Shawshank Redemption Turns 20
It's hard to believe, but Andy Dufresne's famous on screen escape from Maine's fictional Shawshank Prison happened 20 years ago, which is about how long he was imprisoned. Released in September 1994, "The Shawshank Redemption" was set in Maine, but was never filmed here.
The film is a regular feature on cable television stations like AMC and TNT and has become a modern day classic. Based on the Stephen King novella "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, the movie tells the story of how a former Portland banker played by Tim Robbins is wrongfully imprisoned for allegedly murdering his wife and her lover. While behind bars, Andy forms a strong friendship with fellow inmate Ellis Boyd Redding, or "Red," played by Morgan Freeman. The film directed by Frank Darabont makes several references to Portland and a mysterious hayfield in Buxton where a tree right out of a Robert Frost poem resides. But the movie was actually filmed at a former state prison in Ohio.
Nevertheless, some businesses such as the Maine State Prison Showroom located in Thomaston where the former Maine State Prison was located before a new prison was built in Warren and the Woods to Goods store in York, Maine continue to market hand-crafted items made by Maine prison inmates. They even sell Shawshank Prison T-shirts. Personally, I wish the movie had been filmed in Maine because then all of this would make more sense.
More From 94.9 WHOM
