Corrected entry: Andy gets a poster of Rita Hayworth when he comes into his cell after his stay in the hospital, and when Red is explaining how Andy broke out, it shows him digging behind her. However, when it is found that Andy escaped, the warden throws a rock through a picture of a cavewoman (Raquel Welch) and it goes into the hole Andy dug. This poster is not the same as the Rita Hayworth one, and it appears to be on the opposite side of the cell as before.
Twotall
27th Nov 2011
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
4th Jun 2005
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Corrected entry: At the end of the film, when he is off to find Andy, Red expresses the belief that the authorities won't care all that much about him breaking the conditions of his parole. He could not be more wrong. In the US in the Sixties he would be considered an escaped prisoner if he broke his parole, and considering he was inside for murder he would be regarded as dangerous. This is not a trivial matter and his breaking parole would be taken very, very seriously indeed. Crossing a State line would be a federal offence, bringing the FBI into play, and the US border patrol would be alerted. In short, every law enforcement agency in the country is going to be on the lookout for him, and when he tries to cross the border into Mexico he'll be arrested on multiple charges. Welcome back to Shawshank, Red.
Correction: What Red means, is not that they won't be looking for him, but that they will put in less of an effort in tracking him down than, say, a twenty-five year old serial killer. He is after all an old man who has done his time for one single offense, and had expressed sincere regret for it. The FBI would know of him, sure, but he would not rank high on their priority list. As for crossing the Mexican border, well, hundreds of people cross it undetected every day (in the opposite direction). It is not exactly air-tight. Especially in that era, before computers or similar, processing paperwork and the like would certainly allow him a window to be long gone before his absence was noticed, or certainly before that absence could be communicated to anyone likely to be in a position to stop him.
Correction: Making a second error doesn't mean the first is invalid. Red had no chance of getting to Mexico. Given the circumstances of his breaking parole, the fact that he was in prison for murder and his crossing a number of state lines he would be arrested long before he even got to the border. The original posting is correct.
This is simply untrue. There are numerous documented cases of wanted criminals crossing the country and making it into Mexico or Canada with relative ease. Red wasn't a wanted criminal, he was a parolee, and in the 1960s it would have been just a matter of a little luck for him to make it to Mexico.
Correction: Since we see him reunited with Andy at the end of the film, he obviously wasn't arrested at the Mexican border.
26th Aug 2003
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Corrected entry: Except Red getting a little grey by the end of the movie, none of the other characters, be it a prisoner or a guard, shows any signs of aging over a time span of 19 years.
Correction: Both the Wardens and Andy's hair are getting greyer (Very clear in case of warden Norton). Andy also starts wearing reading glasses. Also, Frank Darabont makes it clear in the directors commentary that he never wanted to have Morgan or Tim in heavy make-up to age them because he said it looked too much like... well, heavy make-up. He wanted the changes to be subtle.
27th Aug 2004
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Corrected entry: When Andy is in solitary Warden Norton threatens him, saying he'll take him out of his "one-bunk Hilton and cast him down with the sodomites". Being moved to another cell would be a huge problem because of the tunnel he's digging, but the reference to a "one-bunk Hilton", even though it's a direct quote from the novel, makes no sense in the context of the movie. In the book it refers to the fact that Andy is unique among the prisoners in having a cell to himself. But in the movie, all of the prisoners have cells of their own - every prisoner has a "one-bunk Hilton", so there's no reason to refer to Andy's situation as special.
Correction: When Norton refers to it as a "Hilton", he means the luxuries Andy is allowed. His cell is jam-packed with obviously contraband material like the rock blankets, posters and pictures on the walls, but the guards have let him get away with it for several years. The "one bunk" is just further description, rather than highlighting that as unusual. For a Hilton, one bunk is still rather down market...
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Correction: The poster is always on the same cell wall, where Andy dug his hole. And as Red explains in a voice-over, Andy does replace his pin-up posters from time to time, with new women who have piqued his interest.
Twotall