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Brooks Was Here.
A bit of explanation is required for this one, and I'll start here: My all-time favorite film is The Shawshank Redemption. See, I was a huge Stephen King fan through my formative adolescent years (and still am, really). One of my favorite King books was Different Seasons, which comprised four novellas (75% of which became movies). But by far my favorite was Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. So when I heard around 1993 that they were making it into a movie, I was thrilled. I consider myself one of the few who a) knew what the film was about going into it, and b) saw it in its short and lackluster initial theatrical release. Hell, I probably saw it on opening day, I was that thrilled for it. And I was also not at all disappointed. The film was remarkably faithful to the book, for the most part (for instance, they condensed several successive wardens in the book to a single character in the film--which makes sense, really--and Andy and Red didn't look like they were described in the book), and it was just so beautifully executed. I've seen it dozens of times--I'd say I watch it at least once a year, to refill my Shawshank meter--and it just doesn't get old for me. In the intervening 20 years, the film seems to have migrated from critical acclaim (but popular dismissal) to popular acclaim (but critical dismissal). It's the top-rated film on IMDb, so of course it's now de rigeur to write it off as well-made but schlocky, cliched, heavy-handed, sentimental tripe. If you feel that way, okay, I get it. But it's still my favorite. :) The motifs of justice, hope, friendship, and a bit of revenge have always spoken to me, and I figure always will.
So probably last year I realized that the old prison where it was filmed, the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, was within striking distance of Detroit, which I now visit twice a year. I considered visiting it on my fall trip last year, but it closes down for tours between September and April, so instead I made sure to schedule this trip for when it would be open, and I also figured I could maybe have time to visit a couple other filming sites in the area as a sort of Shawshank pilgrimage. So that's the background. Shall we?
Much of the old OSR complex was razed years ago to make room for a more modern facility right behind this one. There was a plan to tear this part down too, but thankfully some folks looking to preserve it stepped in and it still stands. It's a pretty amazing piece of work, too. Almost seems a waste for such beautiful architecture to have been a prison, but I suppose sensibilities were a bit different when it opened in 1896.
I was hoping to get to some of the spots where outdoor parts of the film were shot, but the whole rear of the building is off-limits due to the active correctional facility back there. You can't even take photos out the windows looking in that direction. This was the closest I could get to an iconic shot (in my mind, anyway) from the movie where Andy is first arriving at the prison and being escorted in. Well, like so:
It's a different part of the building, but the architecture is pretty similar.
The room with 4 windows in the central tower, second level, mark the Parole Board hearing room from the movie. As Andy said to Tommy, we'll get to that. :)
This is right inside the front door. This part of the building is beautifully restored, and the details I found jaw-dropping. That floor! The doorways! Those stairs!
The electric chair is a replica. This prison had a Death Row, but executions weren't performed here.
Going up.
This part of the building was living quarters for the warden and his family. Obviously in much worse repair, but still very neat.
Getting creepier.
This is pretty neat. The architecture is such that the sunlight coming from the 4 rooms here forms a perfectly-centered X on the floor leading into the chapel.
Brooks' halfway-house room from the film. The piece up along the ceiling with the names carved is a reproduction, though one of the guides told me they had actually recently acquired the original, which is to go on display in a new museum section they're planning. As far as I could tell, none of the furniture here or elsewhere was from the film either.
For comparison.
Into the cellblocks. This is the East block, which is reputedly the largest free-standing steel structure of its kind anywhere. The prison's cellblocks weren't really used in the film, though--being made of steel and situated as they are, they would have hindered a pretty central plot point! Most of the cellblock scenes were filmed in a constructed set in a local warehouse. They did use the prison's actual solitary confinement area for those particular scenes, though.
Again, some of the architecture here seems really grand for a prison.
Some sense of the scale of the cellblock. This is a big place.
The chapel. This place seems to be used often for church groups, at least from what I could tell. Lots of talk of spiritual prisons and such.
Walkways running between the backs of the cells.
The accommodations left something to be desired.
Somewhere in the hospital wing.
The shower room from the film.
For reference.
The Bullpen, from the scene in the movie where Andy and the other new prisoners first meet the Warden Norton and Captain Hadley.
For comparison.
The main props they still have from the film are the tunnel from Andy's cell, and the sewer pipe he crawled through. This is the former.
The music from this scene always starts playing in my head when I see this image.
And the sewer pipe, which actually looked to be a big cardboard tube. The sign on the wall in Russian was used in Air Force One, parts of which were also filmed here.
The aforementioned Parole Board hearing room from the film.
For reference.
About this time I started to wonder when I'd get to the warden's office, because I wasn't seeing it and I was running out of time. Then I bumped into a tour guide who struck up a conversation, and I asked him. He said it was under refurbishment, but he'd be happy to take me up there. Nice!
Again, the desk and whatnot aren't original. I'm under the impression that is the original wall safe, though--I think they got that fairly recently. They need the scripture sampler (His Judgement Cometh And That Right Soon) somewhere. The guide told me that the window behind the warden's desk--the one shattered when he shoots himself at the end--was replaced with plexiglass. Cheap Hollywood punks!
For reference.
The guide pointed this out, tucked away around the corner from the warden's office. He said these were the books that were in the boxes delivered to Andy in the film. I dunno if that's true, maybe they were just used to stock the shelves in the prison library. Anyway, I guess they count as film props. :)
After buying my t-shirt and leaving the prison, I thought I'd go check out the filming locations in downtown Mansfield. This is the Bissman building, which (as the canopy over the door indicates) served as the exterior of the halfway house where Brooks and Red were sent after being paroled.
For reference.
The Eagles sign on the building to the right jumped out at me, I knew I'd seen that before...
Aha!
Okay, this one felt like a bit of a stretch. In the film, paroled Brooks spends time sitting on a park bench, feeding the pigeons and hoping his old pet crow will drop by. This is the park where that was filmed, but where the bench sat in the film there's now a gazebo, and I'm not even sure this is the actual bench from the film. But maybe.
For reference.
Done downtown, I had time to venture further afield. The opening scene of the film was shot here--a guest cabin at Malabar Farm State Park. In the film it was the home of Glenn Quentin, the man with whom Andy's wife was having an affair.
For reference.
Also at Malabar Farm is the famous Shawshank Oak, the tree Andy makes Red promise to visit if and when he gets out of prison. It's actually on private property, and the owners got sick of people coming to visit and trespassing on their land, so I think they removed the rock wall and made it a bit more anonymous. And then within the past couple years, a severe thunderstorm basically ripped the thing in half, so it's not nearly as majestic as it was, as you can see.
For reference.
The half of the tree that sheared off, which now resides outside the prison.
And finally, this bit of Ohio route 95 near Bellville, which saw Red off on his bus ride towards Fort Hancock, Texas and Mexico to reunite with Andy.
For reference.
Aaaand that was my adventure last week. No more travel for the foreseeable future, I'm afraid. We were thinking of a family trip in a few weeks to make up for our NYC trip being pushed back, but now I think that's off until some more disposable income arrives. So we'll see.
Thanks for looking, as always!
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Also, "Brooks was here" that scene really gets me. I thought of it recently... we have to analyze our plaintiff's medical histories and they're 99% of the time gentlemen who died in their 80s to some form of cancer. I recently had an 80-something year old man, no wife or ex-wife, no children, no siblings, whose cause of death was a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. I don't know why I made the association, but I mumbled to myself "Brooks was here" .... Suicide is always a very sad thing, of course, but for some reason the idea of the elderly doing it, to have lived that long and experienced so much and to still see no other way, just made me tear up. So yeah, not terribly relevant other than I had thought of that exact line just recently!
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And thanks! These days I feel like my compositions are iffy and I rely on HDR too much to get the reality-with-zing look I like. But I was fairly pleased with this set. After the fact I looked at some other folks' photos from the prison, and saw some things I would have liked to try. I guess I'll just have to go back sometime, when they get the museum part finished and stocked with more props and whatnot from the film. :)
Oh, and thanks for the comment, I don't see you enough around these parts lately. :) I know you're busy, hope you're well too.
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And just to clarify, it's in Mansfield, Ohio--it was a little over 2 hours to drive from there to Detroit. Not too far, though! The whole area is trying to capitalize on the Shawshank connection, there's a driving tour of filming locations and whatnot--some of the connections are tenuous at best, but many are pretty cool (as you can see!). I had them send me a free brochure and map, I definitely recommend that. Check it out here: http://www.mansfieldtourism.com/what-to-do/the-shawshank-trail
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I'm kind of a fan of derelict buildings. Fun to imagine the places previous lives, you know?
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