Shawshank Not an Original idea but...

Rating: 9/10 (3 December 2003)

does it come off as a great movie? Perhaps, but I still think that other than the fact that this movie's premise was a ripoff of ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (made in 1979..a full 14 years before Shawshank).. I guess it's still not bad. It is an interesting story, albeit not entirely true, or false. Yes, there was a prisoner who dug his way out of an alleged impenetrable prison. Yes, there was the usual bad warden who could make your life miserable and did when you did not tow the line. What Stephen King did was change the timeline(1950's) and the digging. You never see Tim Robbins character digging! You get an idea he might try it but upon first viewing the movie, you really have no clue except the feeling he is up to something! He is just to smart not to have a plan. Afterall, he is the prison accountant and personal investment broker! So in the end, the audience was just as surprized as the warden at the discovery of his amazing escape!
In "Escape from Alcatraz" we see the digging and the entire plan unfold..so what is left for us to enjoy is the satisfaction of seeing that jerk of a warden get what's coming when the prisoners break out of the Rock! Stephen King created a great piece of work and the director made it work as great cinema. So it doesn't come off entirely as a remake of a similar type of prison break movie but a character study of 2 men who desperately want out and some who don't. But I thought you all ought to know where the original story of digging thru a prison wall came from.
To me the twist was Tim had to swim thru 500 yards of crap and Clint Eastwood had to swim across a freezing San Francisco bay! Whereas Shawshanks characters end up free, happy and in paradise, we never will know if the Alcatraz prisoners survived the swim across the freezing SF bay..it's still