Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption - Essay Example

? Full English 102 17 October  Essay Based on the Movie "The Shawshank Redemption" And the Story “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" The movie “The Shashank Redemption” is based on a novella, written by King, from his collection Different Seasons (1982). The name of the story was “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption". The novella was modified for the cinema in 1994 as “The Shawshank Redemption”, a highly appreciated film which was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1994, including Best Picture. Since the movie is an adaptation of the book, it has certain dissimilarities and differences from the book. Some of the major differences are discussed. These cinematic changes did not really change the flavour of the story and probably the adaptation was necessary to bring out the real essence of the story in the movie. The first difference was the arrival of new prisoners. In the movie, the old prisoners bet with each other on which of the new prisoners would be the one to break down and cry. This is not mentioned in the story though there is a short reference towards the end about "cry baby" inmates, and how Andy was not one of them. The second point of difference was regarding the warden. In the story, the money Andy has in Mexico is his own, which had been invested under a fictional name by Andy’s friend as Andy was being taken into custody, tried, and convicted. The story also does not talk about how he dressed up after climbing through the sewage pipe. Additionally in the story Warden Norton resigns, rather than committing suicide in his office as the police are standing outside his door. While in the movie, it is shown that Andy kept a second set of books for the warden, in a locker in the wall, and he channelled all the money into another account under an assumed name. When he ran away from the prison (wearing a set of the Warden Norton’s clothes) this is the capital he used to finance his new life in Mexico. Also in the novella, at the time Andy was in the prison, three wardens were at Shawshank, while in the movie only one warden is shown. The third disparity was with respect to the oldest inmate, Brookes. In the story, the oldest inmate Brooks dies in an old peoples’ home. And the crow which is shown as Brooks’s pet in the movie is actually a pigeon. It is a pet of another inmate and not Brooks. In the movie Jake who is a pet crow belongs to Brooks who sets it free once he is paroled. After just a short span of time out of Shawshank, Brooks commits suicide by hanging himself in his room. The movie does not show give any future reference about the bird but in the story the bird is found dead in the yard one week later it was set free. Continuing the discussion on difference in the literary, Andy initially uses Rita Hayworth’s poster to hide his increasing get away tunnel. He then uses Raquel Welch’s poster, and by the time he finally flees from Shawshank, he has Linda Ronstadt’s poster to cover the mouth of the tunnel. Additionally there were three other posters were also mentioned in the story, Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Hazel Court. In comparison, in the celluloid version of the story, Andy first poster is of Rita Hayworth and when he flees, the mouth of the tunnel is covered by Raquel Welch’s poster. In the novella Warden Norton rips down the poster without realizing there is a gap there while in the cinema, he pelts rocks and one of them tears through the poster, and that is how the getaway excavation is revealed. Further in the cinema the mean and nasty prison guard Byron Hadley is arrested in the same sweep that causes the warden's suicide; in the story, he has a heart attack and retires much before the escape of Andy. The last scene of the movie shows Red walking towards Andy who is working on a boat on a beach. The book ends after Red finds the message and cash from Andy, and is on his way to Mexico. In the story he hopes, "that Andy is down there" and he also hopes that he can cross the border without getting caught. These were few of the major differences between the movie and the story but there were a number of other minor differences such as in the story, Red is a white man who has committed triple murder. In the movie he is shown as a black man. In the book, Andy is told to have 500$ with him when he comes to the prison, this is not mentioned in the movie. Tommy is not murdered in the story; instead he is transferred to a minimum-security prison. These differences exist because for a movie to maintain its focus and convey the message in ninety or one twenty minutes, it needs less characters and less number of sub stories. This is the reason why the adaptation is always different from the book. The main aim of the movie was to convey the story of hope despite being in a prison and how an individual’s personality changes in a prison. Prison is a place where time comes to a standstill and things move very slowly. In such a place, a prisoner loses sense of time and place. He no longer feels he is a part of the outside world and he creates his own world within the four walls of prison. In the movie it is shown that prisoners after spending a large part of their lives inside the prison become institutionalized as did the old inmate Brooks who holds a knife to another prisoner Heywood’s throat in an attempt to break his parole. He is scared of the outside world as he has been in prison for most of his life. Then we are shown Brooks in the outside world with Brooks’s voiceover from a letter he wrote to his fellow inmates telling them how hard it is for him to cope on the outside. He talks about how his hands hurt while working. The letter also mentions how he wants to go home which is ShawShank for him. Brooks had lived for the major part of his life in the prison; he is in his sixties when he leaves the prison. He is unable to adjust to the normal social life. He was an educated man in the prison and in last fifty years the world has moved much ahead. He finds himself useless and worthless in the outside world. His education is of no use to him and he has also grown old. A prison makes a person totally dependent and scared. They are criminals who have lot of bravado when they join a prison and after a stretch of thirty to fifty years their will is broken down. The prisoners, that get a life sentence, spend their major chunk of life in the prison, becoming hopeless and despondent. When they are finally allowed to go back to the society they have nothing to look forward to. The prisoners give up hope and start believing that hope is a dangerous thing. According to them hope can drive a man insane as the prison does not let them out on parole easily. And when they do get out, they have become institutionalized. A prison and its guards always ensure that prisoners feel bound and in captivity at all times. There is nothing in there that makes them like a free man. That is what the prisoners long for and that is what the prison ensures they don’t get. This is to ensure that people on the outside are scared of committing crimes and coming to a prison. Even a small act like drinking beer on the roof top of the factory gives a sense of freedom to the inmates and this tells us how much they miss freedom. The things that appear to us as regular are so valuable in the lives of the inmates. When Red gets out of the prison he realizes the one thing that he coveted most was freedom and when he gets it he is unable to cope with it. The prisons are held so long in the captivity that in the outside world they cannot function normally. For instance when Red is working at the departmental store, he asks for permission to go to the restroom. This is because he had been doing that kind of thing for forty years. He is unable to live life normally without fear. The last scene of the story tells us how finally Red starts feeling like a free man. He talks about uncertainty, hope and excitement for the future. These are the characteristics of a free man. In the prison everything is streamlined, fixed and pre-decided. There is nothing for the prison to think for or hope for. They become like robots that do as they are told. They are constantly given instructions and expected to just obey them. Once outside the prison, after doing a long time inside the prison, these feelings are hard to come by. These feelings are very important for us to carry on with our lives. The concept of free will, which makes us alive and humane gets killed in the prison. Every prison, however hardened he or she might be loses the feeling of free will. Additionally the prisoners are not expected to be treated humanely by the guards and hence the guards commit a lot of atrocities and injustice on the prisoners. The guards do not let go of any opportunity where they can “discipline” the prisoners. This also inculcates the feeling of fear in the prison. The prison is meant to disciple the prisoners and makes them realize what freedom means. But in the process they break down the spirit of the prisoner and transform him or her into scared, despondent, dependent person who cannot live independently in the outside world and is actually a liability to himself or herself. Works Cited King, Stephen. Different Seasons. London: Signet, 1982. Print.  Read More