The Shining

Plot

Jack Torrance, a wannabe writer takes up the caretaker position of the prestigious Hotel Overlook during the brutal Colorado winter.

Bringing his wife and son, they are isolated for five months, and soon Torrance starts to unravel due to the isolation.

Direction

Stanley Kubrick directs, and this is my first Kubrick film so I will try to get a sense of his style as I watch more of his films.

He seems to favour the dolly tracking shots, especially with characters in conversation, or walking through the massive hotel. There is also quite a few scenes of Danny riding on his bike through the hotel which I thought were done well too.

He liked to used lots of deep focus, which was noticeable in the boss’ office early in the film, and later in ‘that’ bathroom scene.

One thing I hated was the overuse of dissolving one scene over another.

Cast/Characters

Jack Nicholson plays the role of Jack Torrance, with the late Shelley Duval playing his wife Wendy.

Scatman Crothers plays DIck Halloran, the chef at the Overlook who has a ‘connection’ with their son Danny, who is played by Danny Lloyd.

Breakdown

Starting with a wonderful opening montage of an isolated car on its way to the Overlook hotel, this matches the isolation that Jack is ‘supposedly’ feeling throughout the film.

As the film was made in 1980, there are quite a lot of ‘of the time’ moments such as not just smoking in doors, but smoking near a child, Danny not restrained in his seat as the family is driving – and the ease of using the n word.

The history of the Overlook, primarily what occurred in 1970 (and in 237) are presumably connected, yet this feels almost overshadowed, and underused to the Jack’s decent into madness.

The Danny/Tony relationship is barely mentioned either, only really being a voice Danny has that comes about which he uses his finger when he voices it. This is another part of the film that is underdeveloped.

The film also fails to really explain why Jack descends into madness, especially so soon into the film. His first real iteration of showing signs happens at the 30m mark, and this is only one month into their stay.

The revelation of what “the shining” is feels poorly done too, with Dick Halloran explaining to Danny that he has it. It feels unnatural and is too rushed. His character feels completely butchered too, becoming one of the most useless characters in all of cinema history (possibly why Stephen King hated the film).

I like the story of Scatman Crothers, who went from starring in this (Kubrick who likes doing dozens, if not hundreds of takes) to starring in Clint Eastwood’s (one and done) Billy Bronco. Reportedly he broke down in tears of joy on one of his first days of BB just because of the difference in direction.

This also holds the ownership of many ‘homages’ in pop culture, such as Redrum, all work and no play, and of course the blood flowing out of the elevator scene.

My MVP goes to young Danny Lloyd as Danny, especially for his look of terror when he sees the girls (again another arc completely underdeveloped).

The third act, where Jack complete insanity is where the film is a let down. It’s not developed enough, nor does it feel believable. It’s just done because we’re led to believe its going to happen to Jack, because it happened before in 1970. The chase through the hotel, and then the maze is just average.

I did like the photo ending, as it implied that Jack was always part of the Overlook. I know this has been a conversation of controversy, but it is one of the parts of the film that worked well for me.

Score/Soundtrack

The score is by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind is solid, with great attention made to have it as jarring and terror inducing as possible.

There are also some jarring and ear splitting sounds/score at times where the bell dings match eye blinks/ head moves), as well as some great eerie score over dialogue.

Overall

While quite a good film, there is clear suffering from not taking all it could from the original source material.

All the actors did a tremendous job, and it is clear that Kubrick’s insane method for perfection was present, but this could have been more, especially given the source material.

Still a very good film.

3.5/5