Movie Mistakes

• Red catches the ball twice without throwing it back.
• Beer bottles did not have twist-off tops in 1949.
• Federal Income Taxes were due on March 15th, not April 15th as they are today.
• The "A" that Andy scratches on the wall changes in the flashback.
• Andy is said to crawl through a sewer of length 500-600 yards - "just shy of half a mile." Half a mile is 880 yards. OK, pretty close. Not really a mistake, but it was noticed as a little off.
• Movie takes place over several decades, yet nobody appears to age (except for Red's gray hair). This is somewhat debated. Please watch the movie and decide for yourself.
• When Andy escapes in 1966, yet he is driving a red convertible 1969 Pontiac GTO! (yes, I know about the math thing - this was submitted by a fan of the site many years ago)
• We are led to believe that Andy is wearing one of Warden Norton's suit's. However, Andy is almost a foot taller than the warden, yet the suit seems to fit perfectly. (and after consulting a very well known local tailor, the suit's pant inseams would be easily 5-8 inches shorter due to the height difference in the men). 
• When Brooks is carving his name while standing on the table, he is almost eye level with the carving. When he is down carving his name, he kicks out the table below him and he doesn't fall more than a couple of inches as he is hung. But when the camera view changes, he is hanging so far down, he probable couldn't even reach where he was carving his name.
• When Andy crawls through the tunnel he dug, you can see the light of some lightning behind him. Simple question is: How? Miss Raquel Welshe's poster was covering the hole, and a shiny poster like that will reflect the light...
• When the Shawshank warden shoots himself in the head, he aims at the middle of his head. When in the next scene, the entry wound is slightly to his right.(iffy mistake)
• Not to give away the end to anybody, but based on the position of the hole, Andy could not stick the bottom of the poster firmly onto the wall. From the scenes where we see him digging, it looks like the bottom of the poster isn't stuck to the wall. The problem is that, not only does the poster look firmly attached on top and on bottom in most of the scenes, but if it wasn't, when the Warden throws the rock at the poster, it would not tear. It would just hit it at fall to the ground.
• Getting that poster back up on the wall would be tough also. Not only is it difficult to stick the poster up from inside, but even if he could have done so (sticking three corners and fudging the fourth) he would have had to have been facing the wrong way in that tunnel, and judging from the narrowness, there was no way to turn around.
• When andy breaks open the sewer pipe, stuff flies everywhere, but when he gets to the end of the pipe, it is open, so how was it under pressure?
• When the warden offers Tommy a Marlboro, the pack has Marlboro Miles on the side. They did not offer "miles" yet! Not in 1965 or '66 either!!!
• When the prison warden commits suicide, there is a mishap. As he loads the revolver with bullets, they can be seen to have dented primers, however, the bullets had new primers as he dumped the box of them out onto the table beforehand.
• As Warden Norton approaches Red he orders the guard to question Andy's friend. When the guard asks who the Warden is talking about he points to Red with his left hand and says *Him*. The next shot shows Red's reaction, however the Warden is now pointing with his right hand.
• Andy escapes from a Maine prison to Zihuatanejo, which is in Southwestern Mexico. Yet, apparently he (and later Red) cross over at Ft. Hancock, Texas. If you look at a map, Ft. Hancock is in Western Texas, and is considerably out of the way, if Andy is trying to go directly. True, maybe he was enjoying his freedom, but wouldn't he want to leave the country as soon as possible? Also, only major road from Ft. Hancock to Mexico leads back north, along the border.
• While I'm not exactly sure of the date of the escape, The last reference to the length of time that Andy had spent in jail was 19 years. He got there in 1947. 19 years added to that equals 1965. But on the morning of the escape when Byron Hadley was arrested, He was read the Miranda Warning which was decided in the Supreme Court Case of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) (USSC+) decided in 1966 which would have made the Miranda Warnings read to Hadley not yet in the Law.(another iffy one)
• The poster of Raquel Welch is from the movie One Million Years B.C. The escape by Andy takes place in 1966, but the movie was released in 1967. How could he have a poster from it? Early release? AND it was acquired by an inmate at a prison??? Maybe.
• At the very end when Red is walking on the beach towards andy, Red's hat flys off. in the first shot his hat is near the shoreline, but in the next the hat is only about 3 feet away from him. It seems impossible considering that the wind was blowing in the opposite direction. (I admit, this is a very slight mistake, but does look real.)
• this is when Red goes to the Buxton hay field and finds the box underneath the black volcanic glass. So he's sitting against the wall and opens up the box to see an envelope wrapped in plastic with a crease on its right side, but when he goes to take it out the crease is on the left side.(another that is very slight).
• While tossing the cells Andy tells the captain of the guards that shaping and polishing rocks is a hobby of his. So the captain looks over at the windowsill and knocks over some of the rocks. It then shows a shot where you can clearly see that he knocked over one of the carved rocks that looks like The Leaning Tower of Pisa. So Andy and the Warden talk about the Bible and stuff. Then it shows a shot of the captain starting to walk out of the cell and the rock is upright again.

NOTE: This page is not here to downgrade this movie. All movies have mistakes. 
             I am just pointing these out. Please do not think I am doing the movie 
                a misjustice.

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