The Shining (1980)

USA/United Kingdom
directed by: Stanley Kubrick
written by: Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson + Stephen King (book)
starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
seen: 4th October, 2007 - comment: 27th April, 2017

-„All day work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.“ Every time this movie comes up my dad says great great, Nicholson is a manic genius, but everybody should also read the book, because that's the real place to learn why and how it's all happening and that King is going deep into the history of the hotel and its former ganster owners and so on. I'm telling to myself that if I read it I might find that problematic because King often doesn't know when to stop. And I'm telling to my dad that Kubrick is opting for something else. He's translating words into feelings and feelings into images and the resulting movie doesn't need any additional information to achieve its goal (which in my case is to trick me and scare me to death). And it's done so beautifuly that a mere "Tuesday" title is able to make me jump.

I love that Kubrick himself mentions Kafka in one interview when describing his decision to be realistic and believable in adapting the material: „His (Kafka's) stories are fantastic and allegorical, but his writing is simple and straightforward, almost journalistic. On the other hand, all the films that have been made of his work seem to have ignored this completely, making everything look as weird and dreamlike as possible.“ I only read the interview after I stumbled upon a terribly long and etremely thorough fan analysis of the movie. (The analysis consists of 21 chapters, some other files with research notes and several hours of additional videos.) For example, the author speculates about the real meaning of a stepladder placed in a hallway in the beginning of the movie (and amongst other things compares it to the pyramid on one dollar bills) or insinuates that Jack Torrence in fact represents president Woodrow Wilson. You see, the two people standing behind him in the enigmatic final "1921" photograph vaguely resemble Wilson and his wife Edith and the woman in the photo even wears a brooch that could somehow look like a dove and real life Edith Wilson got a diamond Peace Dove brooch after WWI. Coincidence? I don't think so! I don't usually read director interviews or explanations because I believe I should be able to get everything I need to know from the movie itself. But after reading this analysis I needed some calming down and Kubricks way of thinking certainly did the trick and allowed me to disregard doves and pyramids. Anyway, back to my own review.

Realistic (but subversive in his own right) approach is what leads to the smallest of details bearing the most frightening qualities. I, for one, thought from the first time I saw The Shining many years ago that maybe the biggest problem is Nicholson looking like a crazy guy even before he officialy goes crazy. And just recently a creeping thought came through that that's actually the case. Jack didn't change at all after coming to the hotel, he was already bad on the inside and the hotel just showed him a very particular way to release his anger. And that's cruel. That's evil. I mean, listen to the things he says to the bartender. "Just a little problem with the old sperm bank upstairs." He's such a disgusting person that waving an axe seems like one of his softer sides coming out. And it affects me deeply because Shelley Duvall's Wendy is one of my favourite on-screen mothers and Danny Lloyd's Danny is one of my favourite on-screen sons. When they are running together through the maze, holding hands and smiling, I am shedding reall tears of joy at how beautiful relationship these two have. It would be absolutely inhumane if they didn't have at least each other, given the circumstances. And I especially love that the boy gets as much attention as his parents, is smart and quick-witted, and plays an active part in ongoing events. Meaning: He doesn't suffer from the usual maladies of young children in (american) movies and that's just lovely.

And I leave with a thinking excersise in mind: I wonder what it's like to see bits of past and future, not knowing which is which, what already happend and what is yet to come.