Dodgy maths in Shawshank - spoiler alert!

[andy hughes]

This is really sad, but it bugs me. On morgan Freeman's voiceover describing his friend Andy's exit from the prison, his maths is way off. He says Andy crawled through 'half a mile of �%*&', but then says it was 500 yards. When I went to school, a mile was 1,760 yards, that makes 500 yards less than one third of a mile. I know it's really picky, but has anyone else noticed it?

[happysax]

When Morgan said 'half a mile' he was approximating as a figure of speech, a thing that people do. I often hear or read about the '200' killed in the Madrid bombings. It wasn't exactly 200 but it was near enough. In 'Down and out in Paris and London', George Orwell says that hotel staff were given a litre of wine every day, then later says a quart. A quart (2 pints) is not exactly a litre, but it's near enough. It's all just a figure of speech. People understand what is meant.

[Caladon]

"Five hundred yards. The length of five football fields. Just shy of half a mile."

'Just Shy' is the important bit. He isn't being precise, he is giving a rough idea of how far it is.

[sft42]

Andy does this annoy you?

This is quite possibly the best ever piece of film making with one of the most touching stories ever written, well acted, superbly directed with a great score.....and you notice this? I would maybe have expected someone to comment on the fact that none of the characters age in the many years they are in prison, or perhaps the fact that the Morgan Freeman character is supposed to be a red headed Irishman....but this?

Despite having seen the film a number of times and having read the book more....No, I can honestly say I never noticed it and if I had it wouldn't have bothered me.

[darth vader]

actually i thought of this feat for a different reason - if he crawled all that way in a tunnel full of s_h_i_t it would have taken quite some time. the air in the tunnel would however, have been mainly methane gas and not oxygen so how did he manage to stay alive for so long and not run out of air? no it does not annoy me. yes it was a good film

[Caladon]

Good point Darth, however the amount of water compared to the amount of debris would be a lot more. Also the muck is slowly moving out so by the time the debris would have time to release methane, and other nastys, it would be in the river. And finally when he smashed the pipe with his lump of rock there would have been an intake of clean air due to the pipes length and the storm.

In the film the pipe was filled with chocolate syrup. If i were tim robbins i would have eaten my way out ;) Hmm, though movie goers would have been sick!

[andy hughes]

SFT - it doesn't annoy me at all, I just happened to notice it, and wondered if anyone else had noticed it as well. It doesn't in any way detract from my appreciation and enjoyment of a fantastic film, which i have seen several times.