The Shawshank Experience: Tracking the History of the World’s Favorite Movie

Review

“In The Shawshank Experience, Grady and Magistrale―two gifted writers and critics―draw us deeply into the labyrinth of America’s most popular film. This study takes into account the entire ‘experience’ of the story―which has moved from novella to film to legend―while drawing on the mythic undercurrents of a narrative that, indeed, it helped to create. This book is more than a guide; it’s a journey in itself, immensely readable and provocative in just the right ways. Moreover, it ushers us back to the film and, ultimately, to Stephen King’s endlessly seductive imagination.” (Jay Parini, author of Empire of Self: A Life of Gore Vidal and The Last Station)

Product Description

This book features an in-depth analysis of the world’s most popular movie, The Shawshank Redemption, delving into issues such as: the significance of race in the film, its cinematic debt to earlier genres, the gothic influences at work in the movie, and the representation of Andy’s poster art as cross-gendered signifiers. In addition to exploring the film and novella from which it was adapted, this book also traces the history of the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio, which served as the film’s central location, and its relationship to the movie’s fictional Shawshank Prison. The last chapter examines why this film has remained both a popular and critical success, inspiring diverse fan bases on the Internet and the evolution of the Shawshank Trail, fourteen of the film’s actual site locations that have become a major tourist attraction in central Ohio.

From the Back Cover

This book features an in-depth analysis of the world’s most popular movie, The Shawshank Redemption, delving into issues such as: the significance of race in the film, its cinematic debt to earlier genres, the gothic influences at work in the movie, and the representation of Andy’s poster art as cross-gendered signifiers. In addition to exploring the film and novella from which it was adapted, this book also traces the history of the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio, which served as the film’s central location, and its relationship to the movie’s fictional Shawshank Prison. The last chapter examines why this film has remained both a popular and critical success, inspiring diverse fan bases on the Internet and the evolution of the Shawshank Trail, fourteen of the film’s actual site locations that have become a major tourist attraction in central Ohio.

About the Author

Maura Grady is Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Composition program at Ashland University, USA. She is the author of a number of articles and book chapters on Film and Television History, Fandom Studies, and Gender Studies.

Tony Magistrale is Professor of English at the University of Vermont, USA. He is the author of Hollywood’s Stephen King and editor of The Films of Stephen King.