The Shawshank Redemption
Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.
Country
Production
Budget
$25 000 000
Revenue
$28 418 687
Director
Actors
Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, William Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, James Whitmore, Mark Rolston, Jeffrey DeMunn, Larry Brandenburg
All actors and roles (10)
All actors and roles (10)
Scenario
Producer
Niki Marvin, David V. Lester, Liz Glotzer
Operator
Composer
Artist
Terence Marsh, Jack Evans
Audition
Deborah Aquila, Julie Lichter
Editing
Short description
In the 1940s, a banker named Andy Dufresne is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover and sentenced to life at Shawshank, a Maine penitentiary. He insists he is innocent, but the years that follow test that claim against the routine cruelty of prison life: violence from other inmates, harsh treatment from the guards, and a system that offers almost no way out. Andy's intelligence and his skill with figures eventually make him useful to the staff, while his quiet persistence earns him the respect of the other men inside, among them Red, a long-serving prisoner who narrates much of what unfolds.
Frank Darabont wrote and directed the film, his second feature after Buried Alive in 1990; he went on to make The Green Mile, The Majestic and The Mist. Niki Marvin produced, and Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman lead a cast of about sixty credited actors, with Bob Gunton as the warden, William Sadler and Clancy Brown among the supporting players.
The film was released on September 23, 1994, ran 142 minutes, and cost about 25 million dollars, returning roughly 28 million worldwide. Its reputation grew long after that theatrical run. On IMDb it holds 9.3 out of 10 from 3.2 million votes; on TMDB, 8.7 out of 10 from more than 31,000 votes. Critics rated it 8.4 out of 10 across 146 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- Andy Dufresne's prison number is 37927.
- The film is dedicated to Allen Greene, a close friend of the director. Allen passed away shortly before the film's release due to complications from AIDS.
- Dennis Baker, the former warden of Mansfield Prison, where the film was shot on location, played the role of an elderly inmate sitting in the prison bus behind Tommy Williams.
- The film is based on Stephen King's novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption," published as part of the collection "Different Seasons" (1982).
- A portrait of Albert Einstein appears on the wall in Andy Dufresne's cell. This is a reference to the fact that Tim Robbins, who played Andy Dufresne, was simultaneously filming the romantic comedy 'IQ' (1994), in which Albert Einstein (played by Walter Matthau) was one of the main characters.
- Two of the Shawshank prisoners are named Heywood and Floyd. This is a reference to Arthur C. Clarke's *Space Odyssey* trilogy, whose connecting character is Dr. Heywood Floyd.
- The role of Andy Dufresne was also offered to Kevin Costner, but the actor declined, and later greatly regretted it.
- Filming took place at the Mansfield Correctional Institution in Ohio. The prison was in such a dilapidated state that it had to be brought up to standard.
- Frank Darabont's screenplay greatly appealed to another director who had successfully adapted the works of Stephen King – Rob Reiner, the director of "Stand by Me" (1986) and "Misery" (1990). Reiner was so captivated by the material that he offered Darabont $2.5 million for the screenplay rights and to direct the film. Darabont seriously considered the offer, but ultimately decided that this project was a "chance to do something truly great" and directed the film himself.
- Despite not earning much money in theaters, the film became one of the most successful video releases, and subsequently on DVD.
- The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals criticized the film, in which the only representative of the fauna was the crow of Old Man Brooks. The film includes a scene of feeding the bird a worm found in the main character's plate during lunch. The society insisted that a pre-deceased larva, which had died naturally, be used. Once such an individual was found, the scene was filmed.
- Stephen King agreed to sell the rights to his work for almost nothing, as he and Frank had a long-standing and close friendship. This happened after Frank had quite successfully adapted King's story "The Woman in the Room."
- Although almost all the residents of Mansfield expressed a desire to participate in the film's mass scenes, most were too busy with their work to film. The extras had to be recruited from a local almshouse, and some of its inhabitants were former prisoners.
- The photographs of a young Morgan Freeman on the documents are actually photographs of his son, Alfonso Freeman, who also appeared in one of the film's episodes.
- Warden Norton whistles the hymn 'Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott,' which translates roughly to 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.'
- Rob Reiner envisioned Harrison Ford and Tom Cruise in the roles of Red and Andy Dufresne, respectively.
- The role of Andy Dufresne was initially offered to Tom Hanks. He was very interested, but couldn't accept the offer because he was already committed to the "Forrest Gump" (1994) project. Later, Tom Hanks starred in the lead role in Frank Darabont's prison drama "The Green Mile" (1999), also based on a novel by Stephen King.
- Stephen King's original novella, according to the author himself, was the culmination of all his impressions from various prison films he watched as a child.
- Tommy Williams' role was originally written for Brad Pitt.
- The film the prisoners are watching is "Gilda."
- When close-ups of Andy Dufresne's hands are shown on screen – when he loads the revolver at the beginning of the film and when Andy carves his name on the wall of his cell – those are actually the hands of director Frank Darabont. These shots were filmed during post-production.
- Red's cell number is 237. These same numbers appear in both film adaptations of Stephen King's novel 'The Shining' (the 1980 film and the 1997 miniseries) – there, it's the number of the hotel room inhabited by the ghost of a woman. These numbers also appear in the film 'Stand by Me' (1986), based on Stephen King's novella 'The Body' – there, it's the amount of change collected by the four young heroes ($2.37).
- In Stephen King's original novella, Red is Irish. Despite Morgan Freeman, who is Black, playing Red in the film adaptation, it was decided to leave in the line "Maybe it's because I'm Irish" as a successful joke.
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