Summer of Stephen
Title: Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
Publishing Date: 1982 Length: 107 pages Start Date: May 22, 2018 End Date: May 25, 2018 If I had to bet, I’d say that most of you have seen The Shawshank Redemption. I watched it for the first time during my first year of college in an Intro to Motion Pictures class, and I’ve watched it several times since. It’s quite possibly one of my top 20 favorite movies. But that’s not what we’re here to discuss today. While the film is hugely popular, I don’t know that many people have read the novella. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to do so at your earliest convenience. For those of you unfamiliar with the book and the movie, let me provide a brief synopsis. Andy Dufresne is put in prison for allegedly murdering his wife and her lover. While in prison, he befriends Red, a prisoner everyone else goes to when they need something smuggled in from the outside. Andy also finds a way to make himself useful to the warden, some of the guards, and most of the other prisoners, earning their trust. And if you’re reading this paragraph because you haven’t read the book or watched the movie, I’m not going to give away anything else. Because you should definitely go read the book and watch the movie. Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is barely over 100 pages, so it’s an incredibly quick read, and King moves the story along at a pace that doesn’t give you time to lose interest. The film adaptation is incredibly faithful, with the biggest exception being Red. In the book, Red is an Irishman with hair that explains his nickname. In the film, Red is played by Morgan Freeman, who is definitely not a red-headed Irishman. One of the few things the novella does wrong is in regards to the background characters. The story focuses primarily on Andy and Red, rarely giving us more than a brief glimpse into anyone else’s life. So some of the characters you love or hate in the movie, you probably won’t get as much about them in the book. For the most part, though, I think it’s safe to say that Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption will likely go down as one of my favorite King stories, and I’m looking forward to getting to watch the movie again.
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Jacinta M. CarterProfessional Book Nerd Archives
July 2019
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