does it bother anyone else that the shawshank redemption is a complete rip off of escape from alcatraz
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- Thread starter Megatron
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.....Me too! exactly the same! a prisoner-a prison-and a jail break.
Uncanny!
Come to mention it, Henri Charriere should be rolling in his grave- what with all these rip offs!
Uncanny!
Come to mention it, Henri Charriere should be rolling in his grave- what with all these rip offs!
Well the prison break for one, the whole concept of tunneling through the wall, the involvement in the prison library, the beef with the warden, the gay guy coming on to him, the old guy with the pet , the concept of hope and how they can't get to your insides , a black guy, emptying the rocks from the wall in the yardand that's about all I can think of most of them are minor details but it was the thing about hope that really bothered me and in both movies the way Clint Eastwood and Tim Robbins emptied the rocks it was identical and it just bothered me I like both stories though especial how Andy dufrain just screws everybody over
...and Litmus keeps a pet mouse, so it's also a rip-off of The Green Mile...
If you squint while reading the word "Shawshank" - It looks exactly like "Alcatraz"
half of the characters are ripped off of a true story.....I DEMAND ANSWERSAs with Mr. King's words, its the characters he creates that make the story.
The short answer is he didn't plagiarize it which is basically what you're trying to say, isn't it?
no i'm not trying to say stephen king should be sued for plagiarism i just wanted to express my opinion that he changed the details of a factual event and spun it into his own story of significant similarity in order to make a profit. it's half assed
There are many of his stories that have some genesis in a factual event that he (not to mention countless other authors) has then fictionalized. You're making an assumption that he did, in fact, base Shawshank Redemption on Escape from Alcatraz because you see similarities that associate the two in your mind. If you want to start comparing stories, you're going to soon find that there are very few (if any) that don't share some commonalities with others including many of the ones you've mentioned. That you also presume that he did this for the sole purpose of making a profit is insulting.
The entire Law & Order franchise is based on fictionalizing ripped-from-the-headlines events.
I don't get Megatron's issue either.
Truth is always stranger than fiction. As pointed out, it's what a writer does with factual material that matters. Many fictional stories find their inspiration in true events. And what King does with The Shawshank Redemption is magical. What Darabont did with the story is one of those few instances of transcendence where the adaptation eclipses the source material, in my opinion.
My all time favorite movie. Food for the soul.
Truth is always stranger than fiction. As pointed out, it's what a writer does with factual material that matters. Many fictional stories find their inspiration in true events. And what King does with The Shawshank Redemption is magical. What Darabont did with the story is one of those few instances of transcendence where the adaptation eclipses the source material, in my opinion.
My all time favorite movie. Food for the soul.
I think the issue was more that he felt that it had too many similarities to Escape from Alcatraz (for him) but many of the issues he brought up are ones that can be found in any other prison story, too, e.g. prison rapes, issues with a warden, having a bird as a pet (Birdman from Alcatraz anyone?), a prisoner continuing to have hope, etc. The way they differ and fit into a story is what distinguishes one from another and personally I don't think the two are enough alike to warrant a claim Steve ripped off Escape from Alcatraz.
I would worry if it were a complete rip-off of "Birdman of Alcatraz," sans birds.