The Shining DVD > Reviews > Kubrick's red rubric.

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Mad axe wielding maniacs .
Disadvantages:	Probably, yet I'm blind to them .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

If I had to be an axe murdering maniac? No competition, I'd be Jack; If I had to be an hysterical, high pitched, girlie victim? You have to ask? I'd be Wendy, of course. And if I had to be a Stephen King novel, made into a film and directed by the late and great Stanley Kubrick?

*The Film.

Jack Torrance is a writer; facing a bit of a mental block at the moment, and suffering from a cash flow problem. Wendy is his wife; she's not too pretty, has a penchant for lank hair and opening her eyes too wide. Danny is their son; he talks to his imaginary friend who lives in his finger.

Jack gets a break, and is hired as a winter caretaker for the gargantuan Overlook hotel, situated in the lonesome isolation of the mountains; the happy little family unit pack their bags and head off; Wendy hoping to spend the next five months in tranquil solitude, Jack aspiring to write his long awaited novel in such peaceful surroundings.

They arrive and are shown around the vast and splendid hotel. Wendy gets a long and intricate tour of the kitchen, checking out the storage and refrigeration systems (remember that, it might be important). The cook takes a shining (no pun intended) to Danny, and shares a few psychic moments with him, warning him that all ain't as peaceful as it seems up here in the mountains (and that this old place was built on an ancient Indian burial sit - but of course!). Jack gets a little snifter of what's to come, when he's told about the previous caretaker, who went a little cuckoo, spliced up his wife and twin daughters, then proceeded to eradicate himself.

Then everybody else goes home, leaving the contented trio to rattle around and do as they please.

Things are going swimmingly, until the hallucinations, voices and general bad vibes start getting to Danny; while touring the hotel on his tricycle, he encounters visions of the twins and thundering waves of blood pouring from the elevators - his finger is getting a little anxious: This is an entrancing scene, as the tricycle wheels speed across the carpet, silently, then clamour across the bare floor, on and on, varying between the two noises. As Danny travels the corridors and turns corners, we're all waiting in suspense for the hideousness he's bound to find.

Jack, meanwhile, finds inspiration; the presence in the hotel is slowly possessing him. He spends his time at the bar, sharing his domestic problems with a long deceased bar man, who is eager enough to advise Jack on the final solution. He begins to write again, pages upon pages, never ending, always typing - and Wendy is happy for him, until she reads what he has written, over and over and over again...

"All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy".

Things go swiftly downhill from here on in; hysterical screaming, running away, axe wielding, grinning, quite a bit more screaming, and the untimely return of the cook.

* The Acting.

Jack Nicholson always plays mad, but this has to be his definitive role in that genre. He journeys from 'nice guy, family man' to 'give me an axe, and I'll see how many teeny weeny pieces I can chop my wife up into'. Of course, all this is helped by those bushy and enigmatic eyebrows, his gleamingly sarcastic smile and his usual caustic remarks. He is dark, he is demonic, he is slowly and surely overcome by the past that lingers like cigarette smoke in the hotel. His character is so credible because you can see it all happening; you can see the evil seeping into his skin, possessing his soul and twisting his mind to madness.

Shelley Duvall? I have mixed feelings about this one. Yeah, she's perfect for the role of screaming a lot and being generally hysterical, but why is she so annoyingly squeaky? In retrospect, the only image of Wendy that sticks in my mind is this: Eyes bulging, mouth wide, big teeth and hands clasped either side of her annoying little face in terror - she squeaks. Hmmn.

Danny Lloyd as the psychically gifted little boy: Not bad, he has a certain natural air about him, he doesn't ham it up (like most kids), and I suppose it is quite draining for such a young actor to take a film like this on board (a la Linda Blair). I must be a little bit obtuse, as I didn't get the "Red Rum" thing until the third viewing - I was sitting there, wondering why he was making a reference to a race horse, when he was really letting his little finger friend inform us of MURDER (in the past and on the horizon).

*Direction.

I have no qualms with Kubrick; he made some of the most inspiring cinema images of the last century (yes, I even LIKE Eyes Wide Shut), and this is no exception. He takes what should be a second rate horror movie (no offense to Stephen King, but did you see the mess that was the TV remake, directed by King?) and uses it as a metaphor for a mountain of things.

He skins the mask off the American nuclear family, leaving the muscles and nerve endings on show. He illustrates that this is a place where madness, folly and murder can be, seething beneath the false facade of smiles. He shows us the utter disintegration of the family unit.

Kubrick takes us to a fantasy realm, where yesterday is tomorrow, you have always been here, and there is no escape from your destiny. Jack is, has been and always will be the caretaker that greeted insanity and took the lives of his family - The barman is his constant companion, and Jack's image is incarcerated for eternity in an old black and white photograph that hangs on the hotel wall.

I don't know how Kubrick related to the labyrinth theme, but it occurs and reoccurs in The Shining: The hotel is immense (aren't houses and the such like supposed to be representative of the mind?), and Danny endlessly navigates its twists and turns - Jack and Wendy find this a little harder to accomplish. And outside, in the pure and unadulterated snow, is the maze; this is where Danny and Wendy run to, to escape and hide from the slavering Jack.

The camera work isn't ground breaking, but it is used to a thrilling effect. Most of the time we view the situation as the hotel (or whatever exists within it), a third party that spies on the goings on of the inhabitants. As we follow Danny through the corridors, we are breathing down his neck, wheezing as we try to keep pace with him.

*Other Stuff.

I don't know if it is just me, but there seems to be two versions on video release: I'm not talking about a Director's Cut, more along the lines of one of the versions containing subliminal additions. I remember watching this film for the first time, and it had no effect on me; at a second viewing (and a different video), I found myself rather more uncomfortable, and perched on the edge of my seat - this has happened on several occasions; watched it, not freaked, watched it, completely freaked (anybody out there that knows anything about this, let me know).

*Conclusion.

Between them, Kubrick and Nicholson create a disturbing aura of malevolence, dripping with psychological nastiness. This film has already long outlived its dated set design and dodgy late '70's wardrobe; it is a horror classic, in a silent, creeping and devouring sort of way.