It's the first Wednesday of the month, and you know what that means .... Insecure Writer's Support Group posting around the blogosphere. I've been a part of this group since it started a couple years ago and I can say there isn't a more supportive and uplifting writing community out there.
Click on the pic to get to HQ and see all the fellow writers who participate.
I took a blogging break over the last six months or so, but I knew I wanted to come back for IWSG Wednesday because you have all been there for me over the years, and I want to be there for you.
BTW .... for some reason Blogger likes to eat my comments on your blogs. On some blogs it's no problem and my comments append, and on others, I comment repeatedly and nothing happens. So if anyone knows WHY this happens, please let me know so I can fix it.
Alright, let's get to it.
Today I'm breaking down the structural beats of the widely loved film, Shawshank Redemption. It's based on a Stephen King novel, and after hearing so many people say this is one of their all time favorite films, I had to get in there and dissect it. I confess, I love it, too. It's an epic story of redemption. The stakes are high, and things continue to get worse and worse, until our main character is hanging by the last thread of his sanity. And we love watching him come out on top in the end.
Here's the breakdown using the Save the Cat method on story structural beats:
SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Genre:
Institutionalized
OPENING IMAGE:
A 1940s car in a gravel driveway of a middle class
suburban home. Inside the car is Andy Dufrane (played by Tim Robbins). Old
timey music is playing on the car radio. Andy has a look of distress on his
face. He reaches for a gun from the glove box, holds it. Then takes a drink of
liquor and focuses on the house in front of him. We never see what happens
next.
(Does your story have an opening image that sets the tone for the entire story??)
SETUP:
We jump to a courtroom trial with Andy on the stand.
The prosecuting attorney recaps the events that got him there. Andy’s wife had
a lover and Andy allegedly shot and killed both his wife and her lover in cold,
meditated murder. We hear both sides of the case, from the lawyer and from
Andy’s testimony, but we are unable to determine if he’s guilty, and it’s an
era before forensic science could prove a case. Andy is stoic and un-remorseful,
giving him a look of guilt.
(Perfect example of leaving the audience with questions and wanting to know more)
THEME STATED:
Regardless of Andy’s claim to his innocence, he is
doubly sentenced to life in prison, stating the theme that offenders go on to
receive their punishment, pay their debts, so that justice is served. Freedom
is taken away from those who commit a crime.
(This theme provides a delicious twist of irony in the end)
CATALYST:
Andy is sent to prison for reform. Welcome to
Shawshank.
DEBATE:
We cut to Red (played by Morgan Freeman) and he is
sitting in front of a parole board trying to prove he has been reformed. He
tries to convince them he’s no longer a danger to society. He is rejected. Perhaps
justice is not blind, or perhaps Red simply does not deserve freedom.
BREAK INTO ACT II:
Red is back in the prison yard and we are introduced
to him as the narrator of Andy’s story. When he narrates Andy’s arrival to Shawshank,
Red says none of the inmates expected Andy to last. A breeze would blow him
over, Andy was so withdrawn. No one believes he will make it past the first
night, much less, to ever see his freedom again.
B STORY:
Andy needs help from Red, since Red is the man who can
get things. He asks Red to get him a poster of Rita Hayworth and a rock hammer
(a foreshadowing of what’s to come/plant in the story.) This is where their
friendship begins.
We are also introduced to the warden and the
warden’s rules. He stands for two things: discipline and the Bible.
FUN & GAMES:
This is where we see what prison life is really
like. Caged lowlifes, criminal hierarchy, beatings and hounding. We see an
inmate break down into tears on his first night, daunted by the finality and
severity of this punishment. We also see what Andy is made of on his first
night, and he never sheds a tear. Is it because he is truly remorseless? Or
because something stronger resides inside him?
MIDPOINT:
Andy’s
having trouble with the "sisters," and he’s having trouble making friends. Red
warns Andy to grow eyes in the back of his head. Red confesses he likes Andy
and values their friendship.
Andy’s
sculpting rocks now, admitting he’s a rock hound (another plant/foreshadow),
and even remarks that tunneling out of prison with a rock hammer would take 600
years.
The
warden demonstrates his surprise inspections (more foreshadowing.)
We
also see how paraphernalia is moved in and out of prison under the guards’
noses.
BAD GUYS CLOSE IN:
The sisters attack. Sometimes Andy gets away, and
sometimes he doesn’t. The first two years in prison Andy suffers multiple
assaults from them because prison is no fairy tale world. The attacks become
routine and Andy often shows up with fresh bruises. But Andy makes a name for
himself when he offers to help the head guard with his taxes. Soon the warden
hears of Andy’s skills and takes advantage of his financial wisdom. Andy makes
friends by trading his services for two six packs of beer for his fellow inmates on the
roof, and this wins him favor with the others. At one point, Andy is beaten
within inches of his life and put in the infirmary. This ticks off the head
guard so he beats down the sisters and has them moved to another prison. Andy
is now free from them, but also, now under the scrutiny of the warden, as he’s
working in his office keeping his books and crunching his fraudulent numbers.
ALL IS LOST:
We see a clip of lifetime inmate, Brooks, being
released on parole now that he’s an old man with no family left and nowhere to
go, only a measly job of bagging groceries. He ends up hanging himself because
he can’t handle the real world. This shows us what prison can do to a man, what
it takes away from him, even after he’s out.
For Andy, we learn through a new inmate, Tommy, that
he truly is innocent. Tommy tells of a man he was once in a different prison
with, and how that man confessed to killing some banker’s wife and lover, and
getting away with it because the law tried and convicted the banker. When Andy
presents this new information to the warden, the warden refuses to acknowledge
its legitimacy and throws Andy in solitary confinement for insubordination.
(Perfect example of how important information is withheld from the audience until well past the mid point)
DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL:
The warden keeps Andy in solitary for a month—the
longest anyone has ever been down there. The warden has Tommy, the only witness
to Andy’s innocence, shot and killed in the prison yard to prevent his prized
possession and financial advisor, Andy, from having his case reopened. Andy is given
solitary another month so that he has uninterrupted time to consider the
warden’s leniency. The warden threatens to throw Andy in with the sodomites and
burn down the prison library that Andy worked so hard to build, if Andy doesn’t give
up his quest for a new trial. Here, Andy remembers loving his dead wife while
she was alive, but also driving her away with his lack of emotion. Prison has
opened his eyes to who he was, but he can’t let it take away who he is, or who
he’s meant to be.
Red is rejected by the parole board once more, after
serving thirty years of his life sentence.
BREAK INTO ACT III:
Andy dreams of life outside prison. He’s different
after solitary--quieter, broken, but not beat. He talks with Red about a place
in Mexico called Zihautanejo and encourages him to visit it someday. They both
know it’s a pipe dream, but it represents freedom. Freedom that Andy craves,
and Red fears. Andy tells Red if he ever gets out, to look for a rock wall near
a big tree and there will be something buried beneath a black rock there. This
leaves Red worried of what dark plans Andy may have. Suicide, perhaps?
FINALE:
Andy comes up missing at role call one morning. Red
and the other inmates are nervous. Inside Andy’s cell, we see no body, nor any
sign of Andy, only his rock sculpture collection, and poster of Raquel Welch.
The alarm sounds and the warden sends for Red, to question him.
We see the chain of events leading up to that
moment. A rewind of images: Andy shines the warden’s shoes in the warden’s office that
day, but puts them on his own feet instead of leaving them out for the warden.
He deposits the warden’s papers and money into the safe, but it’s not like it
should be. A bigger plan is already in place from years of mail correspondence the warden has no knowledge of.
In his anger, the warden throws one of Andy’s rocks
at the poster on his prison wall on the end block, and it bounces and echoes in
the distance behind it, alerting him, and Red, that foul play is afoot.
Andy’s tunnel is revealed, as well as the way Andy
crawled through the wall and through a sewage pipe, eventually making it to
freedom in a ditch on the other side. Prison allowed an innocent man the
perfect crime. Andy was able to tunnel out in under twenty years. All the money
handling he’d done for the warden was placed in an account under someone else’s
name—all part of Andy’s grand scheme—one that he’d already gotten new fake IDs for while
biding his time in prison. Money to keep him well provided for, for the rest of
his life.
At last, Red is granted parole from the board.
FINAL IMAGE:
What freedom feels like. Andy on a white sand beach, sanding a boat.
Red strolling beside the pristine ocean waters to be reunited with his friend.
Fade into panoramic of beach. What freedom looks like.
So tell me, are you a fan of this story? Why or why not? Do you find it helpful to break down stories into beats to improve your own writing? I use these beats when plotting and it's become a tried and true technique. Is there a film you'd like to see me breakdown? Feel free to share in the comments ...
31 comments:
I liked your breakdown, but have to say that I found the story on the tired side. A little big same old, same old.
Perhaps I am getting jaded.
Hoping you're coming back to your blogging. Breaks can be good sometimes though. Let me know if you ever have problems commenting on my blog. I have that problem on one blog where I can't see my comment post but the blogger says it is coming up.
Glad you're back! Sorry Blogger is eating your comments though.
It is a really good film and breaks down well into the Fifteen Beats.
One of my favorite films as well. Love this method of breaking down a story. Welcome back - have no clue about the comment problem. Sorry.
I do really like that movie. Thanks for the breakdown. It does have a great ending.
Susan Says
Good to see you back!
I love this film to pieces.
Blogger never seems to run out of ways to screw up! But it's good to have you back, PK!
King's books don't always maker good films but Shawshank was the best ever - and one of the few in which he didn't appear.
Welcome back! This is such a great flick. Maybe I should watch it again.
I find breaking down story helps me understand story craft better, which allows me to construct better, but I feel I am always learning and can never learn enough. I enjoy reading break downs too.
Juneta Writer's Gambit
I did love the story, and it is one of the few that I liked the film as much as the written story. Very well done. This breakdown is awesome.
That was really cool.Yes I do break down stuff to help my writing. I'm currently using the 14 Sign Post Scenes from James Scott Bell's plotting and structure book. They really help me break down the story into the points I need to hit to keep it going.
Blogger first: Grr... I know, right? The same thing has been happening to me. So much so that I'm now in the habit of copying my comment before hitting post. I don't have time for that. #sigh
Can I tell you how much I love these breakdown posts? Okay, I'll tell you. I love them! I'm actually using this one to inspire me to finish the outline I'm working on now.
So happy to 'see' you again :-) Sorry I'm late commenting . . . hopefully Blogger doesn't eat my words. I really loved this movie & LOVE LOVE LOVE your breakdown! We'll have to name you MC Hammer ;-)
Shawshank is a film I watch over and over and all my kids love it too. It's just so well done. Your breakdown was interesting Pk.
I like these kinds of breakdowns, but I can only focus on them during edits. When first drafting I just go wherever the story takes me! Though I always try to keep "raise the stakes!!!" in the back of my mind, since I have a tendency to make things too easy on my characters...
I find dark nights of the soul extremely important. I try to incorporate one in almost each of my novel manuscripts. And it's important they don't occur too early. The character has to be somewhat beaten up first.
Another great post, I seem to be just breezing through blogs lately being unemployed, maybe I should post more or Does anyone have a blog they would like to recommend? Self-promoted is always good too!
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