I was in my freshman year of college and the “Introduction To Sociology” class assignment was to work with a partner and watch a movie from a set list of films with relevant sociological themes, then write a paper about it. Most of the films on the list were older and would require us to go to a video store to get it on VHS. It’s safe to say that streaming had not yet been invented. However, one film on the list was a current release. My randomly-assigned class partner and I had never heard of it, plus it had an odd title, but we picked it anyway. We agreed we’d watch it on our own, then compare notes to write the paper.
I found a theater near campus and called to hear the recording of the show times—that was how you did it back then. So I went to the movie by myself one afternoon; little did I know that this time would be the first of many, many times I have watched “The Shawshank Redemption.”
The movie made an immediate impression on me. In fact, soon after seeing it, I bought the movie poster from some enterprising pop-up store proprietor at the student union who figured college kids with bare dorm walls would probably like to buy movie posters. I bought a frame and had that poster on the wall of my first apartment and every place I lived for the next few years. Eventually, I got the clue that girls didn’t think a Shawshank movie poster, frame or no frame, made for classy bachelor pad décor.
As anyone who has seen it knows, the film takes place in Maine. What people may not realize is that it was shot largely in Mansfield, Ohio at the Ohio State Reformatory (now a museum). So, on a recent vacation to Ohio, we made the journey to see where Red and Andy had done their time and forged their friendship. Here are ten takeaways:
- The facility was an innovative idea when it began. Ohio already had a full penitentiary in Columbus for serious crimes, so this facility was designed as a reformatory in the true definition of the word. It was for lower-risk offenders, especially young men, and probably would not have housed a convicted murderer like Andy at the beginning. To reform their lives, it required three things of inmates: religion, education and work. Religion meant going to chapel services. The education programs included everything from literacy to college courses. Finally, work gave inmates experience in numerous trades from manufacturing to woodworking, tailoring, shoe-making, baking and more. Eventually, an activist stopped the inmates from having to work, claiming it was unfair. This sanctimonious prison reformer ended up halting a lot of prisoners from actually reforming while at the reformatory.
- The warden and his family lived on site. Inmates even drove his kids to places. So, in the film, when the warden hurried Andy up because he wanted to get home, the warden already would have been home.
- The actor who played the warden (Bob Gunton) had the idea for the warden to have a picture of his wife on his desk, so the last two things he saw were her and the needlepoint wall decoration that said, “His judgment cometh and that right soon.” The actor also accidentally hit his head on the window really hard in making that scene.
- That wall decoration expression, “His judgment cometh and that right soon” is not actually directly from the Bible. It just sounds like it would or could be.
- The building was designed by an architect known for creating castle-type structures, which resulted in a building that is beautiful in outward appearance, but one that was neither on time nor on budget.
- Tim Robbins has not come back for any of the festivities or anniversary celebrations in Mansfield (it seemed our tour guide was not a fan of him), but Robbins did have an interesting take on the movie’s staying power. He noted that most male “buddy” movies were action oriented or involved chasing girls; this one was unique in that it was neither of those things.
- The movie is based on a 1982 short story by Stephen King, who allegedly wrote it to prove that he could do more than horror. I did know King had written the story and have read it, but didn’t know he had an agenda in writing it. In any event, you would think the prison gift shop would sell copies of it. They do not.
- When he was trying to find a location for the film, Director Frank Darabont was at some type of trade show where film commissions from different cities, states and countries had booths. He spoke to the Ohio rep but she didn’t think she had a photo of the reformatory with her so he left that booth. She rifled through her files some more, found an overhead shot of the prison, and chased him down on the expo floor. The photo brought him to Mansfield.
- The 500 yards of shit-smelling foulness was actually something like chocolate syrup, graham crackers and water.
- The prison hosts an annual tattoo festival, cleverly called Inkcarceration.
If you’re a fan of the movie, the Ohio State Reformatory is worth the visit. There is even a Shawshank Trail you can follow with other locations from the movie. This film is clearly a big deal for this community and, even all these years later, they’re proud of their involvement in it.
By the way, my sociology class partner didn’t make it to the theater in time for the project. It was the first but not the last time I’d realize that team projects in college are an unmitigated crap shoot/dumpster inferno. So we had to pick a different movie off the list. We wrote our paper about “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” instead, but my partner’s flakiness ended up introducing me to what I consider to be one of the best films of all time.
