Comparing Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption

893 Words4 Pages

"When Andy came to Shawshank in 1948, he was thirty years old. He was a short neat little man with sandy hair and small, clever hands. He wore gold rimmed spectacles..."(King 3). These words would help make Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption a beloved story to many ever since Stephen King's novel was released in 1982. It is a story of two men and their friendship over the years in prison, and how the burden of isolation and power of hope affects both them and all prisoners. This is a movie that is an unflinching look at prison life and all the burdens prisoners must go through every day. The story would later be adapted for the big screen in 1994, shortening the name to The Shawshank Redemption, would be nominated for seven Oscars, and …show more content…

Both the movie and the book also have The Shawshank Penitentiary be located in Maine. Another change to the setting is that Andy's room had posters of Rita Hayworth, Raquel Welch and Linda Rondstadt in the book and in the movie only had Rita and Raquel's posters in his room. A final change is that the book takes place over thirty years while the movie takes place over twenty years. Both the book and film cued you into a time change through the narration of Red and events in the life of Andy. Some advantages that the movie had over the book is that the movie could paint the exact picture they want for the prison, which helps set the mood for the rest of the …show more content…

The most complex characters are Red, Andy, and the Warden. Red has been in the prison for a long time and there are two scenes where Red has parole hearings and in one we see him anxious to try and get out and fail, in the second he delivers a monologue about how he doesn't care if he is let out or not and succeeds. Andy is a man who has always claimed his innocence and since his first day at Shawshank, wouldn't let prison beat him and would plan on getting out. The Warden Norton is a Christian man who believes in his prisoners to have Christian morals but then turns around and takes bribes and steals money. When it comes to “type” characters, Red represents the wise seasoned man trying to help someone new and Captain Hadley represents a hardened man who abuses his power. I would say Andy, Red and Bogs differed from what I thought they would look like from the book to the movie. I feel these characters might have been changed because of the director's vision for these characters, especially casting Morgan Freeman as Red due to his wise presence and