Breakout Role for Rock Hammer

Always take your rock hammer with you no matter where you go! That's the take home message from "The Shawshank Redemption". Great attention to geologic detail throughout this morality tale - rock names are used accurately and that piece of obsidian that Morgan Freeman finds is the real thing.

Don't Take it for (Cary) Granite!

"North by Northwest" is one of director Hitchcock's best and in no small part because of the dramatic ending set atop the Mount Rushmore monument carved into Harney Peak Granite. Denied access to the real thing, the moviemaker had to resort to a Hollywood soundstage with huge background images and cliffs of concrete (see photo below). Check out the aplite and pegmatite dikes that cross-cut the faces of the presidents!