TSC: The Shawshank Redemption

E

Eximious

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Greetings DVX Writers,

Welcome to the second installment of our DVX Screenplay Club. Next up for your reading pleasure is:


 The Shawshank Redemption


Shawshank is currently considered one of the greatest films of all time, so the screenplay adaptation of Stephen King's novella, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, needs little introduction. Let's get to it!
 
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Why does The Shawshank Redemption succeed? Let's approach it from a screenwriter's perspective:

1. It's an adaptation of a Stephen King novella. You'd basically have to completely screw the pooch on the adaptation to make it suck.

2. Interesting setting. Prison. With all the challenges and tribulations of prison. Sodomizing inmates. Corrupt prison staff. The pursuit of personal improvement (corrections vs. punishment). Being literally thrown into a new world and having to make friends. And, of course, the obvious question: will you ever get out?

3. Interesting characters. Red and Andy. If you can manage to craft a pair like that in your story, I think you're on the right track. I'd be interested in hearing others' analysis of their relationship before I jump in.

4. The plot opens well and does not stagnate. We open with torrid sex in a cabin. Then a jealous lover. Then a trial for murder. Not a bad way to grab our attention. Andy goes to prison, must make friends, must evade the "sodomites", must fix the books for the warden, must convince the warden he is innocent, etc. All this intermingled with quirky and unusual supporting characters.

I think it's important to remember that Stephen King doesn't believe in crafting a story so much as discovering it. I think this adaptation showcases that trait well. It organically evolves with logical (and interesting) complications and rising action.

Well, this was a good exercise for all, but it looks like there may not be much interest in a weekly screenplay club. If anyone else is interested in pursuing this, I'd be happy to contribute. This next week I will be away visiting friends, so I will not create a new thread. If someone else would like to create one on Monday, I'll contribute towards the end of the week.
 
I'm curious, how is this film structured? Is there an invitation to adventure? what are the turning points/plot points (whatever term used to signify the major shifts) between the ACTs? Who is the Hero, What does the hero want, what does the hero need? What are the obstacles? Who tells the story? What are the sequences?, are there subplots, what do they do for the story, etc...

I will have to get hold of the screenplay and check it out.
 
It's been awhile since I have read the script or seen the movie (only stumbled onto this thread today) but from memory each act break is culminated by the motif of a closing cell door and a shift in time. I seem to remember it as a rather traditional three act structure.

Act one finishes with Andy being raped by the sisters,

Act two things start looking up, Andy gets a bit of a respite, develops a report with the guards and the sisters are taken out of the picture.

The Mid Point has Andy building a library, nothing could be better.

The second half of Act two has things looking up a new guy has evidence that Andy is innocent, Andy has a sense of fulfillment teaching and educating the inmates, however good things can not last - Act Two ends with Andy loosing his friend, the evidence of his innocence, and potentially his library.

Act three has us thinking that Andy is going to kill himself, however we find that he has escaped to live in paradise, with tons of money, plus Andy's best friend is paroled and goes to meet him, and all the bad guys are humiliated and end up dying.

Everything turns out OK.

This is a brilliantly written film, full of twists and turns, and emotional highs and lows. It is also, unfortunately one of the most analysed films in modern cinema so allot of its mystic is gone. You can't help to be impressed with it.
 
The structure is interesting. I'll try to comment on it later this afternoon.
 
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Here's a brief outline of the events / sequences of the screenplay:

1-2: The Cabin Love scene
3-6: Trial
7: Red's introduction
8-15: Andy goes to Shawshank. "Fat ass" is beaten down.
16-26: Andy is harassed by the sisters. Andy begins to meet other inmates (Red), buys a rock pick.

27-32: Rooftop repair / Andy begins to use his financial acumen to help guards
32-33: Andy begins to dig deeper with his rock pick.
35-40: Bogs goes too far, is crippled by Hadley
41-48: Andy starts doing taxes for guards / is introduced to library
49-56: Brooks. Makes parole. Hangs himself. Bury Jake.
57-61: Andy gets some donated books. Plays Mozart over loudspeaker. Gets time in hole, talks about theme of movie with Red (hope, etc.)
61-62: Red's parole is denied. The two exchange gifts.
63-64: Library is expanded. Dedicated to Brooks.
65-70: The road gang plan. Andy divulges his masterful cooking of the books through a fictitious person.
70-76: Tommy Williams arrives. Tries to get his GED with Andy's help.
76-82: Tommy reveals that Andy is innocent. Andy pleads with warden. Tommy is killed.

83-89: Andy appears to go semi-suicidal after warden forces him to continue doing books.
90-93: Andy has escaped!
94-99: We see how Andy escaped
100-102: Justice is served to warden.
103-107: Red copes without Andy.
107-111: Red discovers Andy's letter, reunites with his friend
 
So my memory was a little off.

I don't know what else we are supposed to discuss, in the other thread you have gone through the characters of the film. Unfortunately I am not a film scholar like yourself so I will not go through all of the character's however most character's go against the stereotype that you would expect - for instance:
Andy is the framed accountant, you would expect him to be weak but instead he is as hard as a rock, almost inhumanly emotionless.
Red is the man who can get you things, a wheeler and dealer and convicted murderer, you would expect someone fast talking, and tough, but instead he is slow spoken and thoughtful.
 
One way to approach this is to simply ask, "what is it about this movie that makes it so good?" If that something special can be located and understood then we all walk away much smarter and in a better position to write better stories.

For me one of the virtues of the film is the contrast between Andy (a soft & mild character) and the brutal world of the prison. We empathize with Andy and experience our 1st night in prison with Andy and the others. Everyone has had the uneasy experience of being the "new guy" and being the new guy in this world isn't pretty, especially when everyone is making bets on who will break down . I think this Set Up expertly sets off our Empathy and sucks us into the Story World. Once we're into the story we worry about this wimpy hero. How the hell is he going to make it in this place?
 
RyanMc said:
So my memory was a little off.

I don't know what else we are supposed to discuss, in the other thread you have gone through the characters of the film.
Click to expand...

You can mention anything that interested you. I only wrote a few things down to help prime everyone's memory and propel the discussion forward.

I think it's interesting here that Andy's quest is to survive. (Or is it?) We don't see him scrambling to prove his innocence. We don't see him planning a great escape. The goal is simply to survive.

I've been reading Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey and think his section on the hero archetype is useful here. I would argue that Andy is a catalyst hero. From my vantage point, Andy does not change a whole lot as a character. You could argue that Andy does change in his appreciation of relationships (e.g. with Red and Tommy Williams). Andy does, after all, allude to being a terrible husband. He also acquires a snooty reputation with the other inmates early in the story. However, the reputation is mentioned once and not really developed. Further, the revelation about his marriage comes too late to factor into his early characterization. But, Andy does show the power of hope to the prison itself. A catalyst if ever there was one.

And what about Red's arc? It's not overly pronounced, but I think it's important. We see Red give a cut-and-paste answer to the parole board about being "rehabilitated" twice. The third time, after Andy escapes, is when he tells it like it is and finally earns his release. Has Red been changed by Andy's catalyst of hope? At the beginning of the screenplay we see Red taking bets over who'll be the first fish to crack. That's pretty cold, but he does seem sociable enough throughout the story. Red also admits to being institutionalized, comparing himself to Brooks. As such, without Andy, we have to assume that Red would've killed himself when paroled, like Brooks did. But, Red never shows a wallowing-in-depression side, so his arc into having hope remains tricky to analyze.

It's very interesting to me. This story does have three acts, but doesn't strike me as a traditional three-act hero cycle. Sure, the warden is killed at the end, but the warden by himself wasn't all that corrupt. It took Andy's presence to bring about the chain gangs. The guard Hadley is certainly a "bad guy", but acts on his own accord when he kills the inmate the first night. Later in the story, he only serves as a deputy to the warden.

I think this is a testament to Stephen King's imagination. There's no really clear goal. Some vague character arcs. Villains that might not always be villainous. But the damned thing won't let you put it down.

I hope I've stirred up some dissent with my arguments here!
 
Very well thought out arguments.

It would be interesting to read the novella and see how close the screenplay relates to the original work.

I would argue that Andy's aloofness is quite pronounced at the beginning, it is mentioned in the narration. But it is also shown - Andy only approaches Red when he needs something, for instance a hammer for his hobby. He only really accepts their friendship when he is being regularly beaten and raped.
 
Act one finishes during the roof top repair where Andy makes a deal doing taxes for Hadley, the main guard. It's a perfect page 30 turning point. At this point his life as a prisoner changes. In ACT II things radically change for the better for Andy. This is where Bogs takes a fall (thanks to Hadley) pg..39, and the sisters never give Andy another problem.
 
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