Not much is different…
However, I really liked the film more than the book. The movie did better at making me feel like I was witnessing what was happening, which I suppose isn’t that hard to do when it’s a movie. I don’t like reading books that are being narrated at me and that is how the book is written, which is why I gave the book 3/5 stars.
I would rate the movie 4.5/5 stars.
Some of the small changes made in the movie I think made the story better. I enjoyed the narration of Morgan Freeman intertwined into the story. (Who wouldn’t enjoy hearing Morgan Freeman narrate anything?)
In the book the narrator is “Red”, I believe called such because he was a white Irishman with graying red hair. In the movie I enjoyed the change in making Red a black man and the nickname coming from his last name, Reddington.
However, I enjoyed the nod to the book by Morgan Freeman, as Red, stating “I don’t know, maybe cos I’m Irish” when Andy asks him why he’s called Red.
In the book the Warden of Shawshank prison changes throughout, but in the movie you see the same warden over the years and his reign of terror. Samuel Norton is the warden in the movie and his character was a composite of the same character in the book and a different warden, Greg Stammas. Samuel Norton wasn’t quite as cruel in the book as he was in the movie and that component came from Greg Stammas’ character in the book. I actually enjoyed that we only saw one man’s reign of terror throughout the movie for continuity reasons and to make it less confusing, but also that they did make him more cruel.
I also really enjoyed how they ended the movie compared to the book. In the movie Norton commits suicide after he’s outed in what he had done, which I believe is realistic. No one that cowardly would go without a fight, or in this case just giving up.
In the book we weren’t really given a proper ending. We really didn’t know what actually happened but in the movie we see Red finally meet back up with Andy on a beach and it was a perfect ending.