- What did you say? - Thirty-five thousand.
All of it.
- Every penny. - You better start making sense.
If you want to keep it, give it to your wife.
The IRS allows a one-time-only gift to your spouse for up to $60,000.
- Bullshit. Tax-free? - Tax-free.
IRS can't touch one cent.
You're that smart banker that killed his wife.
Why should I believe you? So I can end up in here with you?
It's legal. Ask the IRS. They'll say the same thing.
I feel stupid telling you this. I'm sure you would have investigated.
I don't need you to tell me where the bear shit in the buckwheat.
Of course not. But you do need someone to set it up for you.
That'll cost you. A lawyer.
A bunch of ball-washing bastards!
I suppose I could set it up for you. That would save you some money.
You get the forms, I'll prepare them...
...nearly free of charge.
I'd only ask three beers apiece for each of my coworkers.
"Coworkers." That's rich!
A man working outdoors feels more like a man...
...if he can have a bottle of suds. That's only my opinion...
...sir.
What are you jimmies staring at?
Let's go! Work!
And that's how it came to pass...
... that on the second-to-last day of the job...
... the convict crew that tarred the factory roof in the spring of '49...
... wound up sitting in a row at 10:00 in the morning...
... drinking icy-cold beer, courtesy of the hardest screw...
... that ever walked a turn at Shawshank State Prison.
Drink up while it's cold, ladies.
The colossal prick even managed to sound magnanimous.
We sat and drank with the sun on our shoulders and felt like free men.
We could have been tarring the roof of one of our own houses.
We were the lords of all creation.
As for Andy...
... he spent that break hunkered in the shade...
... a strange little smile on his face...
... watching us drink his beer.
Want a cold one?
No, thanks. I gave up drinking.
You could argue he done it to curry favor with the guards.
Or maybe make a few friends among us cons.
Me?
I think he did it just to feel normal again...
... if only for a short while.
King me.
- Chess. Now there's a game of kings. - What?
Civilized. Strategic.
And a total fucking mystery. I hate it.
Let me teach you someday.
Sure.
We could get a board together.
You're talking to the right man. I can get things, right?
We might do business on a board, and I'll carve the pieces myself.
One side in alabaster, one in soapstone. What do you think?
I think it'll take years.
Years I got. What I don't have are the rocks.
Pickings are pretty slim in the yard.
Pebbles, mostly.
We're getting to be kind of friends, aren't we?
Yeah, I guess.
Can I ask you something?
Why'd you do it?
I'm innocent, Red.
Just like everybody else here.
What are you in for?
Murder. Same as you.
Innocent?
Only guilty man in Shawshank.
Where's the canary?
How did you know?
- How did I know what? - So you don't know.
Come.
This is where the canary is.
Quite a surprise to hear a woman singing in my house, eh?
That's quite a...
... surprise.
Wait, wait.
Here she comes.
I like this part when she does that shit with her hair.
I know. I've seen it three times this month.
Gilda, are you decent?
Me?
God, I love it.
I understand you're a man that knows how to get things.
I'm known to locate certain things from time to time. What do you want?
- Rita Hayworth. - What?
Can you get her?
So this is Johnny Farrel. I've heard a lot about you.
- Take a few weeks. - Weeks?
I don't have her stuffed down the front of my pants right now, sorry to say.
But I'll get her.
Relax.
Thanks.
- Take a walk! - I got to change reels!
I said fuck off!
Ain't you going to scream?
Let's get this over with.
He broke my fucking nose!
Now...
...I'm going to open my fly...
...and you'll swallow what I give you to swallow.
Then you'll swallow Rooster's. You broke his nose.
He ought to have something to show for it.
You put it in my mouth, you lose it.
No, you don't understand.
Do that and I'll put all eight inches of this in your ear.
All right, but you should know that sudden, serious brain injury...
...causes the victim to bite down hard.
In fact, I hear the bite reflex is so strong...
...they have to pry the victim's jaws open...
...with a crowbar.
Where do you get this shit?
I read it.
You know how to read, you ignorant fuck?
Honey!
You shouldn't!
Bogs didn't put anything in Andy's mouth.
And neither did his friends.
What they did do is beat him within an inch of his life.
Andy spent a month in the infirmary.
Bogs spent a week in the hole.
Time's up, Bogs.
It's your world, boss.
Return to your cellblocks for evening count.
All prisoners report for lock down.
What?
- Where's he going? - Grab his ankles.
No! No! Help me!
Two things never happened again after that.
The Sisters never laid a finger on Andy again.
And Bogs would never walk again.
They transferred him to a minimum-security hospital upstate.
To my knowledge, he lived out the rest of his days...
... drinking his food through a straw.
Andy could use a nice welcome back when he gets out of the infirmary.
Sounds good to us.
I figure we owe him that much for the beer.
The man likes to play chess.
Let's get him some rocks.
Guys!
I got one.
I got one. Look!
Heywood, that isn't soapstone! And it ain't alabaster either.
What are you, a fucking geologist?
He's right. It ain't.
- What the hell is it then? - It's a horse apple.
- Bullshit! - No, horseshit.
Petrified.
Oh, Jesus.
Damn!
Despite a few hitches, the boys came through in fine style.
And by the weekend he was due back...
... we had enough rocks saved up to keep him busy till rapture.
Also got a big shipment in that week.
Cigarettes...
... chewing gum...
... sipping whisky...
... playing cards with naked ladies on them. You name it.
And of course, the most important item:
Rita Hayworth herself.
Okay, look alive! All tiers.
Heads up. They're tossing cells.
Heads up. They're tossing cells!
119.
123.
On your feet.
Face the wall.
Turn around and face the warden.
Pleased to see you reading this.
Any favorite passages?
"Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not...
...when the master of the house cometh."
Mark 13:35.
I've always liked that one.
But I prefer...
..."I am the light of the world.
Ye that followeth me shall have the light of life."
John, chapter 8, verse 12.
I hear you're good with numbers.
How nice.
Man should have a skill.
Explain this.
It's called a rock blanket. It's for shaping and polishing rocks.
A little hobby of mine.
It's pretty clean.
Some contraband here, but nothing to get in a twist over.
I can't say I approve of this.
But I suppose...
...exceptions can be made.
Lock them up!
I almost forgot.
I'd hate to deprive you of this.
Salvation lies within.
Yes, sir.
Tossing cells was just an excuse.
Truth is...
... Norton wanted to size Andy up.
My wife made that in church group.
Very nice, sir.
You enjoy working the laundry?
No, sir. Not especially.
Perhaps we can find something more...
...befitting a man of your education.
Hey, Jake. Where's Brooks?
I thought I heard you out here.
I've been reassigned to you.
I know, they told me.
Ain't that a kick in the head?
Well, I'll give you the dime tour.
Come on.
Well, here she is.
The Shawshank Prison Library.
National Geographics...
...Reader's Digest condensed books...
...and Louis L'Amour.
Look magazine.
Erle Stanley Gardners.
Every evening I load up the cart and make my rounds.
I enter the names on this clipboard here.
Easy, peasy, Japanese-y.
- Any questions? - How long have you been librarian?
I come here in '05, and they made me librarian in 1912.
And have you ever had an assistant?
No. Not much to it, really.
Why me? Why now?
I don't know.
But it'd be nice to have some company down here.
That's him. That's the one.
I'm Dekins.
I was thinking...
...about setting up some kind of trust fund for my kids' educations.
I see.
Why don't we have a seat and talk it over.
Do you have a piece of paper and a pencil?
Thanks.
So...
Mr. Dekins...
And then Andy says, "Mr. Dekins...
...do you want your sons to go to Harvard or Yale?"
He didn't say that!
As God as my witness!
Dekins blinked for a second...
...then he laughed and actually shook Andy's hand.
- My ass! - Shook his hand.
I tell you, I near soiled myself!
All he needed was a suit and tie and a jiggly hula gal on his desk...
...he'd have been "Mr. Dufresne," if you please.
Making a few friends?
I wouldn't say "friends."
I'm a convicted murderer who provides sound financial planning.
It's a wonderful pet to have.
Got you out of the laundry, though.
It might do more than that.
How about expanding the library. Get some new books.
If you ask for something, ask for a pool table.
How do you expect to do that? I mean...
...get new books in here, "Mr. Dufresne, if you please."
I'll ask the warden for funds.
Six wardens have been through here in my tenure, and I've learned...
...one immutable, universal truth:
Not one born whose asshole...
...wouldn't pucker up tighter than a snare drum when you ask for funds.
- The budget's stretched thin as it is. - I see.
Maybe I could write the state senate and request funds from them.
They have only three ways to spend the taxpayers' money for prisons:
More walls, more bars, more guards.
I'd like to try, with permission. A letter a week.
- They can't ignore me forever. - Sure can.
But you write your letters if it makes you happy.
I'll even mail them for you. How's that?
So Andy started writing a letter a week...
... just like he said.
And like Norton said...
... Andy got no answers.
The following April, he did tax returns for half the guards at Shawshank.
Year after that, he did them all...
... including the warden's.
Year after that, they rescheduled the intramural season...
... to coincide with tax season.
The guards on the opposing teams all remembered to bring their W-2s.
So Moresby Prison...
...issued you a gun, but you paid for it.
Right. The holster too.
That's tax-deductible. You can write that off.
Yes, sir! Andy was a regular cottage industry.
In fact, it got so busy at tax time, he was allowed a staff.
Could you hand me a stack of 1040s?
Got me out of the wood shop a month out of the year, and that was fine by me.
And still, he kept sending those letters.
It's Brooks.
Watch the door.
Please, Brooks.
- Calm the fuck down. - Stay back!
- Stay back, goddamn it! - What's going on?
One second he's fine, then out come the knives.
We can talk about this, right?
There's nothing to talk about. I'll cut his fucking throat.
What's he done to you?
It's what they done!
I got no choice.
You won't hurt Heywood. We all know that.
- Right, Heywood? - Sure. I know that.
He's a friend of yours, and Brooks is a reasonable man.
Right, guys?
So put the knife down. Look at me.
Put the knife down.
Look at his neck, for God's sake.
Look at his neck. He's bleeding.
It's the only way...
...they'd let me stay.
This is crazy. You don't want to do this.
Put it, put it down.
Take it easy.
You'll be all right.
Him? What about me?
Crazy old fool damn near cut my throat!
You've had worse from shaving.
What did you do to set him off?
Nothing. I come in here to say farewell.
Ain't you heard? His parole's come through.
I just don't understand what happened in there, that's all.
Old man's crazy as a rat in a tin shithouse.
That's enough out of you.
- Heard he had you shitting your pants. - Fuck you.
Knock it off.
Brooks ain't no bug.
He's just institutionalized.
"Institutionalized," my ass.
The man's been in here 50 years, Heywood, 50 years!
This is all he knows.
In here, he's an important man...
...an educated man.
Outside, he's nothing.
Just a used-up con with arthritis in both hands.
Probably couldn't get a library card if he tried.
You know what I'm trying to say?
I do believe you're talking out of your ass.
You believe whatever you want.
But I tell you these walls are funny.
First you hate them.
Then you get used to them.
Enough time passes...
...you get so you depend on them.
That's "institutionalized."
Shit.
- I could never get like that. - Oh, yeah?
Wait till you've been here as long as Brooks.
Goddamn right.
They send you here for life...
...that's exactly what they take.
Part that counts, anyway.
I can't take care of you no more, Jake.
You go on now.
You're free.
Good luck, Brooksie.
Take care of yourself, Brooks.
Dear fellas:
I can't believe how fast things move on the outside.
Watch it, old-timer! Want to get killed?
I saw an automobile once when I was a kid...
... but now they're everywhere.
The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.
The parole board got me into this halfway house...
... called "The Brewer"...
... and a job...
... bagging groceries at the Food-Way.
It's hard work and I try to keep up...
... but my hands hurt most of the time.
Make sure your man double-bags.
Last time, the bottom near came out.
Make sure you double-bag like the lady says. Understand?
Yes, sir. Surely will.
I don't think the store manager likes me very much.
Sometimes after work, I go to the park and feed the birds.
I keep thinking...
... Jake might just show up and say hello.
But he never does.
I hope, wherever he is, he's doing okay and making new friends.
I have trouble sleeping at night.
I have bad dreams like I'm falling.
I wake up scared.
Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am.
Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Food-Way so they'd send me home.
I could shoot the manager while I was at it. Sort of like a bonus.
I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense anymore.
I don't like it here.
I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided...
... not to stay.
I doubt they'll kick up any fuss...
... not for an old crook like me.
"I doubt they'll kick up any fuss, not for an old crook like me.
P.S. Tell Heywood I'm sorry I put a knife to his throat.
No hard feelings. Brooks."
He should have died in here.
What the fuck have you done?
It's a goddamn mess, I'll tell you that.
- What's all this? - You tell me. They're addressed to you.
Take it.
"Dear Mr. Dufresne:
In response to your repeated inquiries...
...the state has allocated the enclosed funds for your library project."
This is $200.
"In addition, the library district has generously responded...
...with a donation of used books and sundries.
We trust this will fill your needs. We now consider the matter closed.
Please stop sending us letters."
Clear all this out before the warden gets back.
Yes, sir.
Good for you, Andy.
Wow!
It only took six years.
From now on, I'll write two letters a week instead of one.
I believe you're crazy enough. Get this stuff out...
...like he said. I've got to pinch a loaf.
When I come back...
...this is all gone, all right?
Do you hear that?
Dufresne!
Andy, let me out!
I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about.
Truth is, I don't want to know.
Some things are best left unsaid.
I like to think it was something so beautiful...
... it can't be expressed in words...
... and makes your heart ache because of it.
I tell you, those voices soared...
... higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream.
It was like a beautiful bird flapped into our drab cage...
... and made those walls dissolve away.
And for the briefest of moments...
... every last man at Shawshank felt free.
It pissed the warden off something awful.
Open the door.
Open it up!
Dufresne, open this door!
Turn that off!
I am warning you. Turn that off!
You're mine now.
Andy got two weeks in the hole for that little stunt.
On your feet.
- Hey, look who's here. - Maestro!
You couldn't play something good, huh? Like Hank Williams?
They broke the door down before I could take requests.
- Was it worth two weeks? - Easiest time I ever did.
- No such thing as easy time in the hole. - A week in the hole is like a year.
- Damn straight. - I had Mr. Mozart to keep me company.
So they let you tote that record player down there, huh?
It was in here.
In here.
That's the beauty of music. They...
...can't get that from you.
Haven't you ever felt that way about music?
Well, I played a mean harmonica as a younger man.
Lost interest in it, though.
Didn't make much sense in here.
Here's where it makes the most sense.
You need it so you don't forget.