How Real-life Prison Escape Compares With 'Shawshank'

The real-life escape of two inmates from an upstate New York prison over the weekend has drawn comparisons to the fictional 1994 movie "Shawshank Redemption." That story, based on a novella by author Stephen King and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, has been an enduring success on cable television. In the movie, Robbins' Andy Dufresne is a sympathetic character, falsely convicted of killing his young wife and her lover, who saw a hope for freedom extinguished when the corrupt warden shot and killed someone who could have corroborated Dufresne's story. There's no ambiguity about real-life escapees David Sweat, 34, and Richard Matt, 48. Sweat was serving a life sentence for shooting a sheriff's deputy who happened upon Sweat and others after they had robbed a firearms store. Matt was imprisoned for the kidnapping, murder and dismemberment of a man who had fired him from his job at a food warehouse.