hero, but about our relationship with him - our curiosity, our pity, our admiration. If Andy had been the heroic center, bravely enduring, the film would have been conventional, and less mysterious. But we wonder about this guy. Did he really kill those two people? Why does he keep so much to himself? Why can he amble through the prison yard like a free man on a stroll, when everyone else plods or sidles?

People like excitement at the movies, and titles that provide it do well. Films about "redemption" are approached with great wariness; a lot of people are not thrilled by the prospect of a great film - it sounds like work. But there's a hunger for messages of hope, and when a film offers one, it's likely to have staying power even if it doesn't grab an immediate audience.

"The Shawshank Redemption" premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in September 1994, and opened a few weeks later. It got good reviews but did poor business (its $18 million original gross didn't cover costs; it took in only another $10 million after winning seven Oscar nominations, including best picture).

There wasn't much going for it: It had a terrible title, it was a "prison drama" and women don't like those, it contained almost no action, it starred actors who were respected but not big stars, and it was long at 142 minutes. Clearly this was a movie that needed word-of-mouth to find an audience, and indeed business was slowly but steadily growing when it was yanked from theaters. If it had been left to find its way, it might have continued to build and run for months, but that's not what happened.

Instead, in one of the most remarkable stories in home video history, it found its real mass audience on tapes and discs, and through TV screenings. Within five years, "Shawshank" was a phenomenon, a video best seller and renter that its admirers feel they've discovered for themselves. When the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the "Shawshank" groundswell in April 1999, it was occupying first place in the Internet Movie Database worldwide vote of the 250 best films; it's usually in the top five.

Polls and rentals reflect popularity but don't explain why people value "Shawshank" so fervently. Maybe it plays more like a spiritual experience than a movie. It does have entertaining payoff moments (as when the guards from another prison, wearing their baseball uniforms, line up to have Andy do their taxes). But much of the movie involves quiet, solitude, and philosophical discussions about life. The moments of violence (as when Andy is sexually assaulted) are seen objectively, not exploited.

The movie avoids lingering on Andy's suffering; after beatings, he's seen in medium and long shot, tactfully. The camera doesn't focus on Andy's wounds or bruises, but, like his fellow prisoners, gives him his space.

The Morgan Freeman character is carrier of the film's spiritual arc. We see him at three parole hearings, after 20, 30 and 40 years. The first hearing involves storytelling trickery; the film has opened with Andy's sentencing, and then we see a parole board, and expect it's about to listen to Andy's appeal. But, no, that's when we first see Red. In his first appeal he tries to convince the board he's been rehabilitated. In the second, he just goes through the motions. In the third, he rejects the whole notion of rehabilitation, and somehow in doing so he sets his spirit free, and the board releases him.

There's an underlying problem. Behind bars, Red is king. He's the prison fixer, able to get you a pack of cigarettes, a little rock pick or a Rita Hayworth poster. On the outside, he has no status or identity. We've already seen what happened to the old librarian ( James Whitmore ), lonely and adrift in freedom. The last act, in which Andy helps Red accept his freedom, is deeply moving - all the more so because Andy again operates at a distance, with letters and postcards, and is seen through Red's mind.

Frank Darabont wrote and directed the film, basing it on a story by Stephen King . His film grants itself a leisure that most films are afraid to risk. The movie is as deliberate, considered and thoughtful as Freeman's narration. There's a feeling in Hollywood that audiences have short attention spans and must be assaulted with fresh novelties. I think such movies are slower to sit through than a film like "Shawshank," which absorbs us and takes away the awareness that we are watching a film.

Deliberate, too, is the dialogue. Tim Robbins makes Andy a man of few words, quietly spoken. He doesn't get real worked up. He is his own man, capable of keeping his head down for years and then indulging in a grand gesture, as when he plays an aria from Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro." (The overhead shot of the prisoners in the yard, spellbound by the music, is one of the film's epiphanies.) Because he does not volunteer himself, reach out to us or overplay his feelings, he becomes more fascinating: It is often better to wonder what a character is thinking than to know.

Roger Deakins' cinematography is tactful, not showy. Two opening shots, one from a helicopter, one of prison walls looming overhead, establish the prison. Shots follow the dialogue instead of anticipating it. Thomas Newman's music enhances rather than informs, and there is a subtle touch in the way deep bass rumblings during the early murder are reprised when a young prisoner recalls another man's description of the crime.

Darabont constructs the film to observe the story, not to punch it up or upstage it. Upstaging, in fact, is unknown in this film; the actors are content to stay within their roles, the story moves in an orderly way, and the film itself reflects the slow passage of the decades. "When they put you in that cell," Red says, "when those bars slam home, that's when you know it's for real. Old life blown away in the blink of an eye. Nothing left but all the time in the world to think about it." Watching the film again, I admired it even more than the first time I saw it. Affection for good films often grows with familiarity, as it does with music. Some have said life is a prison, we are Red, Andy is our redeemer. All good art is about something deeper than it admits.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

142 minutes

Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne

Bob Gunton as Warden Norton

William Sadler as Heywood

James Whitmore as Librarian

Clancy Brown as Captain Hadley

Gil Bellows as Tommy

• Frank Darabont

Writer (short story "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption")

• Stephen King

Cinematographer

• Roger Deakins
• Richard Francis-Bruce
• Thomas Newman

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The shawshank redemption, common sense media reviewers.

Gritty prison tale has positive messages, lots of profanity.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Hope, endurance, and unconditional friendship are

Andy never gives up hope. Red is loyal and practic

A man commits suicide by hanging. A man is shot an

Sex is portrayed obliquely at the beginning. Lots

Frequent profanity, including "f--k." Jokes about

A man is shown sitting in his car drinking whiskey

Parents need to know that The Shawshank Redemption is an Oscar-nominated 1994 movie based on a Stephen King story about a man sent to a maximum security prison in Maine in the 1950s who shows the other inmates perseverance and provides a sense of hope and optimism in the bleakest of places and under the most…

Positive Messages

Hope, endurance, and unconditional friendship are core themes of the film. Corruption, manipulation, and betrayal are also present, but they're shown to fail in the end. The problem of "institutionalization" is shown and discussed -- a prison inmate has spent so much time in prison, he has forgotten how to live outside the prison walls. Integrity and perseverance are major themes.

Positive Role Models

Andy never gives up hope. Red is loyal and practical. All the characters are flawed, but it's clear who the "good" and "bad" guys are, even though their positions might not suggest that from the start. Inmates work together, often illegally, to make life more bearable. The warden is corrupt and takes bribes, but it's shown in a negative light.

Violence & Scariness

A man commits suicide by hanging. A man is shot and killed by another man with a rifle. Prison rape, while not graphically shown, is very strongly implied, with references to oral and anal sex and the takeaway that one of the lead characters was raped repeatedly by other prisoners.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Sex is portrayed obliquely at the beginning. Lots of cheesecake photos of sex symbols from the 1950s and '60s decorate the prison walls.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Frequent profanity, including "f--k." Jokes about rape. "Maggot d--k motherf---er." "Queer" is used pejoratively. "A--hole." "Son of a bitch." "Piss." "Horses--t." "Prick." "Fatass." "Ass." A euphemism for defecation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A man is shown sitting in his car drinking whiskey from a flask before stumbling out to, presumably, murder his wife and her lover. Cigarette smoking. Inmates drink beer after Andy wins a bet with the captain of the prison guards.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Shawshank Redemption is an Oscar-nominated 1994 movie based on a Stephen King story about a man sent to a maximum security prison in Maine in the 1950s who shows the other inmates perseverance and provides a sense of hope and optimism in the bleakest of places and under the most difficult of circumstances. The gritty world of Shawshank Prison is populated with sadistic guards, a corrupt warden, and predatory fellow inmates. Prison rape, while not graphically shown, is very strongly implied, with references and body positions suggesting forced anal and oral sex. Guards beat and kill an inmate. A prisoner is shot and killed by a man with a rifle. There is also a scene in which a character crawls through 500 yards of a sewer pipe filled with excrement. There is also frequent profanity, including "f--k" and its variations. However, the film also shows inmates forming a loving community of friendship and support despite oppressive conditions and a sense of maintaining perseverance and hope in the darkest of hours. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (43)
• Kids say (170)

Based on 43 parent reviews

The Overall Header On The Shawshank Redemption

Violence is present, what's the story.

In THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, Andy Dufresne ( Tim Robbins ) is convicted for the murder of his wife and her lover and sent to prison. It's 1949, and Andy doesn't have the stuff for prison life. Andy befriends "Red" Redding ( Morgan Freeman ) and uses his past as a banker to get a job in the prison library. But things unravel. In doing the books for the warden, he learns that the prison boss is taking bribes, and Andy is to launder them. A lovable former inmate hangs himself when he gets to the outside but can't adjust after decades behind bars. The inmate whom Andy helps get his GED is shot by the guards to keep him quiet about information that might prove Andy is innocent of the murders and set him free. Andy spends two months in solitary. After he gets out, he seems depressed and Red worries he'll kill himself. The next day, Andy isn't dead, but he isn't there, either -- he's escaped. The rest is a perfect Stephen King happy ending, complete with comeuppance for the corrupt warden.

Is It Any Good?

This is a movie that stands the test of time and still resonates with viewers. Call this the Stand by Me of prison stories. Stephen King, who penned Stand by Me , also wrote the short story on which The Shawshank Redemption is based. Here we have all the things that made Stand by Me such a satisfying experience: loveable characters, writerly flourishes, one-dimensional evil antagonists, enduring friendships, poetic justice, and a happy ending. This one is far darker and far more violent than Stand by Me and so ought to be reserved only for older teens. The story is slow to develop, and younger kids and children sensitive to the suffering of others may find this world a difficult one to sit with for the film's duration.

Having said all that, the film is satisfying but cloying. Andy is the minister of the healing power of hope. He educates the inmates on the healing power of Mozart. He builds a library. He asks Red why he stopped playing the harmonica. When Red replies that it's no use in prison, Andy looks at him soulfully and replies that "here's where you need it the most." Despite the somewhat unbelievable friendship between a white, upper-class banker and an African-American man in 1949, it's a valuable lesson that may seem inspired to kids who haven't heard this story before.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the ways oppressed people have kept their spirit historically -- for example, through spirituals created by slaves. How do Andy and Red handle prison differently in The Shawshank Redemption ? How would you handle such a bleak future? Why did Brooks feel more comfortable in prison than out of prison?

Why did Andy get Red a harmonica? What did that represent? Why did Red and Andy disagree on whether they should have hope for a better life? Did their class and race affect their approaches?

This movie attempts to show the life of inmates in a prison in 1950s Maine. While much has changed about prison life since that time, does the "institutionalization" discussed in the movie seem like it would be a problem today?

One of the most universal stories is the story of a "stranger coming to town." In other words, someone new to a place with long-established customs, rules, and traditions comes along and upends everything or at least changes or questions the ways in which things are done. How is this film an example of such a story? What are some other examples of movies, books, and plays in which a stranger comes to town?

How do the characters in The Shawshank Redemption demonstrate integrity and perseverance ? Why is this important character strengths ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : January 1, 1994
• On DVD or streaming : February 3, 2004
• Cast : Bob Gunton , Morgan Freeman , Tim Robbins
• Director : Frank Darabont
• Inclusion Information : Black actors
• Studio : Castle Rock Entertainment
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : Book Characters
• Character Strengths : Integrity , Perseverance
• Run time : 142 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence, mature themes
• Last updated : January 19, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Our editors recommend.

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The Shawshank Redemption Reviews

Darabont cut right to the heart of a flock of human birds trapped in a giant cage, under the watch of a corrupt warden and terrifyingly sinister guard. It was serious, certain, and made you laugh. Freeman's legend has never shined brighter.

Full Review | Original Score: A+ | May 7, 2024

If this is a feel-good movie -- and by the end it certainly is -- then at least it challenges us to dig deep for those good feelings when everything inside those mausoleum walls is unrelievedly harsh and grey.

Full Review | Mar 4, 2024

The Shawshank Redemption is both resigned and inspirational, grittily realistic and vaguely surreal, matter-of-fact and operatic. Somehow, these opposites are combined into a remarkably smooth and lyrical composition.

The sad thing is that The Shawshank Redemption, a so-so film, would have made a terrific little movie. A pacier project would have given us less time to notice sentimentalities.

Next to Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption ranks as the strongest, purest film ever made from a novel or novella by Stephen King, a monster film where the horrors are frighteningly human.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 4, 2024

It's Robbins and Freeman who carry the film, working around the most predictable moments with simple understatement.

There's nothing going on in The Shawshank Redemption from shot to shot -- no expressive life, no spontaneity or feeling. It's a stunted movie.

The acting is so strong, so seductive in The Shawshank Redemption that you almost don't notice this epic prison drama isn't all that good.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 4, 2024

Darabont, making his debut as a director, is swamped by ambition. There is just too much here -- too much plot, too many particulars, too many prisoners vying for attention.

A hackneyed prison movie with acting so strong that it often seems more substantive than it is.

The Shawshank Redemption may be working with stuff we've seen before, but it's surprisingly strong and engrossing. Even elitists in the audience who dismiss King as a shock schlockmeister may be amazed at this picture's narrative grip.

Its message of hope and friendship comes premixed with a sizable dollop of unappetizing violence, intended to convince audiences that what they're watching isn't a big glob of cotton candy after all.

Darabont gets Robbins' most subtle and multi-layered performance to date. But the Oscar nomination will go to Freeman, who shows the majesty of sadness and how sweet redemption can be -- even when all hope is lost.

It's a movie with dignity and surprises and before it has finished, it has acquired a good deal of power.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 4, 2024

The towering Tim Robbins has a solidity and gentle interiority that occasionally reminds one here of Burt Lancaster. Of equal excellence is Morgan Freeman as Red, who holds the film together with his poetic, often quipping narration.

You've never seen a prison movie quite like it, and I found its eccentric rhythms and the performances of co-stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman nearly irresistible.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 4, 2024

Even the most prosecutorial viewer will concede that Robbins and Freeman give The Shawshank Redemption a persuasive validity. They hold The Shawshank Redemption together as it gives way to story-driven melodrama.

A work of sincerity and honorable purpose, with a first-class cast... [But] Darabont has not found a way to resolve the problems and improbabilities that tower higher than the walls of the maximum security prison.

Never will you be so glad of the voyeuristic nature of filmgoing. Because The Shawshank Redemption is as close to prison as you'll want to get. And Robbins and Freeman make what could have been an endurance test an utterly engrossing experience.

It's a blissfully old-fashioned melodrama spanning three decades, a classic tall tale that experiences some particularly incredible growth spurts toward the end but manages to endure them without alienating the viewer.

The Shawshank Redemption Review

17 Feb 1994

143 minutes

Shawshank Redemption, The

This movie is based on a novella by Stephen King, but don't let that put you off. It's not a horror film, rather a thumpingly good ode to friendship, hope, wit, wiles and wisdom, brimming with crackling characters and topped with the most twisteroo of twists since The Crying Game. Found guilty of killing his unfaithful wife and her lover in a fit of passion, sullen accountant Andy Dufresne (Robbins, casting off his goofball image to display more layers than the proverbial onion) is shipped to the gothic wind-swept corridors of the Shawshank State Prison for life. It is here the movie gracefully unfolds. With a beautifully rounded script, writer/director Darabont conjures up a spellbinding personal odyssey stretching through the years from 1946 to 1967.

Dufresne, all the while protesting his innocence, slowly overcomes the hellfire tortures of the prison system - an unblinking range of beatings, rapings and abject humiliations - while managing to inspire his fellow inmates to lift their degraded horizons. Among them is Red (Freeman, in a matchless supporting role), the lifer who can, given time, provide virtually anything. And for reasons best known to himself, Dufresne requires 40s starlet Rita Hayworth, provisioned in poster form.

The mood swings rigorously through every emotion as the cranky, wiseguy and downright crazed array of criminals bare the brunt of the turbulent life within the doomy Shawshank catacomb. Then it gets really mean, gearing up for its injury-time shockers. Dufresne, a whiz with figures, is bullied into running the warden's (Gunton) petty accounting scams, giving him the chance to execute his and the film's final, greatest miracle.

If you're miserable enough to look for gripes then, yes, it does drift on too long and who needs prison buggery again? Yet the ending has such poetic completeness you're too busy contentedly chuckling to worry about sore behinds. This may have confounded American audiences - it flopped big-time on planet Yank - but a more divine movie experience you will not find this side of Oscardom. Spread the word.

Buy now on Amazon.

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The Shawshank Redemption

There's a painstaking exactness to "The Shawshank Redemption" that is both laudable and exhausting. The 19 years that the film's protagonist spends behind prison walls is a term shared by the audience. It's vivid and passes with the appropriate tedium and sudden bursts of horror that one imagines reflect the true nature of incarceration.

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There’s a painstaking exactness to “The Shawshank Redemption ” that is both laudable and exhausting. The 19 years that the film’s protagonist spends behind prison walls is a term shared by the audience. It’s vivid, grueling and painful, and passes with the appropriate tedium and sudden bursts of horror that one imagines reflect the true nature of incarceration. Definitely a film requiring careful nurturing, “Shawshank” will need critical kudos and year-end honors to maintain slow but consistent box office.

Mostly one is drawn along by the fascinating portrait and the innate humanity of its inmate principals. But it’s a long, serious haul (albeit leavened by humor and the unexpected) that will put a crimp in the pic’s mainstream acceptance.

The saga begins in 1947, when bank vice president Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) goes on trial for the murder of his wife and her lover. Though he strenuously maintains his innocence, his dispassionate demeanor grates on the court. Circumstantial evidence proves enough to land him in Shawshank Prison with two concurrent life sentences.

Popular on Variety

While it’s unquestionably Andy’s story, the chronicle is related in voiceover by “Red” (Morgan Freeman), a lifer who’s set himself up as someone who can get “things” from the outside. He marvels at the new man’s tenacity, knowing intrinsically that Andy is different and that he likes him, quirks and all.

While the film pays close attention to such requisite matters as sexual assault, staff brutality and the human capacity to survive, it has something quite different on its mind. It’s consumed by circumstance and life’s little ironies, which occur even in prison.

The turning point for Andy and his cronies is a bit of conversation captured during a work detail. A guard bemoans the fact that Uncle Sam will take a healthy bite of a recently deceased relative’s legacy. The ex-banker plucks up his courage and tells him how to keep the windfall. For a moment it’s like Androcles pulling the thorn from the lion’s paw.

Soon Andy is put to work in all manner of financial activity. He is Warden Norton’s (Bob Gunton) crown jewel and the source of both an enhanced public image for the man and a quietly acquired personal fortune. It’s not lost on the convicted murderer that he had to enter prison to learn dishonesty.

Gaining a more comfortable life behind bars proves a double-edged sword. The warden cannot afford to have Andy paroled. The man knows too much, and he is too valuable an asset. So, when the prospect of the truth rears its head, extreme measures come into play.

Ultimately, “The Shawshank Redemption” is about the dominance of real justice. That element of the narrative keeps themovie from descending into abject resignation.

Writer/director Frank Darabont adapts his source material with sly acuity. It’s a fiendishly clever construct in which seemingly oblique words or incidents prove to have fierce resonance. Darabont errs only when he digresses too long on a supporting character or embellishes a secondary story.

Central to the film’s success is a riveting, unfussy performance from Robbins. Precise, honest and seamless, it appears virtually uncalculated. It is the anchor keeping the piece from foundering.

Freeman has the showier role, allowing him a grace and dignity that come naturally. It’s a testament to his craft that the performance is never banal. Supporting work is uniformly strong, with Gunton and Clancy Brown, as a vicious guard, extremely credible in their villainy.

Tech credits are strong, with Roger Deakins’ images and Thomas Newman’s original score providing just the right balance between the somber and the absurd. Terence Marsh ‘s sets — on an actual prison location — capture the mustiness and permanence of the environment with aplomb.

A testament to the human spirit, the film is a rough diamond. Its languors are small quibbles in an otherwise estimable and haunting entertainment.

• Production: A Columbia release of a Castle Rock Entertainment production. Produced by Niki Marvin. Executive producers, Liz Glotzer, David Lester. Directed by Frank Darabont. Screenplay, Darabont, based on the short novel by Stephen King.
• Crew: Camera (Technicolor), Roger Deakins; editor, Richard Francis-Bruce; music, Thomas Newman; production design, Terence Marsh; art direction, Peter Smith; set decoration, Michael Sierton; costume design, Elizabeth McBride; sound (Dolby), Willie Burton; assistant director, John R. Woodward; casting, Deborah Aquila. Reviewed at AMC Century City, L.A., Aug. 24, 1994. (In Toronto Film Festival.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 142 min.
• With: Andy Dufresne - Tim Robbins Ellis Boy "Red" Redding - Morgan Freeman Warden Samuel Norton - Bob Gunton Heywood - William Sadler Capt. Byron Hadley - Clancy Brown Tommy Williams - Gil Bellows Brooks Hatlen - James Whitmore Bogs Diamond - Mark Rolston D.A. - Jeffrey DeMunn

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FILM REVIEW

FILM REVIEW; Prison Tale by Stephen King Told Gently, Believe It or Not

By Janet Maslin

• Sept. 23, 1994

There are standard ways to stage a prison film and standard ways to tell a story by Stephen King. But "The Shawshank Redemption," based on a King novella and set in the correctional institution of the title, succeeds in avoiding the familiar.

Without a single riot scene or horrific effect, it tells a slow, gentle story of camaraderie and growth, with an ending that abruptly finds poetic justice in what has come before. The writer and director, Frank Darabont, tells this tale with a surprising degree of loving care.

There are times when "The Shawshank Redemption" comes dangerously close to sounding one of those "triumph of the human spirit" notes. But most of it is eloquently restrained. Despite an excess of voice-over narration and inspirational music, Mr. Darabont's film has a genuine dignity that holds the interest. It is helped greatly by fine, circumspect performances from Morgan Freeman as a rueful lifer named Red and Tim Robbins as Andy, the new kid on the cellblock. The film spans nearly 20 years of friendship between these two.

When Andy is convicted of his wife's murder, the judge pronounces him "a particularly remorseless and icy man." He sustains that chill when he first arrives at Shawshank, remaining aloof from other inmates even when those inmates threaten him with physical harm. "I wish I could tell you that Andy fought the good fight," says Red, who knows Andy has been gang-raped by fellow prisoners, in one of the film's only halfway-brutal episodes. "I wish I could tell you that, but prison is no fairy-tale world."

Needless to say, the heroes of such stories usually do succeed in defending themselves, at least when Hollywood is telling the fairy tale. But "The Shawshank Redemption" has its own brand of iconoclasm, with Mr. Darabont's direction as quiet, purposeful and secretive as Andy is himself.

Eventually Andy begins to fit in, especially after he wows the guards with skills left over from his pre-prison banking career. From the first time he advises one guard to make a one-time-only tax-free gift to his wife, Andy gets a new lease on life as "a convicted murderer who provides sound financial planning."

Andy does special fiscal favors for the warden. ("You know, the funny thing is, on the outside I was an honest man, straight as an arrow," he says about this. "I had to come to prison to be a crook.") He also makes the occasional dramatic gesture, like commandeering the prison's loudspeaker and playing a Mozart aria for all his fellow inmates. The film has a tendency to wax romantic at such moments, but more often it sustains an intelligent reserve.

Mr. Freeman is so quietly impressive here that there's reason to wish Red's role had more range. As written, he spends his time observing Andy fondly and describing prison life. But Mr. Freeman's commanding presence makes him a much stronger figure than that. Mr. Freeman is especially moving when he suggests how dependent Red has become on the prison walls that give shape to his life. Even so, Red has kept his ruefulness. "Only guilty man in Shawshank," he jokes about himself.

Mr. Robbins has the trickier role of someone whose still waters run deep, but whose experience doesn't add up until an exposition-packed denouement. (The film's swift, enjoyably farfetched closing scenes are a sharp reminder of who is the author of this story, after all.) Andy's is the more subdued role, but Mr. Robbins plays it intensely, and he ages effectively from newcomer to father figure during the story. One of Andy's projects is improving the prison library, which once contained nothing but the equivalent of books by Stephen King.

To raise funds for this undertaking, Andy is steady and patient, writing weekly letters to state officials until he gets what he wants. Mr. Darabont, a screenwriter making an impressive directorial debut, works in much the same quietly persistent way. "The Shawshank Conspiracy" takes shape slowly and carefully, displaying an overall subtlety that's surprising in a movie of this genre. In the end, like Andy and Red, it gets to where it wanted to go.

"The Shawshank Redemption" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It includes profanity and occasional violence, including a scene that discreetly suggests homosexual rape.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION Written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption," by Stephen King; director of photography, Roger Deakins; edited by Richard Francis-Bruce; music by Tom Newman; production designer, Terence Marsh; produced by Niki Marvin; released by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 142 minutes. This film is rated R. WITH: Morgan Freeman (Red), Tim Robbins (Andy), Gil Bellows (Tommy), Clancy Brown (Captain Hadley), Bob Gunton (Warden Norton), Mark Rolston (Bogs Diamond), William Sadler (Heywood) and James Whitmore (Brooks Hatlen).

The Shawshank Redemption

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

If you think that’s a turnoff title, remember all the smartass things people said before Forrest Gump happened. Shawshank — the name refers to a maximum-security prison in Maine — is already being touted to join Gump in the Oscar race. Why not? The academy regularly drops its drawers for films that celebrate the triumph of the human spirit. And this baby strums that theme hard as inmate Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a Shawshank newcomer in 1946, strikes up a 20-year friendship with a lifer named Red (Morgan Freeman). They’re both in jail for the Big One: murder.

Robbins and Freeman have the juice as actors to make figuring out whether Andy and Red really did it a riveting guessing game, especially if you’re a sucker for prison melodramas. Writer Frank Darabont ( The Fly II ), in his feature-directing debut, doesn’t skimp on the caged-bird cliches, sadistic and sentimental, but he plays enough hardball with the formula to evoke memories of such goodies as Cool Hand Luke, Birdman of Alcatraz and Riot in Cell Block II.

Stephen King wrote the novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, on which the film is based. (Andy’s cell is bedecked with a poster of Hayworth in all her Gilda glory.) You can find the novella in a 1982 King collection, Different Seasons, along with a story, “The Body,” that became the, basis for the 1986 Rob Reiner smash Stand by Me. Both tales are said to represent the gentler side of King, meaning the side that doesn’t sell as well, though the torture, rape and killing in Shawshank qualify as horror in my book.

Darabont stays mostly true to the source, except for shooting in Ohio instead of Maine, expanding a few scenes and characters and casting the always welcome Freeman as a prisoner King described as a red-headed Irishman. King is a master at creating a whole world out of small details. Darabont tries to match him visually. The everyday agonies of prison life are meticulously laid out by cinematographer Roger Deakins ( Barton Fink ). You can almost feel the frustration and rage seeping into the skin of the inmates.

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There is humor, too, as Red brings the painfully introverted Andy out of his shell. Andy, a respected banker before being convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, wins favor and permission to expand the prison library by offering financial advice to the Shawshank elite. That includes Hadley (Clancy Brown), the cruel captain of the guards, and Norton (Bob Gunton), the fanatically religious warden. We’ve seen these types before. There are also cobwebs on Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore), the aged parolee who can’t adjust to the outside, and Tommy Williams (Gil Bellows, in a role once earmarked for Brad Pitt), the young thief who can’t live inside.

It’s the no-bull performances that hold back the flood of banalities. Robbins and Freeman connect with the bruised souls of Andy and Red to create something undeniably powerful and moving. Instead of selling bromides, as lesser actors would do, they show the wrenching struggle required by any human being in a trap simply to keep hope alive.

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Shawshank Redemption, The (United States, 1994)

With a legion of titles like Pet Sematary, Firewalker, Sleepwalkers, Maximum Overdrive , and Children of the Corn , it's reasonable not to expect much from Stephen King-inspired motion pictures. Adaptations of the prolific author's work typically vary from mildly entertaining to virtually unwatchable. There are a few notable exceptions, however; two of which ( Stand by Me, Misery ) were crafted by widely-respected director Rob Reiner. While The Shawshank Redemption is not a Reiner movie per se, it is a production of Castle Rock Pictures (Reiner's film company), and ranks among the best filmed versions of any King stories to date. (This statement has not changed since I first wrote it in 1994.)

Spanning the years from 1947 through 1966, The Shawshank Redemption takes the "innocent man in prison" theme and bends it at a different angle. Instead of focusing on crusades for freedom, the movie ventures down a less-traveled road, concentrating on the personal cost of adapting to prison life and how some convicts, once they conform, lose the ability to survive beyond the barbed wire and iron bars. As one of the characters puts it: "These [prison] walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them, then you start to depend on them."

Filmed on location in a disused Ohio prison, The Shawshank Redemption is set in a place of perpetual dreariness. What little color there is, is drab and lifeless (lots of grays and muted greens and blues), and there are times when the film is a shade away from black-and-white (give credit to cinematographer Roger Deakins, a longtime Cohen brothers collaborator). It's ironic, therefore, that the central messages are of hope, redemption, and salvation.

First time feature director Frank Darabont helms a fleet of impressive performances. Tim Robbins, as Andrew Dufresne, plays the wrongly convicted man with quiet dignity. Andy's ire is internal; he doesn't rant about his situation or the corruptness of the system that has imprisoned him. His unwillingness to surrender hope wins him the admiration of some and the contempt of others, and allows the audience to identify with him that much more strongly.

Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman), or "Red" as his friends call him, is the self-proclaimed "Sears and Roebuck" of the Shawshank Prison (for a price, he can get just about anything from the outside). His is the narrative voice and, for once, the disembodied words aid, rather than intrude upon, the story. Serving a life sentence for murder, Red is a mixture of cynicism and sincerity - a man with a good soul who has done a vile deed. His friendship with Andy is one of The Shawshank Redemption 's highlights.

William Sadler (as a fellow prisoner), Clancy Brown (as a sadistic guard), and Bob Gunton (as the corrupt warden) all give fine supporting performances. Newcomer Gil Bellows, in a small but crucial role (that was originally intended for Brad Pitt), brings the poise of a veteran to his portrayal of Tommy Williams, Andy's protege.

Ultimately, the standout actor is the venerable James Whitmore, doing his finest work in years. Whitmore's Brooks is a brilliantly realized character, and the scenes with him attempting to cope with life outside of Shawshank represents one of the film's most moving - and effective - sequences.

Unfortunately, following a solid two hours of thought-provoking drama, the movie deflates like a punctured balloon during its overlong denouement. The too-predictable final twenty minutes move a little slowly, and writer/director Darabont exposes a distressing need to wrap up everything into a tidy little package.

"Salvation lies within," advises Warden Norton at one point. It is the presentation of this theme that makes The Shawshank Redemption unique. Prison movies often focus on the violence and hopelessness of a life behind bars. While this film includes those elements, it makes them peripheral. The Shawshank Redemption is all about hope and, because of that, watching it is both uplifting and cathartic.

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The Shawshank Redemption Plot Summary

“The Shawshank Redemption” is a powerful drama that tells the story of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a banker who is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. The film is divided into three parts, each of which highlights a different aspect of Andy’s experiences in prison.

Act 1: The Arrival

The film opens with Andy’s arrival at Shawshank prison, where he is immediately subjected to the harsh realities of prison life. He is strip-searched, given a uniform, and assigned a cell in the overcrowded and noisy prison. From the start, we see the brutality and dehumanization of prison life, as the prisoners are subjected to constant abuse from the guards and each other.

As Andy begins to adjust to life in prison, we see him make connections with other prisoners, including Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman), a long-time inmate and institutionalized “fixer” who knows how to get things. Through Red, Andy is able to obtain a rock hammer, which he uses to carve chess pieces out of stone. We see Andy’s intelligence and resourcefulness on display as he finds ways to make the best of his situation, despite the hardships and violence he must endure.

One of the most poignant moments in the first part of the film is when we see Andy emerge from solitary confinement, where he has been locked up for playing music over the prison’s loudspeakers. As he steps out into the sunlight, we see his face for the first time, and we can sense the relief and freedom that he feels. This moment underscores the brutality and dehumanization of the prison system, and serves as a powerful reminder of the humanity that still exists within the prisoners.

Act 2: The Escape

In the second act of the film, we see Andy become increasingly disillusioned with the prison system, particularly after he is falsely accused of a crime and subjected to more time in solitary confinement. It is at this point that he begins to hatch a plan to escape, enlisting the help of Red and other inmates.

Over the course of the second part of the film, we see Andy’s intelligence and resourcefulness on full display, as he begins to lay the groundwork for his escape. He begins by using his financial knowledge to help the prison guards with their taxes, gaining their trust and respect in the process. He also uses his talent for accounting to embezzle money from the prison, slowly amassing a small fortune that he will use to finance his escape.

As the plan begins to take shape, we see Andy’s determination and focus, as he works tirelessly to tunnel his way out of the prison. The escape plan takes months to execute, and is fraught with danger and uncertainty. However, Andy is undeterred, and uses his intelligence and cunning to stay one step ahead of the prison authorities.

One of the most memorable scenes in the second part of the film is when Andy finally emerges from the tunnel, climbing through a sewage pipe and emerging into the pouring rain. The scene is shot in slow motion, with Andy’s face illuminated by a flash of lightning, and we can sense the relief and exhilaration that he feels at finally achieving his goal.

Act 3: The Redemption

The third act of “The Shawshank Redemption” takes us into the lives of Andy Dufresne and Ellis “Red” Redding after they have been released from prison. Andy had escaped from Shawshank and was now living in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, where he had sent a letter to Red telling him about his escape and asking him to meet him there. Red, who had been released on parole, decides to follow Andy’s instructions and takes a bus to Mexico.

When Red arrives in Zihuatanejo, he finds Andy living in a small house near the beach. The two men greet each other warmly and begin to catch up on each other’s lives. They talk about the hardships they faced in prison and the importance of hope and friendship in getting through those difficult times.

The film’s final act explores the themes of redemption and the possibility of second chances. Andy and Red are able to find a new beginning outside of the prison system, free from the brutal and dehumanizing reality of life inside Shawshank. The scenes in Zihuatanejo are shot in warm, golden light, underscoring the idea of the possibility of a new beginning and a second chance at life.

“The Shawshank Redemption” is a 1994 American drama film directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. The movie is based on a novella by Stephen King. “The Shawshank Redemption” has become a classic in American cinema and is often regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. And it is not hard to see why. The film has a captivating storyline, strong performances by its lead actors, and beautiful cinematography that immerses the audience into the world of the prison.

One of the key themes of the movie is the power of hope and the resilience of the human spirit. Andy’s ability to maintain his hope and to fight for his freedom, even in the face of overwhelming odds, is a testament to the human spirit’s ability to endure and overcome adversity. Another central theme is the importance of friendship and human connection, as exemplified by the bond between Andy and Red, which becomes a source of strength and support for both men throughout their time in prison.

The film’s screenplay, written by Darabont, is a masterclass in storytelling, following the classic three-act structure proposed by Syd Field. The movie has a clear setup, confrontation, and resolution, with each act advancing the plot and characters’ development. Additionally, the film’s editing, as discussed by David Bordwell, is precise, helping to build tension and create emotional impact through effective cutting.

Marcel Martin’s idea of character arc is also evident in the movie. Andy’s transformation from a broken and despondent prisoner to a hopeful and driven person with a plan to escape is a testament to the character’s growth throughout the film. The ending is a satisfying resolution that rewards the audience for investing in the characters’ journey.

Overall, “The Shawshank Redemption” is a cinematic masterpiece that delivers a poignant and emotional story that resonates with audiences. The film’s excellent use of cinematic language and adherence to storytelling principles makes it a must-watch for any movie lover.

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The Shawshank Redemption Parent Guide

This movie is a cultural powerhouse thanks to a powerful, well-told story and convincing acting..

Convicted of murder, Andy Dufresne fears that what he learns about the crime in prison might get him killed.

Run Time: 142 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by keith hawkes.

Following the brutal murders of his wife and her lover, banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is convicted of the crime and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences in the notoriously tough Shawshank Prison. While Andy maintains that he didn’t commit the murders, he settles into prison life with the help of Red (Morgan Freeman), a fellow convict.

Even with a friend, prison is dangerous. Pursued by “The Sisters”, a gang of vicious rapists, and trying to avoid the wanton cruelty of the guards, Andy learns quickly that surviving in Shawshank is not guaranteed. The Warden, Samuel Norton (Bob Gunton), puts Andy to work, using his financial expertise to help him launder the money he skims off from his ongoing scams and bribes. While Andy’s work for the Warden offers him better opportunities inside, it also exposes him to even more risk. Andy has nothing but time, and he’s not about to let prison be the end of him…

As far as parents or teachers are concerned, there is some negative content that should be considered before showing this movie to teens. Obviously, a prison film doesn’t show people at their best. Beatings, murders, suicides, rape, and a healthy helping of profanity are all issues here. The silver lining for parents is that, apart from the profanity, these are not positive or graphic depictions. Violence (particularly sexual violence) and drinking have consequences, and they aren’t shown in detail. While this film is hardly suitable viewing for children, older teens who like serious drama will probably find it interesting.

Gripping, surprising, emotional, and exceptional, The Shawshank Redemption is one of the few films that, years after release, remains popular and acclaimed. If you haven’t watched it, do yourself a favor and buckle in for a fantastic experience. If you have watched it, do yourself another favor and give it another look. I’ve seen this film half a dozen times, and I notice different details every time. There’s a reason this movie succeeded despite poor theatrical earnings – it’s just too good to ignore.

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The Shawshank Redemption Rating & Content Info

Why is The Shawshank Redemption rated R? The Shawshank Redemption is rated R by the MPAA for language and prison violence

Violence: There are references to murder. Several men are severely beaten, in one case fatally. There are several depictions of rape without graphic detail or on screen activity. A man hangs himself, and another shoots himself in the head. Sexual Content: A couple are shown undressing while kissing passionately, and later having sex without graphic nudity or detail. There are references to sex and adultery. There are several instances of crude sexual language. There are several depictions of male posterior nudity in a non-sexual context. There are depictions of rape without graphic detail or on-screen activity. Profanity: There are 34 uses of extreme profanity, 37 scatological terms, and frequent uses of mild cursing and terms of deity. Alcohol / Drug Use: Adults are seen drinking, on one occasion excessively, and smoking cigarettes. There is a brief reference to marijuana.

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The Shawshank Redemption Parents' Guide

This film works around themes of hope, salvation, despair, justice, and yes, redemption. How do you think the film explores those concepts? Do you think some of them are handled better than others? If so, which ones and why? If not, how do you think the film manages to convey such complex themes so clearly?

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Frank Darabont has directed two other Stephen King adaptations, namely The Green Mile and The Mist . Other quality King adaptations include Stand by Me, Misery , The Shining , and Doctor Sleep . Classic prison films include movies like The Great Escape , Cool Hand Luke, The Last Castle, and Papillon .

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How ‘shawshank redemption’ turned a prison into a hellhole of a tourist magnet.

The former Ohio State Reformatory, where the Oscar-nominated film shot 30 years ago, is now a museum that draws over 170,000 people a year.

By Linda Laban

Linda Laban

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When Andy Dufresne crawled to freedom through “five hundred yards of shit-smelling foulness” in The Shawshank Redemption , it was the ultimate act of hope. As the story’s tagline has it, “Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.”

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Like the town, and like Andy, the movie itself went through a rough patch. Upon release in 1994, Shawshank was initially a box office flop. Seven Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best adapted screenplay, gave it a seal of approval. But then, steadily, by word-of-mouth, the film rose to crown IMDb’s Top 250 Movies chart, a ranking determined by IMDb users. Since 2008, it has remained at No. 1.

This success story is fitting: Andy’s crawl through that stinking sewer pipe highlights Shawshank’s inner-story of resilience and humility. As the film’s tagline has it, “Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.” 

Writer and director Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption tells the story of Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a frigid man wrongly imprisoned for murdering his wife and her lover, and the deep friendship he finds with fellow prisoner Ellis “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman).

Not only was Darabont blessed with brilliant casting, but he found the perfect location.

“I was looking for a big, empty prison,” recalls Darabont. While trawling the Showbiz Expo trade show in Santa Monica, he met Eve Lapolla, former head of the Ohio Film Commission. “She showed me an aerial photo of this big, Gothic-looking place,” Darabont tells THR . “I looked at another prison near Nashville, but it looked more like Cinderella’s castle — I did end up using that one in The Green Mile. “

In 1990, Mansfield was a hub of activity, when the Westinghouse Electric Corporation operated there. But the shutdown of Westinghouse’s remaining plant in the town and the closing of the reformatory gates ripped out the town’s economic guts.

Then Hollywood came calling.

It was not lost on Darabont that Mansfield was yet another Rust Belt town struggling to find an economic and even social identity after its industrial glory days ended. “We were able to employ a lot of local people to work on the sets and as extras too,” he recalls. “The community really pulled together around the film. They were so welcoming.”

As a thank-you to the town, the movie premiered at Mansfield’s Renaissance Theatre in October 1994. But post-filming, the state planned to demolish the reformatory and erect a new prison there.

Luckily, wrecking ball plans came up against the local Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society, formed in 1995 to save the deteriorating building, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. “The architectural value is highly significant,” says Dan Seckel, principal at Seckel Group Architects in Mansfield and a founding board member of the preservation society. “To have both that particular use as a reformatory, and this grand architectural design in that time period is unique.”

And after Darabont shined a Hollywood spotlight on the reformatory, the state thought twice about demolishing it.

“With the Shawshank interest, the state came around,” says Seckel. “It took a few years for us to gain control. It was really in bad shape by then.”

The state sold it to the preservationists for a nominal dollar. General tours of the prison started in 1996. It has since appeared in more movies, including 1997’s Air Force One (“I didn’t see Harrison Ford but Glenn Close was here,” says Sekel) and 2021’s Judas and the Black Messiah . By 2019, they had acquired enough memorabilia to open a museum.

In their early days as guardians, Seckel and the team cleared out junk from the yard and repaired what they could themselves. “I noticed people driving up,” he says. “I was amazed. People would show up at the gates. Some were from Japan and Brazil, even. Just to see where The Shawshank Redemption was made.”

Affirms Dan Smith, associate director at the Ohio State Reformatory, “The main reason people come is because Shawshank was filmed here. We’ve had a few paranormal TV shows filmed here, too; we get that crowd visiting. But it is Shawshank that’s the main attraction.”

Taking a historic tour with a guide reveals what life was like there. It was not pretty. At its worst, as many as eight men crammed into astonishingly small, dark cells — stacked one atop another. The cells were originally built for two inmates, each with a toilet and small sink as the only convenience.

“It must have been pretty bad. You can feel how oppressive it was when you are in the tiny cells,” Darabont says. “We couldn’t use them to film in; they were too small to fit the crew inside. We had to build a set in a nearby empty warehouse. That is what you see in the film.” Agrees Smith, “The sheer. noise of all those men stacked up on one another … the smell must have been terrible. Most men wanted to do their time and get out and never return.”

In a strange plot twist, Shawshank gave the community a cultural and economic boost, with around 170,000 people a year visiting the museum. “People all over the world know the film,” says Smith. “For them, Shawshank is living now, here. The film is bringing people to the prison and into Mansfield and into businesses.”

“My wife and I went to the 25th anniversary and had such fun,” Darabont beams. “People from all over the world were there. I’m trying to rally the cast into attending. It is such a great event, and a great community of fans, and the local people are so behind it.” Adds Smith, “The community still feels that Shawshank connection. It is impactful to the people living in Mansfield. There’s an emotional connected to the film and that translates into the building.”

This story first appeared in the May 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe .

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9 Mistakes That Made it Into The Shawshank Redemption

Even a near-perfect film like The Shawshank Redemption is bound to have a few flaws.

The Shawshank Redemption is in many people's top films of all time. The adaptation of the Stephen King story has garnered praise time and time again. It's one of those films that, when you catch it on cable television, you stop and watch it, or when you scroll past it on a streaming platform, you contemplate putting it on. It's a film with that kind of effect on people.

The Shawshank Redemption

The film tells the story of Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), as told by his inmate and friend Red (Morgan Freeman). The pair bond at Shawshank prison, as Andy is doing life for a crime he believes he didn't commit.

Many call The Shawshank Redemption a perfect film, holding a top spot on IMDb's rankings for some time. Oddly, it was overlooked upon its release in 1994 but gained traction as one of the greatest films ever made over the years. However, like many films, especially ones on a high pedestal, the Frank Darabont-directed movie has its flaws; some of them you have to have a keen eye for, others are right there in front of you.

9 Typos in the End Credits

End credits have to be a hard thing to do. Whoever has the job of producing the scrolling text of everyone who worked on the movie, whether it be the crew, office P.A., or someone from accounting who never stepped foot on set, God bless them. With a task like that, there is always a chance that there may be a typo here and there. Writing can be a hard job. Heck, there might even be a typo in this entry too.

No person who sits through the end credits of movies out of respect for all who worked on a film would even spot this one, but IMDB did. Apparently, when the credits reach the sound department as the beautiful closing shot of the beach fades to black, the title for Additional ADR Recordist is spelled "Aditional ADR Recordist.

8 Andy's Bible

The word "Redemption" is in the title of the film, so, of course, there were going to be a lot of religious undertones in terms of the protagonist having a redemptive tale about being able to survive prison. Andy's Bible is a standout prop throughout the film, and it is something that plays a pivotal part in his escape in the third act of the movie. However, there are some continuity issues with it.

Dirty and Clean

Maybe we're being too hard on the movie, as things get worn out over time, especially a book, but throughout the film, Andy's Bible seems brand new, and then in other scenes it has some wear and tear, then in a later scene it looks brand new again. These feel like small details that a prop master on set should be on top of.

The condition of the Bible even changes in one scene. When Andy's cell is being searched, it's a clean blue bible. When the Warden asks him about his favorite bible verse, it's dirty and older-looking.

Related: Here Are Some of the Greatest Prison Escapes in Movie History

7 JFK and the .44 Cent Stamp

Andy is given tasks from The Warden that end up burning the Warden in the film's climax after his escape. He's close to the paperwork that shows the corruption at the prison, and he uses it to his advantage when he makes his escape. However, there is another small detail that, when paying close attention, can catch your eye when Andy is dealing with mail.

JFK Continuity Error

The Shawshank Redemption takes place over the course of 19 years. He arrives at the prison in 1947 and escapes in the mid-1960s. Andy's first order of business is to send out some mail when he gets to a bank the morning after he escapes prison. On the .44 cent stamp is what looks like President John F. Kennedy.

We are not stamp experts, but based on IMDb's list of goofs in the film, JFK was never on that stamp. The stamps are also not perforated, meaning they are not real stamps.

6 Warden Norton's Hand

Warden Norton (Bob Gunton) is one of the more pivotal supporting roles in The Shawshank Redemption. He's the perfect bad guy and one of the more hated characters in movie history. However, in a pivotal scene after Andy's escape, there is a continuity error that shows up for a quick second in the film that is easy to spot.

Norton Points at Red

The day after Andy escaped, we have a scene that shows Warden Norton and his guards investigating the disappearance of Andy in his cell. The discovery of the hole in the wall that Andy crawled through is a shock to the Warden and his guards. They then call in Red ( Morgan Freeman) to interrogate him to see if he knew anything about Andy's escape. Red, being that he was very close with Andy, knows nothing of it.

In one shot, Norton points at Red with his left hand. Then, when the angle changes to a wider shot, Norton is pointing at Red with his right hand.

5 Red's Window on His Bus Ride to Freedom

Red, played by Morgan Freeman, is the storyteller behind The Shawshank Redemption . We get to know all that is happening through his narration and even his point of view. All the while, he too has a character arc that pays off big in the end. Red finally gets his freedom after years of his potential parole being rejected. The look on Red's face as he gets a taste of freedom is, in essence, the theme of the whole movie.

Red's Window on the Bus Has a Continuity Error

It's a beautiful moment in the film, as Red now tastes and feels freedom on the bus ride out of Shawshank. He has his arm out to dangle from the window. Every window on the bus is open. However, when cut to a different angle of the bus making its way down the road from afar, we see that the bus now has all the windows shut and nobody has their arms dangling out of them.

4 Brooks Walking Down the Aisle

Brooks, played by James Whitmore, is a perfect example of a smaller character in a movie that has a lasting impact. Brooks is an older man who has been locked up in prison for many years. His life outside the walls of Shawshank does not last long, as he struggles to cope with the outside world. He ends up killing himself tragically, leaving behind the famous word "Brooks Was Here" carved into the wall of his halfway house.

Brooks' Cart

In prison, Brooks was known as the man who delivered books and knick-knacks to the inmates. In one scene where he pushes his cart down the aisle and stops at Andy's cell to give him a hammer, he keeps going further down the aisle. The interesting thing is that Andy's cell was at the end of the aisle, and there was a wall there. Brooks could not have kept going forward; he would have needed to turn around.

3 The Warden's Suicide

As mentioned prior, Warden Norton, played brilliantly by character actor Bob Gunton, is one of the greatest villains of all time. A character that feels all too real that only Stephen King could craft in his head. After Andy Dufresne has escaped, Shawshank Prison and its warden are exposed for their wrongdoing, and Norton decides to shoot himself before the law can have their way with him.

The Bullet Hole

We never see Warden Norton shoot himself. We see him put the gun to his chin, and then we hear the gunfire, and his dead body is revealed to authorities. However, the bullet hole where he shot himself does not seem to line up with where the gun was. All of this appears in the original cut of the movie. Director Frank Darabont went back in and fine-tuned the scene ten years later, so that the continuity error was fixed.

2 Andy Never Ages

Tim Robbins' performance in The Shawshank Redemption as Andy Dufresne is a role he will always be known for. Dufresne is meticulous as he goes through his journey of nearly two decades behind bars for a murder he didn't commit. He's quiet, thoughtful, and refuses to fall into the culture of dehumanizing a person, something that prison can do to someone. There is something about Andy that goes over people's heads, though.

Everyone Gets Older

Andy Dufresne never ages. All the other characters who spend time at Shawshank show signs of physical change, even if its minor. The Warden is much older by the time he meets his demise, and Red's hair is much grayer when you reach the third act of the film. However, Andy keeps his looks very intact throughout what is a life sentence that he decides to cut short.

1 A Flashback Where the Dialogue Doesn't Match Up

Flashbacks that show a different point of view of an earlier event in the movie are a dime a dozen. They are meant to show you a plot twist or explain a character's big surprise they pull off. The Shawshank Redemption perfectly backtracks to show you Andy Dufresne's escape. It's the best part of the movie, but it still has its flaws.

The Scene Replays With Different Dialogue

When we go back step by step to see how Andy escaped Shawshank, a lot of scenes are replayed with Red's narration over them to show us how Andy pulled off what he did. Andy's shoes, and the bible he owned all played a big part in his escape.

Related: Tim Robbins Debunks Major Shawshank Redemption Plothole, 30 Years Later But rather than it just being the same scene replayed, we see re-shot scenes where the dialogue is different. Case in point: when Andy discusses the deposit with an office worker, the original line is "three deposits, sir," and in the scene later on, he says, "three deposits tonight." They could have just replayed the scene again.

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• Print length 128 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Scribner
• Publication date September 29, 2020
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.38 inches
• ISBN-10 1982155752
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner; First Edition (September 29, 2020)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1982155752
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1982155759
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.4 x 8.38 inches
• #114 in TV, Movie & Game Tie-In Fiction
• #1,077 in Literary Fiction (Books)
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About the author

Stephen king.

Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. Both MR MERCEDES and END OF WATCH received the Goodreads Choice Award for the Best Mystery and Thriller of 2014 and 2016 respectively.

King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King's books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald's Game and It.

King was the recipient of America's prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine.

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IMDb Charts

Imdb top 250 movies.

1. The Shawshank Redemption

2. The Godfather

3. The Dark Knight

4. The Godfather Part II

5. 12 Angry Men

6. Schindler's List

7. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

8. Pulp Fiction

9. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

10. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

11. Forrest Gump

12. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

13. Fight Club

14. Inception

15. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back

16. The Matrix

17. Goodfellas

18. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

20. Interstellar

21. It's a Wonderful Life

22. Seven Samurai

23. The Silence of the Lambs

24. Saving Private Ryan

25. City of God

26. Life Is Beautiful

27. The Green Mile

28. Dune: Part Two

29. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

30. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope

31. Back to the Future

32. Spirited Away

33. The Pianist

34. Parasite

36. Gladiator

37. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

38. The Lion King

39. The Departed

40. Léon: The Professional

41. American History X

42. Whiplash

43. The Prestige

44. Grave of the Fireflies

45. Harakiri

46. The Usual Suspects

47. Casablanca

48. The Intouchables

49. Cinema Paradiso

50. Modern Times

51. Rear Window

52. Once Upon a Time in the West

54. City Lights

55. Django Unchained

56. Apocalypse Now

57. Memento

58. 12th Fail

60. Raiders of the Lost Ark

61. The Lives of Others

62. Sunset Boulevard

63. Avengers: Infinity War

64. Paths of Glory

65. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

66. Witness for the Prosecution

67. The Shining

68. The Great Dictator

70. Inglourious Basterds

71. The Dark Knight Rises

72. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

74. American Beauty

76. Amadeus

77. Toy Story

78. Avengers: Endgame

79. Das Boot

80. Braveheart

81. Good Will Hunting

82. Princess Mononoke

84. Your Name.

85. High and Low

86. Once Upon a Time in America

87. 3 Idiots

88. Singin' in the Rain

89. Capernaum

90. Requiem for a Dream

91. Come and See

92. Toy Story 3

93. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi

94. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

95. The Hunt

96. 2001: A Space Odyssey

97. Oppenheimer

98. Reservoir Dogs

100. Lawrence of Arabia

101. The Apartment

102. Incendies

103. North by Northwest

104. Citizen Kane

106. Scarface

107. Vertigo

108. Double Indemnity

109. Amélie

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112. A Clockwork Orange

114. To Kill a Mockingbird

115. A Separation

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117. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

118. Die Hard

119. Like Stars on Earth

120. Metropolis

121. Snatch

122. Hamilton

123. L.A. Confidential

125. Bicycle Thieves

126. Taxi Driver

127. Downfall

128. Dangal

129. Batman Begins

130. For a Few Dollars More

131. The Wolf of Wall Street

132. Some Like It Hot

133. Green Book

134. The Kid

135. The Father

136. Judgment at Nuremberg

137. The Truman Show

138. All About Eve

139. Top Gun: Maverick

140. Shutter Island

141. There Will Be Blood

142. Casino

143. Jurassic Park

145. The Sixth Sense

146. Pan's Labyrinth

147. Unforgiven

148. No Country for Old Men

149. A Beautiful Mind

150. The Thing

151. Kill Bill: Vol. 1

152. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

153. Yojimbo

154. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

155. The Great Escape

156. Finding Nemo

157. Prisoners

158. Rashomon

159. Howl's Moving Castle

160. The Elephant Man

161. Chinatown

162. Dial M for Murder

163. Gone with the Wind

164. V for Vendetta

165. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

166. The Secret in Their Eyes

167. Inside Out

168. Raging Bull

169. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

170. Trainspotting

171. The Bridge on the River Kwai

174. Spider-Man: No Way Home

175. Catch Me If You Can

176. Warrior

177. Gran Torino

178. My Neighbor Totoro

179. Million Dollar Baby

180. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

181. Children of Heaven

182. 12 Years a Slave

183. Blade Runner

184. Ben-Hur

185. Before Sunrise

186. The Grand Budapest Hotel

187. Barry Lyndon

188. Gone Girl

189. Hacksaw Ridge

190. The Gold Rush

191. Memories of Murder

192. In the Name of the Father

193. Dead Poets Society

194. Mad Max: Fury Road

195. Wild Tales

196. The Deer Hunter

197. The General

198. Monsters, Inc.

199. On the Waterfront

200. Sherlock Jr.

201. How to Train Your Dragon

203. The Third Man

204. The Wages of Fear

205. Mary and Max

206. Wild Strawberries

207. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

208. Ratatouille

209. Ford v Ferrari

210. Tokyo Story

211. The Big Lebowski

213. The Seventh Seal

216. Spotlight

217. Hotel Rwanda

218. The Terminator

219. Platoon

220. The Passion of Joan of Arc

221. La haine

222. Before Sunset

223. The Best Years of Our Lives

224. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

225. Jai Bhim

226. The Exorcist

228. Network

229. The Wizard of Oz

230. Stand by Me

231. The Incredibles

232. Hachi: A Dog's Tale

233. My Father and My Son

234. The Handmaiden

235. Into the Wild

236. The Sound of Music

237. To Be or Not to Be

238. The Battle of Algiers

239. Groundhog Day

240. The Grapes of Wrath

241. Amores Perros

242. The Iron Giant

243. Rebecca

244. Cool Hand Luke

245. The Help

246. It Happened One Night

247. Drishyam

248. Dances with Wolves

249. Gangs of Wasseypur

250. Aladdin

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