Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption Notes

Stephen King and The Shawshank Redemption

Born on September 21, 1947 in Portland, Maine, Stephen Edwin King was raised in New England in the Northeastern US an area rich in history associated with witches and correspondingly, the telling of gothic tales and ghost stories. This environment surely inspired King’s interest in the macabre as some of his tales are set in this area. Despite having written many horror stories, King has many fears such as squishy things, the dark, small spaces and insects. In 1998, he was ranked 31st on Forbes’s Top 40 List of Entertainers.

Stephen King is reputed as a writer of pulp fiction stories, stories which are fantastic, escapist fiction for the general entertainment of mass audiences, formerly written on cheap “pulp” paper for quantity production. He is a prolific writer who has written over 30 novels and published over 100 million copies in print. Many of his novels and short stories have been made into movies (e.g. Carrie, Creepshow, Cujo, Stand By Me, The Shining to name only a few).

Pulp fiction writers usually write quickly, paying less attention to artistic form; however, King’s Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption succeeds in many other ways:

• It captures the flavour of colloquial English in a prison setting;
• It is narrated in a convincing and natural manner by the voice of Red, one of the prison mates;
• It elevates the usual pulp fiction language with a more complex use of sentence structure;
• It escapes King’s usual elements of horror and supernatural to tell a story of evil in the world;
• It is a satirical look at good and evil in humanity, told in a place where supposed sinners are congregated. Ironically, the prisoners are not the worst evildoers.

Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is an example of a story which has won more fame after its adaptation into a movie. The movie, called The Shawshank Redemption, stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Red, the narrator.i

Themes in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption

1. Isolation and Imprisonment (See blog entries #1 and #2)

2. Hope and its Redemptive Effects (See blog entry #3)

3. Corruption of Man (see blog #4)

Some notes to help you in the writing of a thesis for your Film Critique

Theme Statement: Prison as a place of hope where there is also a sense of community

1. How does the film represent this in a surprising or complex way?

2. How does the film reinforce a theme or how does it undermine it?

3. Does the film challenge our expectations about something more than the novel would?