Literary ,Movie Review

Rating: 10/10 (4 July 2017)

The Shawshank Redemption A literary/movie review
It is often said that a book should not be judged by its movie; based/adapted on Stephen King's novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption the movie The Shawshank Redemption tries to oppose this claim. Frank Darabont, the director of the movie penned the screenplay to perfection (near about!) , having acquired the filming rights from his pen-pal Stephen King. Albeit He made some changes in the screenplay from the novella , these changes make the movie more watchable! Lets say Frank took some cinematic liberty which even bettered the movie from the novella. The strong voice of Morgan Freeman narrates the movie sequences for us. The character of Freeman is an Irish (Ellis Boyd Rankine ;called as Red in the movie whole time) in novella and Frank alludes to this fact when Freeman tells Andy Dufresne, "maybe because I'm an Irish." The story is obviously inspired from Leo Tolstoy 's story "God sees the truth, but waits." (Andy is wrongly? accused of murdering)The film also refers to Alexandre Dumas's "The Count of Monte Cristo" . Actually this scene is quite comic and funny. Heywood , a fellow convict of Dufresne's reads wrongly the name of Alexandre Dumas name as dumb-ass, then Andy corrects him and tells him that the book will interest Heywood that the book "The Count of Monte Cristo" is also about Prison break and Red (Freeman) says jokingly that the this book should also be put under Educational pile of books. Both the book and movie tells us about a smart banker (Dufresne) who is wrongly convicted through fate for the murder of his wife and her lover in cold blood. In the mid-way of novella and the movie We are told that there might be a possibility of acquitting , but while novella disperses this possibility gently , the film does something quite different and shocking, Another cinematic liberty!! Then the through the Banker or Red , we are acquainted with the hardships and cruel practices ongoing in the Shawshank Prison. How Andy Dufresne copes with the Prison environment and find new ways of amusement as in listening to opera, setting up of huge library and teaching fellow prison members. Of course his journey is not a smooth one. A major difference in physique of Andy is depicted in the movie from the novella,where Tim Robbins is Tall and strapping , Andy in the book is average height and of weak physique which makes him prone to attack of sodomites and how he fights them back. Both book and movie make us realize the price of freedom, hope and endless patience and perseverance. Andy picks up a curious habit which he used to pursue when he was free in his home which helps him a lot as we move through. Then movie shows the usual and Cruel! Prison officers and wardens, their scheming and corruption. How Andy fights them and overwhelms them is a study and pleasure to watch or read whichever you choose. P.S.-Rita Hayworth is Chekhov's Gun in both movie and novella!!!! Quotable Quotes- "Get busy living or Get Busy Dying"