The Shawshank Redemption

Stupidity: Andy meets Tommy Williams who names another convict who described the scene of the murder of Andy's wife and her lover in sufficient detail to convince anyone that something was wrong with Andy's conviction. Andy then goes to the Warden, a man he knows to be utterly corrupt, a man who will suffer a huge loss if he is acquitted. Andy is an intelligent man - why would he do something as stupid as that? Why doesn't he write to his lawyer? This is a matter for an appeal court, not the Warden.

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)

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Trivia: In the original novel that the Shawshank Redemption is based on, Red is an Irishman which is where his nickname came from. In the movie, when Andy asks Red where his nickname came from, Red pauses and says "Maybe it's because I'm Irish" with a hint of sarcasm.

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Chosen answer: In a nutshell, tax evasion. He's running the prison like a company doing building work with, as its described by the builder in the movie, a pool of slave labour to allow him undercut other contractors. He is skimming profit for his own pockets, along with taking bribes, etc. that Andy's creative book keeping is hiding from the IRS.

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