The Shining – 1980
He
Came As The Caretaker, But This Hotel Had Its Own Guardians - Who'd Been There
A Long Time
The Shining isn’t just one of my
favorite horror movies it’s one of my favorite movies period. For the longest time I watched it every
Halloween along with The Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and of course
Halloween. I’ve seen a lot of horror
flicks and what a lot of the ones released during the late 70’s and early 80’s
have in common is they’re all b movies, have small budgets, and a great deal of
them are campy(literally a lot of them take place in summer camps). The Shining differs from these movies in
tone, talent, setting, and of course budget.
I’ve never been a Stanley Kubrick
fan. For reasons I’ll never understand A
Clockwork Orange reemerged as a cult favorite among members of my generation,
and I’ve never seen 2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus, or Dr. Strangelove. I have seen Full Metal Jacket(I didn’t
understand the appeal of that one either), and Eyes Wide Shut(I don’t dislike
this one but it can be boring and I really don’t like Tom Cruise). Even though I’m not a Kubrick fan I’ll admit
that the cinematography and imagery in this movie is amazing, especially the
opening mountain sequences.
Before I started reading the book I
researched the movie and was surprised to learn during its release The Shining
got bad reviews from almost every major film critic, reviews that have since
been reversed by the very same critics.
As much as I adore this movie it’s still far from perfect. The family dynamic in this one is similar to
the one in the miniseries. Jack seems
indifferent to both Danny and his wife and Wendy is submissive, weak willed,
and not very matronly. Once again the
family isn’t seen together very often.
Jack spends a lot of time alone writing and Danny is often seen playing
by himself and wandering around the hotel.
Another problem I have is Jack is hired as the winter caretaker but is
never seen doing any actual work. The
truth is the pacing of the movie would have been thrown off if we were forced
to see him partake in the many chores he would have to undergo, but we don’t
even see him taking out the trash
Danny Lloyd is as good as Courtland
Mead is bad. The only thing that really
bothers me about Lloyd is his dated hair and wardrobe. This seems to be a common problem with movies
and tv produced near the end of an era.
Like some early 90’s movies seem like they’re in a transition period
between the current fashions and the ones of the decade that preceded it. The same can be said of the late 60’s and
early 70’s. Hippies and hippie fashion
seemed to stick around for a few years after the 60’s ended. In the Shining’s case the wardrobe is stuck
in the late 70’s(I should note here that the movie was released in 1980 but was
shot sometime around 77 or 78 based upon what little information I could find
on the internet. I just think it’s odd
how drastically fashions changed in a few short years)Wendy suffers from the
same problem. Her wardrobe is just for
lack of a better word bizarre. She
dresses like a conservative nun. I
realize that they’re up in the mountains during winter but every scene she’s in every inch of her body is covered.
The acting is more or less good
except for Shelley Duvall. I’ll never
understand why she was chosen for this role.
The only thing she has going for her is she can scream and looks
terrified really well. Throughout much
of the movie she looks and sounds dazed like she took a handful of ADD
medication. No matter what’s going on
she never seems all that concerned whether it’s her husband going insane or her
child having fainting spells. The Wendy
character in the movie is also a far cry from the one in the book. She has no chemistry with either Jack or
Danny and is a weak submissive doormat.
No one plays crazy quite like Jack
Nicholson and this is Nicholson at his craziest. Unfortunately just like Duvall he doesn’t
have much chemistry with his wife or son.
I really don’t know much about Nicholson’s personal life so I don’t know
if he was married or had any kids at the time but if feels like the idea of being
a family man is entirely alien to him.
When I think about it most of the movies I’ve seen him in since this
movie he’s been a bachelor, a widower, divorced, or a loner with no kids.
What’s strange is this is the only
movie I’ve ever seen where my opinion of it was not altered by reading the
book. Actually this is one of a few
where I enjoyed the movie far more than I did the book and I think a lot of
that has to do with Kubrick cutting out a great deal of the filler and
improving on the atmosphere. I can see
how a more modern audience would find this boring in the same way they might
find Psycho or Jaws boring. My advice
would be to forget the book and just watch the movie. While I was more invested in the characters
in the book I was more invested in the story with the movie. The Shining just makes a better movie than a
book. As good as it is it’s not perfect
and I’m sure if it was I’d have no interest in it. So I give it a 90/100. I watched a lot of horror movies in my youth
and the only one that scared me more than The Shining was Candyman.
