Question re: the last scene in Shawshank (1 Viewer)

[PatsWillWin]

After all of the #### (figuratively and literally) that AD went through, I just think from a movie-making perspective, you couldn't let people walk out of the theater without a happy ending. It may be selling out to an extent, but I enjoy the story with the thought that there was indeed a happy ending (relatively speaking).

 

[Otis]

After all of the #### (figuratively and literally) that AD went through, I just think from a movie-making perspective, you couldn't let people walk out of the theater without a happy ending. It may be selling out to an extent, but I enjoy the story with the thought that there was indeed a happy ending (relatively speaking).

I actually give the movie makers more credit than this. They didn't need a ham handed ending where Andy and Red are drinking mimosas on a beach. They're better than that. The happy ending was Red finding hope and taking the next step and going to look for Andy. That's all the movie needs to be absolutely perfect. And again, I give the movie makers more credit than that, because it's one of the best movies of all time, and I think they gave it the perfect ending. Which is NOT necessarily those two guys sanding a boat on a beach (although I hope, as does Red, that is where it all ends up... and look at that, the writers got we the audience hoping as well...).

 

[PatsWillWin]

After all of the #### (figuratively and literally) that AD went through, I just think from a movie-making perspective, you couldn't let people walk out of the theater without a happy ending. It may be selling out to an extent, but I enjoy the story with the thought that there was indeed a happy ending (relatively speaking).

I actually give the movie makers more credit than this. They didn't need a ham handed ending where Andy and Red are drinking mimosas on a beach. They're better than that. The happy ending was Red finding hope and taking the next step and going to look for Andy. That's all the movie needs to be absolutely perfect. And again, I give the movie makers more credit than that, because it's one of the best movies of all time, and I think they gave it the perfect ending. Which is NOT necessarily those two guys sanding a boat on a beach (although I hope, as does Red, that is where it all ends up... and look at that, the writers got we the audience hoping as well...).

Except that they did put in the ham-handed ending, you just have chosen to view it was a day dream.

If the movie had ended without the beach scene at all, like Red getting on the bus, looking out the window -> "get busy living, or get busy dying, damn right" -> credits, that would've been totally fine with me. But they added the beach scene and I don't really see any reason to suggest it was a day dream.

And I never read the book and didn't know, until this thread, how it ended.

 

[17seconds]

I like these threads where someone tries to validate a completely unique position

 

[17seconds]

BTW I at the ending every time

 

[Otis]

I like these threads where someone tries to validate a completely unique position

There was a time not that long ago in which the vast majority of people were certain the world was flat.

Sometimes the minority is right.

 

[DiStefano]

You are all overlooking the racial angle. Obviously, Andy is a white guy, so his hope will be realized.

But Red is a black guy, so his hope will be only in his dream.

 

[bushdocda]

Well this is all news to me. Is there a nonbook SSR thread?

 

[AAABatteries]

Well this is all news to me. Is there a nonbook SSR thread?

Put me in the it actually happened camp. Although, I don't think it matters.

 

[BustedKnuckles]

I like these threads where someone tries to validate a completely unique position

There was a time not that long ago in which the vast majority of people were certain the world was flat.

Sometimes the minority is right.

Since it's not in Stephen King's original story, I get asked all the time about the

finale on the beach. Most people love this ending, though there are a few purists

in the crowd who would have preferred ending with King's image of the bus going

down the road. Either way, folks have wanted to know whose idea it was, the rea-

soning behind it. Truth is, my first draft of the script didn't have this scene; it ended

on the bus exactly as King's story does. However, the fine folks at Castle Rock (pri-

marily Liz Glotzer, our patron saint) suggested that the audience would want to see

Andy and Red reunite at the end after all the struggle and misery we've put these

characters through. Though I was skeptical, I wasn't convinced Castle Rock was

wrong. So I wrote the added scene, knowing that if it didn't work on film I could

always leave it out of the movie.

Once we cut the sequence together in the editing room, we all started falling in

love with it. (My editor Richard was particularly voluble on the subject: "Are you

nuts? Ya gotta have it in the movie! Look at the smile on Morgan's face! It's great!")

Nevertheless, I was still on the fence about using it, still a bit cautious. I wanted to

see how the ending would play with a real audience before making a firm decision.

The night of our first test-screening, I had my answer -- they loved it. They wept, they

cheered. More to the point, on the test cards they filled out, well over 90 percent

of the audience singled this out as among their favorite scenes in the movie (the other

favorite was Scene 60, with the convicts drinking beer on the roof).

Who was I to argue with those kinds of results? I think there's a difference

between pandering to an audience and giving them something they love. Besides, as

I said, I'd started falling in love with it myself. Looking back on it now, I wouldn't

have it any other way. Liz Glotzer was right about it providing emotional cathar-

sis. But even more than that, in a purely cinematic sense, I think it gives the movie

a tremendous sense of closure. By ending with that final image, we've brought the

viewer on a full journey that begins in tight claustrophobia defined by walls and con-

cludes where the horizon is limitless; the movie has traveled fully from darkness to

light, from coldness to warmth, from colorlessness to a place where only color exists,

from physical and spiritual imprisonment to total freedom (which is the very thing

I wanted to convey in 271 & 272, the dream sequence I never got the chance to

shoot). Bottom line is, I think it's a magical and uplifting place for our characters

to arrive at the end of their long saga...

 

[bigbottom]

Very interesting. It's admittedly a touch disappointing that Darabont ascribes the criticism of the end to people being "purists" about King's work. It's not really that, at least not for me. I think the bus scene would have been the perfect ending. The beach scene, while uplifting, felt ham-fisted, formulaic and tacked on. Oh well.

By the way, one of King's other novellas, The Mist, ended ambiguously. In the movie, Hollywood opted instead for a non-ambiguous, complete resolution to the story as an ending. And it was AMAZING.

 

[PatsWillWin]

By the way, one of King's other novellas, The Mist, ended ambiguously. In the movie, Hollywood opted instead for a non-ambiguous, complete resolution to the story as an ending. And it was AMAZING.

Oh man. I hated that ending. I thought it was the definition of trying too hard.

I also just realized it had two actors from The Walking Dead. Huh.

 

[bigbottom]

By the way, one of King's other novellas, The Mist, ended ambiguously. In the movie, Hollywood opted instead for a non-ambiguous, complete resolution to the story as an ending. And it was AMAZING.

Oh man. I hated that ending. I thought it was the definition of trying too hard.

I also just realized it had two actors from The Walking Dead. Huh.

I guess I just appreciated how anti-Hollywood it was.

 

[Josie Maran]

The story itself, as written by King, screams "Hope springs eternal". He set up the entire book - and titled it - based on the seasons. Here's another clue - the "Redemption" in the title of the story. I had no problem extending King's ending to Darabont's. It makes sense. When I read the book - long before the film came out - I had no doubt Red found Andy.

Red absolutely found Andy. No doubt about it. As Red was on the bus, I would bet my friggin life that he finds his friend and shakes his hand. I guarantee the Pacific was as blue as it was in his dreams.

But did we know this because the storyteller told us? Did the writer tell us? Did the director *want* to tell us?

We should know this not because it was told to us, but because we're supposed to have f##king HOPE that it happens. The ending is supposed to be our own.

I read that story over 20 years ago and I still remember the feeling after reading the last sentence. "I hope." I had absolute certainty that it all works out, but the appreciation I had for the author that he left it up to me to realize it was an absolutely glorious feeling. But the first time I saw the movie, that feeling was completely stolen by the tacked-on #### pile of the last 45 seconds.

 

[Josie Maran]

That's a pile of bull###t from Darabont. He's been brainwashed. Deal with it.

 

[Josie Maran]

Btw, I'm extraordinarily drunk and trying to convey complex feelings. Apologies if my meanin is less than clear.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

The story itself, as written by King, screams "Hope springs eternal". He set up the entire book - and titled it - based on the seasons. Here's another clue - the "Redemption" in the title of the story. I had no problem extending King's ending to Darabont's. It makes sense. When I read the book - long before the film came out - I had no doubt Red found Andy.

Red absolutely found Andy. No doubt about it. As Red was on the bus, I would bet my friggin life that he finds his friend and shakes his hand. I guarantee the Pacific was as blue as it was in his dreams.

But did we know this because the storyteller told us? Did the writer tell us? Did the director *want* to tell us?

We should know this not because it was told to us, but because we're supposed to have f##king HOPE that it happens. The ending is supposed to be our own.

I read that story over 20 years ago and I still remember the feeling after reading the last sentence. "I hope." I had absolute certainty that it all works out, but The appreciation I had for the author that he left it up to me to realize it was an absolutely glorious feeling. But the first time I saw the movie, that feeling was completely stolen by the tacked-on #### pile of the last 45 seconds.

I can dig it, my I brother. As I said, I'd have been fine either way it ended.

 

[Otis]

 

[El Floppo]

It was why Andy always fought during the rapes. He would never give up or give in. Too many men accepted their circumstances, became institutionalized, gave up hope. Andy and Red's friendship was the vehicle for telling the story of hope prevailing over despair.

Pretty sure andy dreamed about the rapes. All the time. I read some books.

 

[El Floppo]

4:25, O? Please tell me that's not normal wake up time?

 

[Otis]

4:25, O? Please tell me that's not normal wake up time?

Life in the Ohouse. Oof.

 

[El Floppo]

4:25, O? Please tell me that's not normal wake up time?

Life in the Ohouse. Oof.

Ouch, babe. Kid-related, or burbs related?

 

[shader]

I don't see why travelling to Mexico and finding Andy on the beach is so difficult?

 

[SWC]

whatg i like at the end is they show andy working on that boat and i would actually like to see more about that where maybe they fix that boat up and they show how they do it and whatnot that would sort of have closed it out the best take that to teh bank brohans

 

[AAABatteries]

205-8

Pretty sure we can lock this one mods </otis>

 

[Andy Dufresne]

How do you interpret the very end scene of Shawshank, as they transition from Red on the bus, to Red walking along a beach and he and Andy meeting on the beach? Are they actually showing Red and Andy meeting and confirming that it happens, or is that just Red sort of imagining what it's going to be like?

You serious, Clark?

 

[SacramentoBob]

Very interesting. It's admittedly a touch disappointing that Darabont ascribes the criticism of the end to people being "purists" about King's work. It's not really that, at least not for me. I think the bus scene would have been the perfect ending. The beach scene, while uplifting, felt ham-fisted, formulaic and tacked on. Oh well.

By the way, one of King's other novellas, The Mist, ended ambiguously. In the movie, Hollywood opted instead for a non-ambiguous, complete resolution to the story as an ending. And it was AMAZING.

I thought that was a great ending too.

 

[McGarnicle]

I always liked the ending, but now that I know it wasn't in the book, I feel betrayed and ripped off.

 

[otello]

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

 

[coyote5]

whatg i like at the end is they show andy working on that boat and i would actually like to see more about that where maybe they fix that boat up and they show how they do it and whatnot that would sort of have closed it out the best take that to teh bank brohans

A musical montage ending showing Red in town acquiring things, some pratfalls, maybe Andy and Red laughing and washing a car and having water fights would have been the prefect ending.

 

[kentric]

His message to Red indicated where he would be. I don't understand why you would think that finding Andy would only be a dream.

 

[kentric]

whatg i like at the end is they show andy working on that boat and i would actually like to see more about that where maybe they fix that boat up and they show how they do it and whatnot that would sort of have closed it out the best take that to teh bank brohans

A musical montage ending showing Red in town acquiring things, some pratfalls, maybe Andy and Red laughing and washing a car and having water fights would have been the prefect ending.

But they have to wear white t-shirts for the water fight.

 

[Otis]

His message to Red indicated where he would be. I don't understand why you would think that finding Andy would only be a dream.

I'm not saying he never finds Andy. I'm saying that what they are showing isn't actually him finding Andy, but him daydreaming about it while still on the bus, hoping to find him, as the camera pans up to the sky.

 

[Major]

It was why Andy always fought during the rapes. He would never give up or give in. Too many men accepted their circumstances, became institutionalized, gave up hope. Andy and Red's friendship was the vehicle for telling the story of hope prevailing over despair.

Pretty sure andy dreamed about the rapes. All the time. I read some books.

Boggs was here. So was Red.

 

[snogger]

And Red finding Andy at the end provides further proof of the power of hope and how it can be realized.

 

[encaitar]

His message to Red indicated where he would be. I don't understand why you would think that finding Andy would only be a dream.

I'm not saying he never finds Andy. I'm saying that what they are showing isn't actually him finding Andy, but him daydreaming about it while still on the bus, hoping to find him, as the camera pans up to the sky.

If he was dreaming it wasn't a very good dream. Showing up right as Andy is doing some hot back-breaking work. "Oh Red, thank god you made it. Here, grab a sander. We got a #### load of work to do."

If it was a dream he should have found Andy relaxing under an umbrella with an extra margarita waiting for him.

 

[Henry Ford]

His message to Red indicated where he would be. I don't understand why you would think that finding Andy would only be a dream.

I'm not saying he never finds Andy. I'm saying that what they are showing isn't actually him finding Andy, but him daydreaming about it while still on the bus, hoping to find him, as the camera pans up to the sky.

If he was dreaming it wasn't a very good dream. Showing up right as Andy is doing some hot back-breaking work. "Oh Red, thank god you made it. Here, grab a sander. We got a #### load of work to do."

If it was a dream he should have found Andy relaxing under an umbrella with an extra margarita waiting for him.

Red never struck me as the type to dream about sitting around all day.

 

[SWC]

whatg i like at the end is they show andy working on that boat and i would actually like to see more about that where maybe they fix that boat up and they show how they do it and whatnot that would sort of have closed it out the best take that to teh bank brohans

A musical montage ending showing Red in town acquiring things, some pratfalls, maybe Andy and Red laughing and washing a car and having water fights would have been the prefect ending.

But they have to wear white t-shirts for the water fight.

i do not mean like that i mean more like they could have that guy from the show trucks show up and talk about what they did to fix the boat and show it blasting around out in the ocean that would be a pretty satisfying ending because it would send the message that even if you have to crawl through a tube of number two you can come out on the other side and restore a classic wooden boat which is a message everyone is going to relate to to bam right there take that to the bank brohans

 

[Parrothead]

everyone knows Red was detained at the border and spent the rest of his life in a Mexican prison terrorized by the 'hermanas'..

 

[msudaisy26]

I always assumed that Andy gave him hope, but he didn't realize it until he quoted Andy and said " Get busy living or get busy dying, that's damn right" from then on he realized he could have a better life and he had to make it happen by keeping his promise to his friend.

 

[17seconds]

His message to Red indicated where he would be. I don't understand why you would think that finding Andy would only be a dream.

I'm not saying he never finds Andy. I'm saying that what they are showing isn't actually him finding Andy, but him daydreaming about it while still on the bus, hoping to find him, as the camera pans up to the sky.

How does that change the movie other than to bring into question whether he found Andy or what he was doing when he found him? Weakens the ending. Years of struggle and he just daydreams of finding him? That sucks.

Maybe the dream sequence starts right after he buys the ticket to Ft. Hancock and the bus is a dream too.

Or maybe it starts when he carved "So was Red" and he's still working at the grocery store.

 

[coyote5]

Maybe he never met Andy. He was a figment of Red's imagination created by his subconscious to help him cope with the horrors of incarceration.

 

[Sarnoff]

Maybe he never met Andy. He was a figment of Red's imagination created by his subconscious to help him cope with the horrors of incarceration.

When Andy walked in on his wife cheating on him, he went out to his car, got his gun out of the glove box, and blew his brains out. The whole movie was a dream his mind told him was the alternative to suicide; what would happen if he walked into the house and shot his wife and her lover.

 

[bigbottom]

Maybe he never met Andy. He was a figment of Red's imagination created by his subconscious to help him cope with the horrors of incarceration.

Identity of A Beautiful Mind on Shutter Island

 

[SWC]

maybe he carved so was red and then hung himself like brookie did and bam it is all a shot of what heaven was like for red from there out bam brohans i just blew your mind apart take that to the bank brohans

 

[Parrothead]

Maybe he never met Andy. He was a figment of Red's imagination created by his subconscious to help him cope with the horrors of incarceration.

When Andy walked in on his wife cheating on him, he went out to his car, got his gun out of the glove box, and blew his brains out. The whole movie was a dream his mind told him was the alternative to suicide; what would happen if he walked into the house and shot his wife and her lover.

maybe he stayed married but his life felt like prison

 

[Henry Ford]

Maybe he never met Andy. He was a figment of Red's imagination created by his subconscious to help him cope with the horrors of incarceration.

When Andy walked in on his wife cheating on him, he went out to his car, got his gun out of the glove box, and blew his brains out. The whole movie was a dream his mind told him was the alternative to suicide; what would happen if he walked into the house and shot his wife and her lover.

maybe he stayed married but his life felt like prison

Maybe Andy is a man trapped in a woman's body trying to decide whether or not to have reassignment surgery.

 

[Controller]

Didn't read the book and as I said before I don't care that the film's ending differed. I thought it was a perfect ending. I'm glad that Red's hope to see his friend again came to fruition at the end. As I said in my first post, I had no idea people who liked this film don't like the ending. That never dawned on me as possible since this is, in my opinion, a damn near perfect film from start to finish.

Amen. I agree 100%.

 

[DiStefano]

whatg i like at the end is they show andy working on that boat and i would actually like to see more about that where maybe they fix that boat up and they show how they do it and whatnot that would sort of have closed it out the best take that to teh bank brohans

A musical montage ending showing Red in town acquiring things, some pratfalls, maybe Andy and Red laughing and washing a car and having water fights would have been the prefect ending.

But they have to wear white t-shirts for the water fight.

Racist.

 

[rodg12]

How do you interpret the very end scene of Shawshank, as they transition from Red on the bus, to Red walking along a beach and he and Andy meeting on the beach? Are they actually showing Red and Andy meeting and confirming that it happens, or is that just Red sort of imagining what it's going to be like?

You serious, Clark?

I was wondering when you were going to weigh in on this...