The Shining 1980

Fig 1: Movie Poster

Stanley Kubrick’s 1980s psychological horror The Shining based on the book by horror author Stephen King is basically just watching a couple hours of “people listlessly wandering around a friggin' hotel. Nicholson's breakdown goes on forever. Sequences are repeated to minimal effect. Move! Go! Please!” (Frank, 2007) in addition to over dramatic music to build up parts of the film that have no delivery it’s just ‘oh god somethings going to happen…’ *waiting* … *waiting* then all of a sudden a blank black screen will be displayed with the word ‘Tuesday' written in white… Disappointing really.

Fig 2: Jack Nicholson

Negatives aside for watching the film, the story itself is quite interesting and it can be explained why Kubrick does the things he does like building fear for no shock and wasting so much time. The plot takes place when Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) accepts the job of winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado, he is told in his interview what happened in the past with a previous caretaker - he went mad from isolation killed his family and then himself. Immediately the audience have that idea stuck in their head and to be fair looking at Nicholson (see fig 2) who wouldn’t think he has crazy potential, (it’s the eyebrows…) and 9 years later takes on the role of the psycho Joker in Batman 1898. When it comes to Nicholson’s character’s mental state in The Shining he is portrayed in the start to be mentally stable but you can’t help feeling something unstable beneath the surface of this character, “You can rest assured, Mr. Ullman, that's not gonna happen with me.” (Torrance, The Shining, 1980) in response to hearing the horror tragedy of the past caretaker. As the film progresses the themes of isolation, psychology, madness and violence all begin to take effect on Jack Torrence as by the end of the film you’ve spent ages watching Nicholson rant, rave, stagger about screaming with an axe.

Fig 3: Frozen to Death

Another psychological interest of the film is Jack’s son Danny, who “has the gift of “shining,” the ability to pick up vibrations others are luckily denied.” (Malcolm, 2014) from these vibrations, Danny gets visions from the future and past of the twin daughters the last caretaker killed and the future of the blood flood that fills the corridor. Danny has an imaginary friend called Tony who seems to be like the psychic part of Danny, Tony tells Danny to stay clear of room 237, “Tony seems to be Danny's device for channeling psychic input, including a shocking vision of blood spilling from around the closed doors of the hotel elevators.” (Ebert 2006). 

Fig 4: 1921 Hotel Photograph

Throughout the film we see other guests in the hotel, we assume they are ghosts, they could be the spirits of those in the Indian burial ground that the hotel is built on top of or hallucinations as a result of isolation and madness. “The movie is not about ghosts but about madness and the energies it sets loose in an isolated situation primed to magnify them.” (Ebert 2006). The hotel is a metaphor for the mind/psychosis that collects people, from the ending scene where we see Jack frozen to death in the hotel labyrinth (see fig 3), the guests we saw in the hotel are previous people the hotel has collected and like Jack are trapped in the same labyrinth, the very last scene where we see Jack in a picture taken in 1921 (see fig 4), way before that character would have been born, you notice Wendy and Danny aren’t there because they escape and a foreshadow of this is when Jack visits a bar it’s like he goes back in time to a party in the gold room where the 1921 picture looks like it was taken, Wendy and Danny don’t go with him back in time because all the people there could possibly be the hotel’s collection and the party is to celebrate it’s newest addition (see fig 5). 

Fig 5: The Gold Room

The film calls for a great discussion as theres many questions that can have alternative and imaginative answers that really gets your mind going - it’s a maze (see fig 6) that everyone gets sucked into whether they’re in the film or not and no one really knows what Kubrick had in mind. “If Jack's body was not found, what happened to it? Was it never there? Was it absorbed into the past, and does that explain Jack's presence in that final photograph of a group of hotel partygoers in 1921? Did Jack's violent pursuit of his wife and child exist entirely in Wendy's imagination, or Danny's, or theirs?” (Ebert 2006). It might be possible Jack’s violent pursuit was in Wendy’s mind, Wendy is a weak character but she always perseveres out of fear, her character was almost always crying and distraught - considering the film took months of non stop work to make having to always be breaking down has its effects on the actress, she found it unbearable working with Kubrick, Kubrick created the version of these characters we see, he makes Jack always angry and Wendy always crying, “was it a mind game designed to convince the actors they were trapped in the hotel with another madman, their director? Did Kubrick sense that their dismay would be absorbed into their performances?” (Ebert 2006).

Fig 6: The Maze

Bibliography: 

Ebert, R. (2006) The shining movie review & film summary (1980). At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980 (Accessed on 3 December 2016)

Frank, D. (2007) A Frank Review of ‘the shining’ (1980). At: http://nurgh.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/frank-review-of-shining-1980.html (Accessed on 3 December 2016)

Malcolm, D. (2014) ‘From the archive, 2 October 1980: Stanley Kubrick’s the shining - review’ In: The Guardian [online] At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/02/the-shining-stanley-kubrick-jack-nicholson-review-1980 (Accessed on 3 December 2016)

Illustration List:

Figure 1: Movie Poster. (2010) [Poster] At: http://www.impawards.com/1980/shining_ver1_xlg.html (Accessed on 3 December 2016)

Figure 2: Jack Nicholson. (2013). Juniper Salad and the Parsley Wizard. At: http://rymano.tumblr.com/post/48550782525 (Accessed on 3 December 2016)

Figure 3: Frozen to Death. (2016). Flickr. At: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tctopcat777/5344907315 (Accessed on 3 December 2016)

Figure 4: 1921 Hotel Photograph. (2008) At: http://faqtheshining.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/is-there-explanation-of-july-4th-1921.html (Accessed on 3 December 2016)

Figure 5: The Gold Room. (2012). KDK12. At: http://kdk12.tumblr.com/post/18966552003/hi-lloyd (Accessed on 3 December 2016)

Figure 6: The Maze. (2015) At: https://www.yahoo.com/movies/lost-ending-the-shining-photos-123487932632.html (Accessed on 3 December 2016)