Page 114 of 'Shawshank Redemption'

As promised yesterday, here is the final page of the draft of 'Shawshank Redemption' I have -- courtesy of the good folks at CAA by way of a friend who used to be a tortured assistant over there:*

THE BUS

ROARS past camera, dwindling to a mere speck on the horizon.

RED (V.O.)
I hope I can make it across the
border. I hope to see my friend
and shake his hand. I hope the
Pacific is as blue as it has been
in my dreams.
(beat)
I hope.

EXT. - BEACH - WIDE PANORAMIC SHOT - DAY

A distant boat lies on its side in the sand like an old wreck that's been left to rot in the sun. there's someone out there.

EXT - BOAT - DAY

A MAN is meticulously stripping the old paint and varnish by hand, face hidden with goggles and kershief mask.

Red appears in the background, a distant figure walking out across the sand, wearing his cheap suit and carrying his cheap bag. He's holding something in his mouth. Then we hear it: a FAINT HARMONICA SOUND on the breeze.

The man stops sanding, listens. Did he imagine it? There it is again. He turns slowly around. Red arrives, finishes the song with a flourish. He lowers the harmonica with a little grin of embarrassment.

RED
Been a while.

The other man nods. He raises his goggles and pulls down his mask. Andy, of course. He smiles.

ANDY
You look like a man who knows how
to get things.

Pause. Red smiles back.

RED
I'm known to locate certain things
from time to time.

Red shrugs off his jacket and wordlessly picks up a sander. Together, they start sanding the hull as we

FADE OUT

THE END

As you see, it's fine, if a bit pat and Hollywood -- slick and uncomplicated. I think Darabont made a great decision to trim off the last bit -- paying off (or at least trying to) the original lines between the characters by repeating them. But it's easy, too easy. It's connotes a shallow, somewhat lighthearted relationship between the two men, when really they had so much more. This pat ending would've cheapened the emotional debt they were paying off simply by having the two reunite. So, that's what Darabont did: simply had them meet -- wordlessly, as we drift away, too far to hear or see the details, as if they were too intimate for our prying eyes. In that way, it's a bit like the final, unheard line in 'Lost in Translation' -- we don't hear it because it's just between them.

* My HTML knowledge is linited enough that I can't do the formating any better than this.