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Shawshank Redemption, The - Red's Mathematical Error
In the scenes toward the end when Red narrates the details of how Andy Dufresne escapes, he makes a miscalculation. He says something like, "Andy crawled 500 yards through **** smelling foulness and came out clean...That's the length of 5 football fields, just shy of half a mile." Well, a mile is 5,280 feet. 500 yards is equal to 1,500 feet. Half a mile would be 2,640 feet. 1,500 feet is considerably less than "just shy" of 2,640 feet. I wonder who did the figuring for that part of the script! Not Morgan Freeman for sure!
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Rated 5.0/10 (176 ratings) Your opinion?
Special Requirements: Movie, calculator (if mental math is not a strength)
Contributed By: Anonymous on 08-03-2001 and Reviewed By: Webmaster
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Comments:
Staring Eyes writes:
I do not think this was a creative decision. Throughout the movie, Red presents himself as being very well spoken and intelligent, setting him apart from the common inmate. This was certainly done on accident. Also, 500 yards is really just shy of half a KILOMETER. (500 yards = .457 kilometers)(500 yards = .284 miles). I think perhaps there was a mix-up between the metric and US system, or maybe it was simply a mistake. I certainly don't think the makers of the movie would intentionally have Red make this mistake. Red was no dummy in this movie. I submitted this slip-up and it has bugged me ever since the first time I saw the movie.
16 of 6577 found this helpful. Did you? Yes
c311411 writes:
This was probably a decision made by the writer. He figured that an inmate who was not properly educated might have really thought that 500 yards was close to half a mile. It was a creative decision.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you? Yes
HowitZer writes:
I would disagree. Red already said 500 yards and 5 football fields. If he already defined the length Andy crawled in two ways, why would he say it a third way with units he wasn't sure of. I think the writers made a mistake with the script. To maximize the creativity of this scene Red should of just said "just shy of half a mile", or he should of left it at 500 yards and 5 football fields.
15 of 6576 found this helpful. Did you? Yes

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