top of page
The Shawshank Redemption:
A Comparison of Its Movie and Original Novel
Posted by Yu Tung, 01.02.2022
The Shawshank Redemption, a movie about escaping from the jail, is always among the best in most film reviews. This story is narrated in a third-person perspective of a long-timer, Red. He recalls his memory about Andy who is a successful banker and convicted by a crackerjack legal circus. The narrative focuses on the friendship between Red and Andy, Andy’s outstanding intellect, and the seamy side of the judicial system. Moreover, the plots of this highly-rated movie are based on “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” in Different Season, written by Stephen King. The differences between the book and the movie of The Shawshank Redemption will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
(The movie and the original)
To begin with, the movie shows a different time span of the story from the book. In the book, the prison has changed three wardens when Andy stays there. Then, Andy spends 27 years digging a secret passage for escaping from the jail. However, because movies have a time limit, Andy stays in the jail for nineteen years before jailbreak and only has one warden. In order to save time, movie versions may delete some unnecessary plots from originals. As a result, the story in the movie has a different duration.
(The secret passage in Andy's cell)
Next, the movie and the book have a dissimilar character setting. The movie has a significant character setting to distinguish who the protagonists and the antagonists are. Andy is a justice guy who is fighting for freedom and inequality. The warden, a symbol of the corrupt judicial system, takes advantage of Andy’s extensive experience of financial knowledge to launder money. In the novel, Andy sometimes does some similar stuff as the warden does. For example, he bribes the warden to punish those criminals that Andy dislikes. In order to add dramatic tension, the movie puts more emphasis on the characters’ comparison. Therefore, in the movie has exactly good and evil people, but the character setting is more various and complex in the original.
(Different from the novel, the warden is an exactly villain in the movie.)
Finally, the book and the movie have extremely different endings. At the end of the movie, after Red gets parole, Andy and he start a business on a desert island together because Andy promises Red that he will give him lots of help outside the prison. However, the book only tells readers that what Red imagines the process of the journey to find Andy. Red has gotten parole at the end of the volume undoubtedly, but we cannot be sure whether Red has met Andy on a desert island. Consequently, the movie has a clear ending, and the novel gives us an opening ending.
(Red meets Andy on a desert island at the end of the movie.)
In conclusion, compare with the original, the movie version has a different time span, dissimilar ways to describe characters’ personalities, and an extremely different ending. From my perspective, I highly recommend both the movie and book because I am touched by the enthralling plots in the movie and the warmth of their friendship in the book. Though the movie is adapted from the book a lot, those two are classic for film lovers.
(the trailer of the movie)
My official & personal instagram:
bottom of page