Wannabe writer/critic currently selling PCs - and my soul - at PC World. Spent a lot of time crashi...
Wannabe writer/critic currently selling PCs - and my soul - at PC World. Spent a lot of time crashing intellectual parties in Prague. Now being nice on Ciao! UK.
Member since:13.12.2000
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Rumour has it, horror hack Stephen King wasn't very pleased with Kubrick's classic adaptation of his finest book. In fact, he was so displeased he put an all new version into motion, starring a bunch of nobodies - a version he felt was closer to his original vision, but ended up in the same DTV hell as the majority of Stephen King adaptations. That'll teach you - keep knocking out books in your lunch time, and leave the movie making to the professionals.
You might gain from this that I'm not the greatest Stephen King fan in the world. Well, you'd be right - his earlier stuff was great, and 'The Shining' was a masterpiece. Over the past ten years or so, though, he's fallen into that clique of sloppy, uninspired but unfortunately best selling writers that proliferate racks in train stations and airport terminals. Keep making a mug out of your firmly established legion of fans, keep cashing the cheques...
But we're here to talk about Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining'. The basic premise is the same as the source novel - struggling writer Jack Torrance (Nicholson) is precariously clinging to the wagon, and applies for a job at the gloomy mountain hotel, The Overlook, so he can get some peace and quiet, and maybe finish that book. He shrugs off the hotel's spooky history and moves his family in on the last day of the season. Soon, all the staff and guests have gone, the Torrances are alone, and the winter sets in.
The ghosts of the Overlook recognise something in Jack they want, and as insanity and/or Cabin Fever sets in, the ghostly visions become more frequent and ghastly. Jack's son, Danny, has the psychic ability to 'shine', and he too is plagued by the terrible visions.
All the classic moments are here - Jack busting through the bathroom door and shouting "Here's Johnny!" is movie poster cool, but seems strangely at odds with the rest of the movie. Nicholson's wildly over the top performance is hilarious, as Torrance suffers perhaps the quickest mental breakdown in movie history. Kubrick seems to revolve a lot of his movies around an OTT character - take your pick from Dr. Strangelove, and the drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket. Yet while Nicholson is the howling, leering, swearing, shouting centre of the film, all the truly disturbing moments come from the small points...
Under the chilly eye of Kubrick, it's the tiny details that become scary. Who else would be able to make page after page of typed words seem so terrifying? And why does everyone pinpoint Danny riding around the deserted corridors on his scooter as one of the most memorable moments? Aside from these unsettlingg moments, there are the standard haunted house freak-outs - the tidal wave of blood, the ghosts, the terrible secret of room 217.
Punctuated by long periods of silence and menacingly bland dialogue, this is a light year away from King's own gritty vision. Kubrick turns the Overlook into a vast monster waiting to pounce. Shelly Duvall does a lot of screaming, trying to distract the audience from wondering why Jack would be with her in the first place. They say opposites attract, but these two? Scatman Crothers travels halfway across the USA to get an axe buried in his chest, and Jack gets to do a great scene with an imaginary bartender. Uniquely Kubrickian haunted house horror.
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Your opinion is spot on, Kubrick also has to be given credit for what was a very difficult adaption, seeing as the majority of the book was Jack's thoughts.
Stanley Kubrick'sThe Shiningis less an adaptation of Stephen King's best-selling horror ... more
novel than a complete re-imagining of it from the inside out. In King's book, the Overlook Hotel is a haunted place that takes possession of its off-season caretake...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Stanley Kubrick'sThe Shiningis less an adaptation of Stephen King's best-selling horror ... more
novel than a complete re-imagining of it from the inside out. In King's book, the Overlook Hotel is a haunted place that takes possession of its off-season caretake...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) gets a job as caretaker at the ... more
deserted Overlook Hotel during the winter. He takes up residence with his wife, Wendy, and son, Danny, who experiences clairvoyant forebodings. As the bleak isolation of...
Think of the greatest terror imaginable. Is it a monstrous alien? A lethal epidemic? Or ... more
as in this harrowing masterpiece from Stanley Kubrick is it fear of murder by someone who should love and protect you - a member of your own family? From a sc...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
![The Shining [DVD] [1980]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78525379.jpg "The Shining [DVD] [1980]")
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