Daily Dialogue — March 13, 2012

INT — MESS HALL — DAY (1955)

HEYWOOD: Couldn’t play somethin’ good, huh? Hank Williams?

ANDY: They broke the door down before I could take requests.

FLOYD: Was it worth two weeks in the hole?

ANDY: Easiest time I ever did.

HEYWOOD: Shit. No such thing as easy time in the hole. A week seems like a year.

ANDY: I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company. Hardly felt the time at all.

RED: Oh, they let you tote that record player down there, huh? I could’a swore they confiscated that stuff.

ANDY (taps his heart, his head): The music was here…and here. That’s the one thing they can’t confiscate, not ever. That’s the beauty of it. Haven’t you ever felt that way about music, Red?

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?

— Heywood (William Sadler), Floyd (Brian Libby), Andy (Tim Robbins), Red (Morgan Freeman), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), screenplay by Frank Darabont, based on a short story by Stephen King

The actual scene is here.

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is statement of the theme, suggested by John Penny. Today’s suggestion by Teddy Pasternak.

Trivia: Frank Darabont wrote the script in eight weeks.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Statement of theme, indeed. The very last words of the movie: “I hope.” That specific idea introduced in this scene.

Comment Archive