Daily Dialogue — September 1, 2019

“Institutionalization.”

— The Shawshank Redemption (1994), screenplay by Frank Darabont, short story by Stephen King

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: One Word.

Trivia: A sequence where the convicts find Jake (Brooks’s pet crow) dead in a field sometime after Brooks has left the prison, and the convicts give Jake a funeral and burial was cut from the movie. This deletion ends up providing a subtle thematic shift; as scripted, both Brooks and Jake represent the dangers of institutionalization, but as depicted on screen, Jake ends up foreshadowing Andy’s successful escape in the climax of the film.

Dialogue On Dialogue: “Institutionalization” is a key theme in the movie and a powerful moment as well.