Thursday 1st June – One for Shawshank Redemption Fans

How is it June already??!  To me, the first five months of 2017 seem to have passed in the same time that November and December took last year.

 

Today it was time for something we’d both been really looking forward to as huge fans of one of the best films of all time (in our humble opinion), the Shawshank Redemption.  The majority of the entire movie was filmed here at Ohio State Reformatory (OSR):

I was gobsmacked. I’d totally forgotten what a stunning, gothic-style building the prison was and to see it first hand was awe-inspiring. So, it’s a stunning piece of architecture in its own right, but the main reason for the large number of visitors is the link to Shawshank.  But I didn’t realise it was also used as a filming location for some of Air Force One (Harrison Ford) and Tango and Cash (Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell) amongst others.

The building is so perfectly symmetrical that this 'cross' is created in a hallway from light emitting from four different rooms

You self-tour the landmark with the added option of an audio tour 'wand' for an extra $5 each.  We went with the additional audio, but I’m not sure we heard anything extra than we viewed on touch screen televisions available along the trail. I kept hearing the same information on repeat.  We explored every nook and cranny of the place, just in case we missed something.  I loved the fact that it was so run down.  It gave the whole experience an eerie feel and made it seem like we were trespassing in some ‘off limits’ building.  

Just me & Red (Morgan Freeman) hanging out in a corridor

They had placed cardboard cut-outs of Shawshank characters for photo opportunities and put placards up to highlight relevant filming locations and props.

Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) waiting outside the Warden's Office

If you haven’t seen the film, then you really should.  I don’t know a single person who doesn’t absolutely love it.  Honestly, what have you been watching?!  Anyway, one of the most important locations in the Shawshank prison is the parole board room, where the characters sit in front of the board who decide if they are fit to be released into the public domain again (right). There are still extra wooden panels attached to the ceiling which were installed to support the cameras.

We didn’t realise that they had cheated and used a room here to film significant scenes that took place elsewhere in the film.  After the inmates are released on parole, the prison places them in a hotel whilst they acclimatise to life on the outside.  Labelled as ‘Brook’s room’, the footage was actually filmed here at the OSR (left).  The original beam across the room was taken down after filming, but they’ve restored it, along with the scratched in graffiti saying ‘Brooks was here’ and ‘so was Red’.  For those who do know the story, the placement of the chair underneath is very relevant!

Onwards to the actual cell blocks themselves.  The East block is 6 tiers high and 50 cells long, with two sides back to back, meaning that with two inmates per cell it had capacity for 1200 prisoners. The block is listed in the Guinness book of records as the World’s largest free-standing steel cell block (a very specific category there!). 

The 6 tiers of the East block

The view along one long tier

There was a giant lever at the end of each row that opened or closed the cell doors of one tier simultaneously, modelled here by Simon. 

View down the 'alley'

For Shawshank, the director wanted to have cell blocks that faced each other. As this is not the structure here, the film company constructed the block of cells used in the film in a warehouse in downtown Mansfield.  What they do have here is ‘the alley’ that runs behind the cells containing the plumbing which is how our hero Andy Dufresne (spoiler alert) begins his escape in the film. At 7’ by 9’, the cells are tiny especially when you remember these were shared! 

 

I think one of the prisoners is escaping....

The next section contained some really interesting film sets and exhibits, including the sewer pipe that Dufresne crawls along in the film, as well as the ‘hole’ from the back of his cell.  They explained how the ‘sewage’ used in these scenes was made up of sawdust, chocolate syrup and water. 

The escape tunnel exhibit (above) and in the film (below)

This was the room in which the prisoners in the film had to line up on this yellow line - painted just for the film - for initial inspection upon their arrival at Shawshank.

Above, now and below, a hazy picture from the film

In the adjoining section is solitary confinement, which was used for all of the relevant shots in the Shawshank film. The cells were even more barren than in east block and the prisoners would be subjected to either continuous darkness or light and had no contact with others or personal items allowed with them. What made this place worse  was that time in the hole was ‘dead time’ so did not count as time served.

'The hole'

The west block of cells was actually finished in 1896, prior to the east block (completed in 1910) but by comparison was luxurious!  The cells were much larger and after construction of the east block prisoners would be moved here on good behaviour. There were some cells large enough for four prisoners  and these guys had the right to vote their cell mates out if they weren’t getting along - Big Brother style! The west block is much smaller, with 350 cells providing capacity for a maximum of 700 inmates. The scenes set in a Russian ‘Gulag’ for the film Air Force One were filmed in this block. The block has also been used in music videos – this cell was painted gold for Lil Wayne’s video ‘Go DJ’ (right). 

A guard and a couple of inmates hanging out in the west block

The tour ends in the guard room, which has impressive features in the form of white and grey marbled columns and a black and white tiled floor. This room is situated centrally, with one cell block on either side, as it was used for visitations.  The inmates were only allowed one visit per month with close family. Wow, prison life was seriously harsh in those days!

The guard room and visitation area

We took some shots of the stunning exterior but sadly we did not get to go and hang out in the yard used for many scenes of the film.  The reason for this is the current medium and high risk modern prisons that surround the back of the OSR.  There are signs on the back windows banning any photographs being taken from that aspect, so the back of the OSR is off limits for us tourists.  There is a sheared off section of the famously relevant oak tree from Shawshank also displayed in the grounds. The rest of the tree was knocked down in strong winds last year.

With RV for scale....

Part of 'that' oak tree

We managed to string the tour out for a full three hours before having to retreat to the RV for some sustenance.  What an interesting place.

It may be the beginning of a new financial week, however we are not looking to travel miles upon miles for once.  In fact, we are only 6 hours from where we need to be this time next week.  So we are making small chunks of progress, starting tonight by travelling about 40 minutes to another PA site as we didn’t get enough admin done last night!

This was the Rustic Lakes Campground, Sullivan, Ohio.  I had a brief walk around the site before carrying on with my blogging whilst Simon also sorted his long-awaited Facebook updates well into the night…