The Shawshank Redemption Point of View (Book vs. Movie)

Directors always change some things when adapting a book to a film because of the information they need to fit in from hundreds of pages to a movie of 2 hours or so. I think the movie, “The Shawshank Redemption,” focused on fewer characters compared to the book, but the plot remained the same and the directors and producers decided to add a few details to the ending of the movie, which I think enhanced the theme of hope in the book.

In the movie we see a change of the guards that leads Andy, in the book they would appear and disappear every now and then and in the movie they led Andy in everything he did, and I think this helped the viewers to focus on Andy more, as one of the main characters and reminded us all the time that he was in prison. The other changes that I noticed was the change of wardens, the film has only one warden, Norton, instead of three as they were in the book, and again this helps with building the character in the movie, because with fewer characters the producers can add more story lines about the characters. This also helps the viewers to focus on a few characters and not memorizing a lot of information. The warden just resigns after Andy escaped the prison in the book, but in the movie, he just shot himself, and I think the producers decided to change this scene so that they wouldn't have to explain what happens to him after Andy has made his corruption known.

Minor changes in the movie include, Andy going through two hammers to break down the whole while in the movie, there is only one hammer that is used, and these changes help the producers focus on the main themes other than the little details. In the book, I do not remember Andy stealing the warden’s shoes and clothes, but this is a very creative way of showing the viewers that he has escaped instead of adding more ways and it also explains that he has gone to the outside world because that is the only place where he can wear those clothes. From this scene we learn a lot in a short space of time, we learn that Andy hasn't committed suicide from the rope he asked for. From exchanging the shoes, we learn that he has escaped to the real world. Even though he did not ask Heywood for the rope in the book, it helps the producers to add a lot of information to that scene, because from the time Heywood mentioned that Andy asked for the rope, the viewers start to thinking of different things that he could do with that rope, and this helped the producers with setting the scene of Andy escaping prison. 

The ending of the book was also changed, the book finishes the story with Red who going to the wall, then he goes to Mexico, we do not know whether he finds Andy or not. But the movie shows their re-union and the ending at the beautiful Pacific that they imagined while they were in prison. This alternate ending helps the producers with putting the emphasis of the theme of hope that is portrayed throughout the movie.