My next post is gonna be pretty damn big so I may as well get this out of the way first. I'm going to be reviewing Stephen King's The Shining and both of the movies but before I do that I just want to clear up some things here so my reviews won't be comparisons between the book and the films. And I'm sure there's people out there that have seen the movies but have no interest in reading the book but still may be curious about the differences between the two.
There may have been some miscasting issues. First I gotta say that every actor in this movie did a really good job and I suspect that's why they were cast in this movie. Shelley Duvall's character is supposed to be a blonde. Jack Nicolson's character is is supposed to have shaggy sandy colored hair. Danny is just supposed to look like a typical white 5 year old kid which is exactly what is. I'll get to this later in my review but they don't really interact with each other quite like they did in the book either. From the get go the Jack Torrance seems to have nothing but indifference and disdain for his wife and child. This couldn't be more far off from the Jack Torrance in the book who is seen laughing and having fun with his family and there's a lot of love between these three characters, particularly the Jack and Danny characters(Wendy Torrance often feels jealous of the bond they share) and feels a great deal of guilt and shame for breaking his son's arm. There's even a rather tender love scene after Danny gets attack in room 217. The Wendy Torrance in the movie takes a more submissive role towards her husband and this could not be farther from the Wendy Torrance in the novel. In fact she has such a strong presence Jack often feels like he's being nagged. She really isn't the weak willed subordinate character she is in the movie.
In the book Jack Torrance is writing a play, in the movie he's writing a book.
Instead of a hedge maze there are hedge animals.
When Dick Hallorann takes Danny aside to tell him about the shining he does it in his car. His mother watches this and is afraid Hallorann is going to kidnap him.
In the book the room where the ghost strangles Danny is 217, in the movie it's 237.
Everybody is familiar with that scene where Wendy Torrence reads her husband's manuscript and all it says is "No work and all play make Jack a dull boy" over and over again. This never happened in Stephen King's book.
That scene where Shelley Duvall brains Jack Nicholson over the head with a bat on the stairs took place in the hotel bar(while he was strangling her) and he was hit over the head with an empty wine bottle. Danny was in the room with her as well.
Instead of using an axe to break down the doors Jack Torrance uses roque mallets which are supposedly bigger and sturdier than your standard croquet mallet. It may sound silly but I think the reason for this is the axe just looks better on screen and is more scary than a big mallet.
Dick Hallorann survives the end of the book.
In the movie the hotel remains intact by the end. In the book the hotel is completely destroyed when the boiler explodes.
In closing the movie mirrors a lot of the dialogue in the book but these two are separate entities. To put it this way, think of two half siblings that look nothing alike but still have some things in common under the surface.
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