Factual error: When Red is sitting under the oak tree in 1967 and pulls the money out of the envelope, the top bill is signed by Nicholas F. Brady, who was Secretary of the Treasury September 1988 - January 1993. It's less about reading the handwriting as noting the different appearance of different signatures from different eras. (02:14:40)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Plot summary
Directed by: Frank Darabont
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Clancy Brown, Tim Robbins, William Sadler, Bob Gunton, Gil Bellows
Wrongly accused of a double homicide he didn't commit, a banker named Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is sent to Shawshank Prison for life. In prison he befriends Red (Morgan Freeman) who is able to smuggle things from the outside. He asked Red for a rock hammer (saying he liked geology). He later asks for a poster. After he befriends the guards by giving them financial advice, the warden (Bob Gunton) takes an interest in him. Andy builds a prison library and helps the warden do shady financial scams.
One day a newcomer named Tommy (Gil Bellows) tells Andy that in prison he talked to an inmate Ernie (Joseph Ragno) who said he killed a banker's wife and her boyfriend but that it was framed on Andy. Andy tells the warden who is skeptical. The Warden then has Tommy shot. Andy doesn't want to help the warden with his scam anymore, but the warden blackmails him into further help by threatening to destroy the library.
One morning, Andy is gone. The Guards search his cell and eventually find that he dug his way out of the wall with the hammer and hid the hole with the poster. This feat took Andy nearly 20 years. Andy then takes the money accumulated from the scam (a banker's salary for 20 years) and leaves town. The police attempt to arrest the Warden, who commits suicide. Red passes his parole board and reunites with Andy in a Pacific Mexican Town.
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Red: There's not a day goes by I don't feel regret. Not because I'm in here, or because you think I should. I look back on the way I was then: a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to try and talk some sense to him, tell him the way things are. But I can't. That kid's long gone and this old man is all that's left. I got to live with that. Rehabilitated? It's just a bullshit word. So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Because to tell you the truth, I don't give a shit.
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Chosen answer: In the original novella it is revealed that Andy smuggled $500 into the prison inside of his rectum. During an interview in 2004 Robbins incorrectly quoted the amount as being $100. The narration up until Red's release is provided as Red writes his account of the events while still in prison, and employs the same method to smuggle the story out. But since the issue of Andy smuggling in $500 into the prison isn't addressed in the movie, we should assume that he smuggled it in. In addition to this, the wardens scams are described as "near slave labor." From this we can assume that it is possible the inmates are getting paid (an incredibly small) wage. Perhaps Andy, with his financial knowledge, knows how to haggle, barter and stretch a dollar. One last (but not as likely) scenario is that Red allows some sort of lay by system to inmates.