Shawshank Redemption Page #14

RED:

Played a mean harmonica as a younger

man. Lost my taste for it. Didn't

make much sense on the inside.

ANDY:

Here's where it makes most sense.

We need it so we don't forget.

RED:

Forget?

ANDY:

That there are things in this world

not carved out of gray stone. That

there's a small place inside of us

they can never lock away, and that

place is called hope.

RED:

Hope is a dangerous thing. Drive a

man insane. It's got no place here.

Better get used to the idea.

ANDY:

(softly)

Like Brooks did?

FADE TO BLACK:

151 AN IRON-BARRED DOOR 151

slides open with an enormous CLANG. A stark room beyond.

CAMERA PUSHES through. SEVEN HUMORLESS MEN sit at a long

table. An empty chair faces them. We are again in:

INT -- SHAWSHANK HEARINGS ROOM -- DAY (1957)

Red enters, ten years older than when we first saw him at a

parole hearing. He removes his cap and sits.

MAN #l

It says here you've served thirty

years of a life sentence.

MAN #2

You feel you've been rehabilitated?

RED:

Yes sir, without a doubt. I can say

I'm a changed man. No danger to

society, that's the God's honest

truth. Absolutely rehabilitated.

CLOSEUP -- PAROLE FORM

A big rubber stamp slams down: "REJECTED."

152EXT -- PRISON YARD -- DUSK (1957) 152

Red emerges into fading daylight. Andy's waiting for him.

RED:

Same old, same old. Thirty years.

Jesus. When you say it like that...

ANDY:

You wonder where it went. I wonder

where ten years went.

Red nods, solemn. They settle in on the bleachers. Andy pulls

a small box from his sweater, hands it to Red.

ANDY:

Anniversary gift. Open it.

Red does. Inside the box, on a thin layer of cotton, is a

shiny new harmonica, bright aluminum and circus-red.

ANDY:

Had to go through one of your

competitors. Hope you don't mind.

Wanted it to be a surprise.

RED:

It's very pretty, Andy. Thank you.

ANDY:

You gonna play something?

--

Red considers it, shakes his head. Softly:

RED:

Not today.

153INT -- CELLBLOCK FIVE/ANDY'S CELL -- NIGHT (1957) 153

Men line the tiers as the evening count is completed. The

convicts step into their cells. The master switch is thrown

and all the doors slam shut -- KA-THUMP! Andy finds a

cardboard tube on his bunk. The note reads: "A new girl for

your 10 year anniversary. From your pal. Red."

154INT -- ANDY'S CELL -- LATER (1957) 154

Marilyn Monroe's face fills the screen. SLOW PULL BACK reveals

the new poster:
the famous shot from "The Seven Year Itch,"

on the subway grate with skirt billowing up. Andy sits gazing

at her as lights-out commences...

155INT -- RED'S CELL -- NIGHT (1957) 155

...and we find Red gazing blankly as darkness takes the

cellblock. Adding up the months, weeks, days...

He regards the harmonica like a man confronted with a Martian

artifact. He considers trying it out -- even holds it briefly

to his lips, almost embarrassed -- but puts it back in its box

untested. And there the harmonica will stay...

FADE TO BLACK:

156 WE HOLD IN BLACKNESS as THUMPING SOUNDS grow louder... 156

RED (V.O.)

Andy was as good as his word. He

kept writing to the State Senate.

Two letters a week instead of one.

...and the BLACKNESS disintegrates as a wall tumbles before

our eyes, revealing a WORK CREW with picks and sledgehammers,

faces obscured outlaw-style with kerchiefs against the dust.

Behind them are GUARDS overseeing the work.

Andy yanks his kerchief down, grinning in exhilaration. Red

and the others follow suit. They step through the hole in the

wall, exploring what used to be a sealed-off storage room.

RED (V.O.)

In 1959, the folks up Augusta way

finally clued in to the fact they

couldn't buy him off with just a

200 dollar check. Appropriations

Committee voted an annual payment of

500 dollars, just to shut him up.

157INT -- PRISON LIBRARY -- DAY (1960) 157

TRACKING the construction. Walls have been knocked down. Men

are painting, plastering, hammering. Lots of shelves going up.

Red is head carpenter. We find him discussing plans with Andy.

RED (V.O.)

Those checks came once a year like

clockwork.

158INT -- PRISON LIBRARY -- DAY (1960) 158

Red and the boys are opening boxes, pulling out books.

RED (V.O.)

You'd be amazed how far Andy could

stretch it. He made deals with book

clubs, charity groups...he bought

remaindered books by the pound...

HEYWOOD:

Treasure Island. Robert Louis...

ANDY:

(jotting)

...Stevenson. Next?

RED:

I got here an auto repair manual,

and a book on soap carving.

ANDY:

Trade skills and hobbies, those go

under educational. Stack right

behind you.

HEYWOOD:

The Count of Monte Crisco...

FLOYD:

Cristo, you dumbshit.

HEYWOOD:

...by Alexandree Dumb-ass.

ANDY:

Dumas. You boys'll like that one.

It's about a prison break.

Floyd tries to take the book. Heywood yanks it back. I saw it

first. Red shoots Andy a look.

RED:

Maybe that should go under

educational too.

159INT -- WOOD SHOP -- DAY (1961) 159

Red is making a sign, carefully routing letters into a long

plank of wood. It turns out to be --

160INT -- PRISON LIBRARY -- DAY (1963) 160

-- the varnished wood sign over the archway: "Brooks Hatlen

Memorial Library." TILT DOWN to reveal the library in all its

completed glory:
shelves lined with books, tables and chairs,

even a few potted plants. Heywood is wearing headphones,

listening to Hank Williams on the record player.

RED (V.O.)

By the year Kennedy was shot, Andy

had transformed a broom closet

smelling of turpentine into the

best prison library in New England.

161EXT -- SHAWSHANK PRISON -- DAY (1963) 161

FLASHBULBS POP as Norton addresses MEMBERS OF THE PRESS:

RED (V.O.)

That was also the year Warden Norton

instituted his famous "Inside-Out"

program. You may remember reading

about it. It made all the papers

and got his picture in LIFE magazine.

NORTON:

...a genuine, progressive advance

in corrections and rehabilitation.

Our inmates, properly supervised,

will be put to work outside these

walls performing all manner of

public service. Cutting pulpwood,

repairing bridges and causeways,

digging storm drains...

ANGLE TO Red and the boys listening from behind the fence.

NORTON:

These men can learn the value of an

honest day's labor while providing

a valuable service to the community

-- and at a bare minimum of expense

to Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Taxpayer!

HEYWOOD:

Sounds like road-gangin', you ask me.

RED:

Nobody asked you.

162EXT -- HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION SITE -- DAY (1963) 162

A ROAD-GANG is grading a culvert with picks. There's dust and

the smell of sweat in the air. GUARDS patrol with sniper rifles,

A pushy WOMAN REPORTER in an ugly hat bustles up the grade,

trailed by a PHOTOGRAPHER.

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