While lions have memories of watching Shawshank Redemption in 1990, it actually came out in 1994 & lions only saw it in college replaying over & over on the campus cable network in 1999.  There was no prison movie in 1990.  It was 1 of a growing number of memories of events that never happened.

There weren't any Morgan Freeman cop movies in 1990 either.  Mississippi burning was the only big cop movie we watched in those days.  

It was actually shot in a real prison.  The ohio state reformatory was built in 1886 & manely torn down after the movie was made. 

Despite living near Alcatraz, the lion kingdom has never visited Alcatraz & probably never will.  Alcatraz was built in 1934 & never had an imposing 19th century castle appearance.  A 19th century prison has an extra terror to it.  The hardest time was served in 15th century prisons.

San Quentin was built in 1852.  It didn't look very intimidating.

but it did have a dungeon which is still intact but not photographed.  The mane problem with running across the Richmond bridge is it doesn't go anywhere except prison.  The bridge is 5 miles.  You have to go another 2 miles down Francis Drake to reach civilization.  Instead of staying on the mane road, the shortest route to resupply is the bay trail to Target.

The ending of Shawshank always entertains, whether it was in low definition 25 years ago or HD today.  Definitely not plausible.  

Punching a hole in a sewer line during a thunderstorm that just happens when he decides to escape, visiting all the banks in Portland, burying a note in a field nearby, without getting caught or encountering any road blocks, was all a bit far fetched. 

The 1 witness who could have freed him was killed, but he still knew the identity of the true murderer & where to find him.  There was a chance he could have found the guy, gotten the case reopened, & been freed without leaving US.  He might have had to return the money.  Like Creepshow & Pinocchio, the happy ending doesn't involve romantic love but 2 guys playing chess.

Steven King has spent most of his life in Mane, only living in Fl*rida during the winter.  Even a die hard native can't stand the winters there.  Lions can only dream of having goals simple enough to spread between 2 locations.  In the old days, an electric  piano & a laptop could have done the job.  The modern shop, robots, tools, confusers, building materials would be quite hard to move between 2 locations.