The film adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption, directed by Frank Darabont, and based on the novella The Shawshank Redemption written by Stephen King was a fantastic adaptation of the novella. The film shows how terrible prison must be truly be through the escape scene, it follows the novella’s plotline almost perfectly, (except the few minor changes were needed to make it better,) and the ending gave viewers a more satisfying feeling of closure.
To begin, the reason the film adaption was great was because of the way director showed the escape scene. They made it so descriptive and were able to see what Andy had to go through in order to escape prison. Andy spent many hours toiled away in order to go through that whole wall, with such a tiny object, and the film shows that Andy was truly desperate and determined enough to get away from Shawshank. Andy had to go through waste and small place in order to get out, and the escape scene further illustrates how terrible prison life was for Andy to make him go through all that atrocious stuff.
Next, the reason this film adaption was good was because it followed the novella almost perfectly. Darabout did make a few minor changes, but they made the movie even better. The movie was also far less graphic than the novella itself. The novella was very descriptive, but was a little too much, whereas the movie showed enough where people got the idea, but were able to still watch it instead of getting grossed out. Such as, the “sister” scenes, where Andy gets raped by other prisoners. During the movie there is a part where Andy locks out all the guards to play music for all the prisoners. This part was never in the novella, but it adds a lot of emotion to the story. The music gave the prisoners a brief moment of feeling free and not merely stuck in prison. Also in the movie Brooks gets out and realizes that times have really changed and that he does not fit into the outside world anymore, he decides to hang himself, and he carves his name at the top of the doorway. Brooks’s carving shows that prison never really goes away once someone has been in there for so long, and the film shows that once people get away from prison it is truly hard to fit in to society again, and they would rather be back where they feel comfortable, because that is all they know. Also, another big change they made was what happened with Tommy. Tommy was going to testify for Andy, so in the novella he got sent to a different prison where he could be with his family more, and he got the privileges of the outside world, but in the movie Darabout made a huge, traumatic difference where Tommy actually got shot by the warden instead. This totally shocks the viewers and shows that the warden will do whatever it takes to keep Andy around for his own benefit. Andy is so important to all the guards, and he is more spiteful
