30 Days of Screenplays — Day 5: “The Shawshank Redemption”
Read 30 movie scripts in 30 days.
Why?
Because whether you are a novice just starting to learn the craft of screenwriting or someone who has been writing for many years, you should be reading scripts.
There is a certain type of knowledge and understanding about screenwriting you can only get from reading scripts, giving you an innate sense of pace, feel, tone, style, how to approach writing scenes, how create flow, and so forth.
So each day this month, I will provide background on and access to a notable movie script.
Today is Day 5 and the featured screenplay is for the movie The Shawshank Redemption. You may download a PDF of the screenplay here.
Background: The script was written by Frank Darabont, based on a novella by Stephen King. The movie is #1 in the IMDB Top 250.
Plot summary: Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, finding solace and eventual redemption through acts of common decency.
Tagline: Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.
Awards: Nominated for an Academy Award and WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Trivia: Stephen King sold the rights to the movie very cheaply out of his friendship with Frank Darabont. They had originally become friends when Darabont adapted a short story of King’s called “The Woman in the Room” (King has a policy stating that any aspiring filmmaker can adapt his short stories for a buck) and King was thoroughly impressed. They maintained a pen pal relationship and didn’t actually meet until Darabont optioned Shawshank.
Anybody who’s spent any time on GITS knows that I view The Shawshank Redemption as just about a perfect movie. Interestingly, it had virtually everything going against it becoming a successful movie — period piece, prison, no female actors, no A-list lead, rookie director — and perhaps that explains why its initial box office run was underwhelming. But you can’t keep a classic story down and over the years, Shawshank has grounded itself into movie lovers’ consciousness, one of those films that if you happen upon it on TV, you have to watch it again, even if you’ve seen it multiple times.
The draft of the script we have for the “30 Days” challenge is very much a shooting draft. I highly recommend watching the movie while reading the script because there are a bunch of interesting editorial choices writer-director Frank Darabont made including a number of scenes and bits of business that hit the cutting room floor.
OBSERVATIONS: Let’s be honest. I’ve analyzed this scripts on GITS probably more than any other movie. So here is a comprehensive list of all those posts which I hereby decree shall constitute my observations on this fantastic script:
Great Scene: In which I note the differences between the opening scene in the script (Andy outside the cabin in the woods while his wife is having sex) and the opening scene in the movie (Any outside cabin intercut with Andy on trial), then I ‘rewrite’ Darabont’s script to match the cross cuts.
Scene Description Spotlight: The opening scene and its contrasting moods of what’s happening inside the cabin and outside it, reflected in scene description.
The Shawshank Redemption: Analysis (Andy as Protagonist)
The Shawshank Redemption: Analysis (Red as Protagonist)
Character: “Power and Perspectives Not Taken”: Analysis of a scene with Andy and Warden Norton when Andy calls Norton “obtuse.”
What is the point of a scene?: Analysis of the last scene in prison between Andy and Red, exploring the scene’s structural goal and emotional goal.
Head to comments to share your thoughts on The Shawshank Redemption.
To see all of the posts in the 30 Days of Screenplays series, go here.
This series and use of screenplays is for educational purposes only!
