having watched “The Count of Monte Cristo” ( 2002 ) on the very next day after “Shawshank” i realized Stephen King ripped of Dumas almost one for one for his prison escape story, and in fact Dumas and The Count of Monte Cristo are directly referenced in the movie itself, watch the clip:
Main differences between Shawshank and Count:
setting moves from Napoleon era France to 1950s USA
instead of Dantes being a Sailor, Andy is a Banker
focus moves from revenge to Friendship
story told from perspective of a friend, not Andy himself
of course there are other differences but the main concept is the same except revenge is replaced with redemption …
i’m sorry i gave away half the movie but i feel like maybe i had to otherwise you would feel ripped off when you watched it and realized, like i did, that you just saw the same movie twice …
anyway i’m sorry i have no idea where to put this … i ended up moving it now it’s basically same post in two threads then i wanted to create a third analysis comparison thread but decided i’m just making everything worse and should just stop …
i blame Stephen King for fucking everything up. it’s a lose-lose situation for me. if i tell you about the similarity i spoil the movie, if i don’t tell you - you’re walking into a trap. i also don’t know whether to tell you in review or analysis or comparison - it’s a complete clusterfuck.
just going to stop …
fuck Stephen King !