#darabont

The first thing I noticed about Darabont’s script is that he paid close attention to sound, often replacing the spoken word with things such as “moans” and the “night sounds of crickets and hoot owls.” I believe this to be the case because he knew that simple sounds, like the spoken word, contain the ability to evoke certain types of emotions within the hearts of his viewers. By jumping directly into his story and skipping the opening credits, he knew that he would manage to engross his viewers as soon as they sat down. By commencing his story in this way and following up with an explanation for what was viewed previously during the court scene, Darabont managed to seep the trial in “emotionless rationality.” This is due to the fact that sight and sound are often what lead to emotion, while speech and clear thought are what allows for rationality. By placing all of Andy’s speech in the second portion of the scene, which took place in court after the death of his ex-wife and her lover and by keeping all sight and sound in the first portion, when Andy was in the forest outside of their “love nest,” Darabont manages to compartmentalize the different aspects of a human being’s nature; that which makes them whole. On the one hand, we face emotion and on the other, law and rationality. I felt as though the opening scene of the film worked a little differently, because it glided back and forth between Andy’s past and present, melding the two together until he was “overwhelmed” in the present. During a time in which he should have been overcome by various emotions, he remained numb simply because there was too much going on inside of him.

Although Darabont had clearly defined his intentions for the opening scene prior to filming The Shawshank Redemption, several things changed during the filming process. First, the movie begins with The Ink Spot’s rendition of If I Didn’t Care whose lyrics state, “if I didn’t care, would I feel this way? If this isn’t love, then why do I thrill? And what makes my head go ‘round and ‘round while my heart stands still?” I feel as though the song was made specifically for the opening scene of the film, as it encompasses everything that Andy must be thinking and feeling. On the one hand, he really cares about his wife and the fact that she left him for another man and how she now lies dead with him, while on the other, he feels emotionally numb and confused by the circumstances of their murder and his trial. This differs from Darabont’s script, which opens with Linda and Quentin entering the cabin in the woods to have sex. Second, the court scene and Andy’s memory of the night he spent outside Quentin’s bungalow blended together, often moving back and forth between the two. This differed from Darabont’s script because he had separated the past and present, beginning the movie with Andy camped outside the “love nest” before leading his viewers into the courtroom. Third, it isn’t clear in the movie whether or not Andy can hear his wife sleeping with Quentin, or if he is only imagining it. In Darabont’s script, he can hear everything that is going on, including his wife’s orgasm and exclamations such as “oh god,” which are left out of the movie. Furthermore, we are given very little description of the setting in Darabont’s script; but, we can see everything in the movie. For example, Darabont describes Andy as he sits in a 1946 Plymouth in a “wooded area.” We know that there are the sounds of night animals from his description and that Andy’s wife and her lover are inside and having sex together. We know nothing of the room, other than the fact that there is a lamp that Quentin knocks over as they make their way inside. In the film, we can see that the room is ill-lit, that the door to the cabin is a medium, grainy wood, that a single bookshelf holds a few books and other belongings, etc.

Additional differences included the fact that Darabont granted the jury more screen time in his script than he did in the final cut of the movie. He even went as far as to include an entire scene of the jury eating and determining their choice of verdict, which was excluded from the film. Furthermore, Darabont cuts up the court scene in his script with continual “fades to black,” which were left out of the film. Furthermore, a lot of the stage directions were cut out of the film. For example, as the D.A. gives his closing summation to the jury, he is supposed to say, “but was their crime so great as to merit a death sentence?” before gesturing to Andy, who was shown as being seated with his attorney before continuing on with his closing remarks. However, this gesture was excluded from the film. In addition, the opening scene of the script, where the lovers are “pawing” at each other and undressing each other, is moved toward the end of the court scene in the movie. In addition, the D.A. doesn’t speak as loudly as is to be expected given the large number of exclamation points, which were worked into his lines during his closing statements. I believe that there are several things, which might account for these differences. Perhaps the movie’s “final cut” simply seemed as though it would be more effective in getting the scene across than Darabont’s original script. Perhaps the “fades to black” were left out in order to improve the flow of the scene, making it far less choppy and easier for viewers to follow. Furthermore, it is possible that certain choices were made in order to save money. Being that movies are expensive, filmmakers often run the risk of running out of money before they finish filming. If they do not budget their funds carefully, they will not be able to accomplish everything that they want to.