Is ‘Shawshank Redemption’ based on a true story?

It’s easy to hope that The Shawshank Redemption was based on a true story.

That’s probably because of the “redemption” part. In the end, it’s a beautiful story. Friendship and optimism conquer an unforgiving system. A fraction of independence is metered out thanks to perseverance, determination, and the single-minded use of a remarkably durable rock hammer. 

Looked at from another point of view, though, finding out that the 1994 motion picture classic was based in truth would be an absolute nightmare. Think of all the characters that you’d have to accept as actual human beings. Think of the terror and the loneliness. Think of how many guys would’ve fallen off of that roof after drinking their first beer in a decade. 

So, 30 years after its release, and the better part of a century after the beginning of the story’s setting, is The Shawshank Redemption based on real life?

The realities around The Shawshank Redemption

So, the news is a mixed bag. Basically, The Shawshank Redemption isn’t based on anything real, besides America’s deeply flawed penal system and, through the film’s use of a sewage system as a means of transportation, arguably, Super Mario Bros.

For one thing, Shawshank Prison isn’t a real place. Like the majority of locations in Maine, it’s something that Stephen King made up. He invented it for his novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, and writer/director Frank Darabont adapted the work into a movie, which was also pretend. In the real world, which is no fairytale world, there was no Andy Dufresne. There was no Red. Brooks, for his part, was not here.

On the upside, if The Shawshank Redemption was based on a true story, it would mean that Red and Andy implicated themselves by selling the tale of that time when they either broke out of prison, or illegally crossed international borders whileon parole, respectively. Looking at things from a glass-is-half-full perspective, it’s nice to know that Tim Robbins never went through any of the things that happened at Shawshank. The worst thing he ever experienced, to the best of our knowledge, is still Green Lantern. Maybe Howard the Duck. 

Even so, the greatest stories transcend truth. Regardless of whether or not the events of the film actually happened, The Shawshank Redemption made generations of filmgoers believe in a world – maybe a better world – where a man can crawl through a mile of any manner of thing, and come out the other side clean, instead of just smelling like a sweaty toilet dude.