A lot of people know the movie The Shawshank Redemption, but not everyone knows that the movie was based on a novella by Stephen King. Most people also know that Hollywood takes liberties with stories, for dramatic or comedic effect, time, or other considerations. How did Hollywood change Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption to create The Shawshank Redemption?
What are the major differences between the movie and the book?
The arrival of new prisoners. In the movie, the veteran prisoners bet on which of the new prisoners would be the one to cry and/or make a fuss. This was not in the story, although there was a brief mention near the end about “crybaby” prisoners, and how Andy wasn’t one of them.
Warden Norton. In the movie, Andy kept a second set of books for the warden, which was hidden in a safe in the wall, and he funneled money into an account under an assumed name. When he escaped (wearing a set of the warden’s clothes) this is the money he used to fund his new life in Mexico.
Additionally, Andy gave paperwork detailing the warden’s crimes to the press, and when the police came for him Warden Norton committed suicide in his office.
In the story, Andy’s Mexico money was his own, invested under an assumed name by a friend as Andy was being arrested, tried, and convicted. What he wore after climbing through the sewage pipe is not revealed.
In the story Warden Norton resigns, rather than blowing his brains out in his office as the police are outside his door.
In the story, there were three wardens in the time Andy was at Shawshank; in the movie, just one.
Brooks. Brooks has a pet bird, Jake, that is set free when he is paroled; after just a short time out of prison, he hangs himself in his room according the cinematic Shawshank. In the literary Shawshank, the bird is the pet of another inmate, and Brooks dies in an old folks home.
The escape. In Stephen King’s story, Rita Hayworth is the first poster Andy uses to cover his growing escape tunnel, then Raquel Welch, and by the time he escapes Shawshank, Linda Rondstadt is hiding the hole. In the movie, Andy starts with Rita Hayworth, but when he escapes, the hole is covered by a poster of Raquel Welch. In the story Warden Norton tears down the poster not knowing there’s a hole there; in the movie, he throws rocks, one of which goes through he poster, and that’s how the escape tunnel is discovered.
Byron Hadley. In the movie Hadley, the mean and nasty prison guard, is arrested in the same sweep that causes the warden’s suicide; in the story, he has a heart attack and retires.
The end.The Shawshank Redemption ends with Red walking down that beach in Mexico, closing in on Andy, who is working on a boat.
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ends after Red finds the note and money from Andy, and has taken the first step on his trip to Mexico. He hopes, the story says, “that Andy is down there” and he hopes that he can make it across the border.
While there are some differences between the Stephen King novella and the Hollywood movie, they are insignificant enough that the story that made Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption so compelling shines through and makes The Shawshank Redemption compelling as well.
Sources:
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, by Stephen King, Viking Press, 1982
The Shawshank Redemption, Castle Rock Entertainment, 1994
