# Shawshank Redemption: a question about timing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 12, 2022, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shawshank-redemption-a-question-about-timing/964344 "2022-05-12T22:12:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shawshank-redemption-a-question-about-timing/964344/81 "2022-06-07T13:53:36Z")
Did any of you enjoy watching the movie? I did, it is a wonderful movie and I’d say the best movie version of a King story ever. Of course it was easier being only a novella instead of a 12 million word novel, but it was incredibly effective. The movie starts out with the narration by Morgan Freeman that follows the book nearly word for word. I’ve been able to get people who loved the movie but haven’t picked up book since since they graduated or didn’t from high school by giving them a copy of the book and telling how they’ll hear Morgan Freeman’s voice as they begin to read, and at least a couple tried and actually read an entire book. This is a wonderful movie, fantastic acting, a great story told with great film-making that can transcend the common movie experience. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shawshank-redemption-a-question-about-timing/964344/82 "2022-06-07T15:18:29Z")
I’ve always wondered about the poop water geyser when Andy broke through the big pipe. That big tube would have had to be full, and under pressure to do that. That’s a lot of poop water to conveniently disappear when he goes to crawl through it. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shawshank-redemption-a-question-about-timing/964344/83 "2022-06-07T15:25:42Z")
I agree! Also, breathing in there had to have been almost impossible! We overlook what we need to to get through the plot… ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shawshank-redemption-a-question-about-timing/964344/84 "2022-06-07T17:42:51Z")
Was that really a sewage pipe, vs. a mere drain pipe? I mean, would a prison chock full of 200+ prisoners just dump all of their daily dump into a small creek 600 yards from the place, where it would fester and boil to a fine aroma, attracting all sorts of interesting fauna and flora in the process as well as the determined attention of the local neighbors? [No way to scrub yourself clean in said ditch then either] If an actual sewer pipe, shouldn’t it lead to the city sewer system? [And leading to Andy’s death natch-oh here’s why your sewage system is clogged warden, some dumb bastard died in it] A drain pipe would have its own mellifluous growths inside the thing sure, but he’d have a chance at actually getting out. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shawshank-redemption-a-question-about-timing/964344/85 "2022-06-07T17:55:15Z")
The entire sequence is intended to let Morgan Freeman narrate the line: > _Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit smelling foulness I can’t even imagine, or maybe I just don’t want to.…Andy Dufresne - who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side._ Poking at this is like asking why the Nazis didn’t just shoot Steve McQueen the first time he escaped from the camp since they clearly had no reservations about gunning down fifty people in cold blood at the end of the film. They did it so that Virgil Hilts (“_Captain_ Hilts!”) could escape again and again and so Steve McQueen could show off his motorcycle skills. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shawshank-redemption-a-question-about-timing/964344/86 "2022-06-07T18:12:08Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Was that really a sewage pipe, vs. a mere drain pipe? I mean, would a prison chock full of 200+ prisoners just dump all of their daily dump into a small creek 600 yards from the place, where it would fester and boil to a fine aroma, attracting all sorts of interesting fauna and flora in the process as well as the determined attention of the local neighbors? [No way to scrub yourself clean in said ditch then either] > > If an actual sewer pipe, shouldn’t it lead to the city sewer system? [And leading to Andy’s death natch-oh here’s why your sewage system is clogged warden, some dumb bastard died in it] A drain pipe would have its own mellifluous growths inside the thing sure, but he’d have a chance at actually getting out. Partially answered above: > [@Railer13](#): > > Andy came to Shawshank in 1948. He escaped on March 12, 1975, a few months before the prison was to switch to a new wastewater treatment plant. Warden Norton resigned in disgrace 3 months later and was still alive at the end of the story. All of the other pipes had already been hooked up to the treatment plant. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shawshank-redemption-a-question-about-timing/964344/87 "2022-06-07T18:52:32Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Poking at this is like asking why the Nazis didn’t just shoot Steve McQueen the first time he escaped from the camp since they clearly had no reservations about gunning down fifty people in cold blood at the end of the film. The Luftwaffe ran the camp, and were relatively humane (for Nazis) and followed the rule of law, including not shooting Steve McQueen the first two times he escaped. After the Great Escape, the SS took over, and they’re the ones who decided to shoot fifty recaptured prisoners. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2022, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shawshank-redemption-a-question-about-timing/964344/88 "2022-06-07T19:01:26Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > Anyone who spends 17 years digging a tunnel (and spends some of that time arranging to have funds waiting for him) counts as forward-thinking to me. Someone can still be forward-thinking and also be emotional. Remember he’s thinking that he’s going to spend the rest of his life either in prison, as a fugitive, or dead from trying to escape. For the first time in two decades he realizes he has a chance to be a free man. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shawshank-redemption-a-question-about-timing/964344.md?page=4)